Family Military History

[Victor]

My maternal grandfather comes from dynasty of imperial officers with Cossack roots from modern central Ukraine (Poltava region) who served Russian Empire since 1700s. My grandfather (born 1911, we have a huge age gap with my parents-grandparents) served as a commander of artillery in WWII, his father was an artillery officer and commander of fortress artillery during Russian-Japanese war, he was a pensioner during revolution so he stayed in USSR, lots of his relatives finished up abroad in Belgrade, Paris, London, Rio. Great grandfather served as a volunteer artillery advisor in 1875 helping the Herzegovina Serbian insurgents against Ottomans, that's the most recent examples.

[Victor]

My dad side:
WW1, in german army, i have no idea what front
WW2, in german army (Heeresgruppe Süd), eastern front, one has died in Stalingrad or Harkov i dont know, other were defenders of Budapest in 1944-1945

My mother side:
WW1, austro-hungarian army, eastern front, my great great grandfather was prisoner of war in Leningrad, he met with Lenin too
WW2, german army, eastern front but i dont know exactly where

My dad and grandmother said these things long time ago. So they were mostly in the german army.

My grandfather parciticpated in Budapest siege 1944-45 as artillery commander, it was hell.

[Jana]

In WW1 all of my ancestors fought in Austro-Hungarian Army. Father grandpa who was muslim was an officer who fought on the Russian front (Galicia) for whole war. Mother grandpa fought on Italian Front (Isonzo River) as common soldier, lost an eye there. I don't know for others.

WW2 - maternal grandpa joined Yugoslav Partisans as underage boy, fought in major battles like Sutjeska. Wounded and decorated.
Paternal grandpa was first exempt from military service as lone family feeder. Than he was imprisoned in Jasenovac concentration camp for 3 months, because he brought flowers to his than fiance who was hanged in town square because her family aided partisans. After release he was drafted into Croatian Home Guard anti aircraft unit and did not see much action until war end. Later political prisoner in Yugoslavia.

Homeland War in 1990s- my father was in Croatian Police for very short time until he got work obligation and left to take out Croatian oil rigs out of Adriatic sea before Yugo navy sank them.

Interestingly had my papa stayed in Police for day longer, he would have died before I was born.
After he was called back for work obligation, his Police unit was ambushed by Serb rebels during patrol in one Serb village. All were killed.

They were among first Croatian victims of war in his city in central Croatia.

Mother brother and his later wife served as medical personel during this last was (as doctor and nurse), and escaped death very closely on one occasion (house they were in was hit by tank missile minutes after they left it)

[rothaer]

The performance of my ancestors in the last two world wars was actually poor.

WWII:
Pat. grandfather: German army (Wehrmacht, Spionage-Abwehr), in Norway 1940-1945
Mat. grandfather: German army (Wehrmacht, Pionier), in Germany 1944-1945. He had a pretty bad leg after an accident, so he was drafted very late and did just guard some military high command archives in Berlin and did then escort them when they were evecuated to the west.

WWI:
Pat. grandfathers: German army, don’t know where and nothing particular was told within the family, so I guess there was nothing worth telling.
Mat grandfathers: They were ethnic Germans in Central Poland and Russian citizens. None of them was drafted, likely because where they lived was quickly occupied by the German Empire, so the Russian authorities had no access to them anymore.

The military part of WWI was kind of non-existent in my family history.

Franco-German War 1870/71:
A 2 x great-grandfather was Sergeant in the Prussian army „Infanterie-Regiment Graf Kirchbach Nr. 46“ and took part in the whole war including the conquest of Paris.

Napoleonic Wars 1792-1815:
Four paternal ancestors will have taken part, all in the Prussian army:
- one was musketeer in infantery regiment (IR) 30
- one was drum roll in IR 4 in Elbing
- one was musketeer in IR 21 in Thorn
- one was lieutenant in IR 51 in Danzig. He was killed in action near Halle/Saale in 1806.

Seven Year's War 1756-1763:
Five paternal ancestors took part, all in the Prussian army:
- two (father and son) were cuirassiers in cuirassier regiment (KR) 2
- one was grenadian in Grenadier-Garde-Bataillon No. 6 (actually an elite unit and he was invalid already at an age of 23)
- one was soldier in IR 34
- one was soldier in IR 24

Outside any known to me wars I had three riders in the Saxon army in the time period 1680 - 1740
- two of which were field trumpeters, which was considered a pretty sophisticated and privileged military position and
- one was a dragoon.

Thirty Years' War (1618-1648):
Two ancestors are known to have been into the war:
- one was just described as a soldier, born in Oberpfalz (northernmost part of tribal Bavaria). It’s not known in which army he fought.
- one was a rider in Druckmüllersches Regiment, in the army of the German ceasar in Austria. Though fighting for the catholic side, the commander of this regiment was a protestant. My ancestor was born in Lower Austria and appeared as a protestant and stayed in Southwest Germany after the war.

[oszkar07]

Paternal Grandfather: WW2 Hungarian Army, had been returned from action after
being shot in the leg. He also had injury from grenade.

Paternal Great Grandfather: WW2 Hungarian Army, I heard he had been taken into Russian prisoner of war camp. He was there for 5 years and afterwards returned to Hungary. He was in the small percentage of people that actually survived and returned from there back to Hungary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...Hungarian_POWs

[mitalit]

I only know recent history.
Only two of my great-grandparents fought in the spanish civil war. One was a communist and fought in the Basque army on the republican side.
The other one, I suppose, fought on the national side, although I don't know for sure.

[Victor]

Paternal grandfather was a pilot of heavy bomber during the WWII in the region of Azov sea, grandmother was a medical train nurse during war (They met each other in Taganrog town at Azov sea in the end of the war and lived few years in this city), father of my paternal grandmother died at Mannerheim line at Russian-Finnish war 1939 as a common soldier, father of my paternal grandfather served in Soviet HQ in occupied Romania at economic position.

[Smaug]

All my male ancestors fought in wars up to the 1930’s, after that most of my family had already immigrated from Europe and did not partake in any wars. One of my great-gradfathers served in the British Army and fought in France during the WWI and during the same war another of my great-grandfathers served the Italian Army and fought in the Alps against Austria-Hungary. Another one fought for Lithuania in the Lithuanian Wars of Independence and was a POW, which left scars on his psyche for the rest of his days. I also have a more distant ancestor who was an Irish mercenary in the 1800’s and served in Europe in many conflicts.

[Anglo-Celtic]

All but one of my traced male forebears fought in the Revolutionary War against the British. One English man, who married an Irish woman, onboard the ship that took them to America, fought with his sons. One son was killed, and he was injured. After he was bayoneted, a British soldier asked him why he fought for America, and he answered along the lines of "this is my heart and my home".

[hazmatnik]

First mentions of my ancestors military activity comes from Erdeljanovic and his book Etnografska gradja o Sumadincima, where he says my ancestors left our village and went to Srem during The Austro-Turkish War in 1788–1791. While i never heard such story from my granpa its well known that some families from Sumadija participated in building of Laudanov Sanac and fought on Austrian side.

Balkan wars and WWI

My paternal great great granfather fought in Balkan wars and in WWI, from which he never came back home. We dont know where he died.
His cousin was general, later adjutant of the king, he fought in Balkan wars, WWI. He volunteered on romanian side fighting Bulgarians in Dobrudja. He was wounded five times.

Unfortunatelly i dont have better pic in my phone:



Around 10 paternal cousins perished in these wars.
Maternal ancestors fought too, three cousins perished.

WWII

Paternal ancestors didnt fight.
My maternal great granddad fought in Partisans. 14 maternal cousins perished in WWII mostly as civilians.

My maternal grandpa was member of quite obscure anticommunist organisation Beli Orlovi 1950. got captured crossing border with Italy. Being only 16 years old saved him from death sentence (per his words) but he served 6 years jail in Ljubljana. UDBA surveiled him until late 1970s.