Our family lost my cousin. He was in the RCAF, and was shot down over France in WWII. He died in the crash. He is buried in France.
After he crashed and our family was told, my Grandmother received a letter from him, that he had written and posted sometime before embarking on his mission. Knowing that he died in battle, Grandmother never opened it. She didn’t want to hear about the adventures and experiences and gossip of a young man who was now dead.
That letter became the property of my Dad, when my Grandmother passed. Dad never opened it either. Now that my Dad is gone, the letter is mine. I won’t open it.
I’m sure that it’s nothing more than “Hi, how are you? I am fine. Yesterday we played a prank on the sergeant. He took it in good humour. Can you send my favourite cigarettes; what the YMCA gives us aren’t as nice as those cigarettes I know from home…” and other such nothing-specials. I’m sure that’s what it is–but I don’t need to know for certain. So, like Dad and Grandmother, I won’t open it. It’s almost as if, if we don’t open it to hear Cousin Jody’s last words, then he didn’t really die.
I will pass the letter along to my eldest nephew (I have no children) at an appropriate time, and tell him its history, and about his ancestor, who was shot down over France in WWII. And I will encourage him to not open and read the letter; and to pass it, still sealed, down to his children, along with the story. And so on, and so on.
I asked specifically for direct ancestors because I know it would be rare. War is a young mans game. Many of those killed in action die before starting a family. My ancestor’s story was different.
I’m fascinated by the circumstances of my great great grandfathers service and death. In the census he is listed as a mariner. At 38 years old what made him leave his life, wife and 5 kids and join the cavalry? Was it a sense of patriotism? Was it strong abolitionist views? Was it a sense of adventure?
My grandmother died when my father was a child. If there were any stories they died with her. There is no family lore that I know of. No letters. No pictures. He doesn’t even have a grave. The questions will most likely never be answered.
The closest I could find was my great-great-grandmother’s brother Michael.
July 1862: Turns twenty.
August 1862: Mustered into the [125th Pennsylvania](125th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment).
September 1862: Shot at Antietam.
October 1862: Dies of wounds.
November 1862: She marries my great-great-grandfather.
I just discovered I am a direct descendant of Henry “Harry Hotspur” Percy, who took up arms against Henry IV and was slain in the Battle of Shrewsbury.
My great-great-uncle fought and died with the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at New Hope Church on May 25, 1864, under Sherman’s command, and is buried not far away in the National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia. His brother commanded the 143rd Ohio, a 90-day regiment, and lived long after the war.
I had other relatives serve in the American Revolution, World War II and Cold War, but all survived.
Ok, he drove dispatches up to the front, thru the jungles of New Guinea. The Army had made roads of trees, very bumpy. You couldn’t wear your helmet all the time because “your head would rot”. My dad as driver, and 2-3 three guys with tommy guns. When a “Jap sniper” opened up, my Dad would put the pedal down - and everyone would try to hang on* with one hand, fire the tommy guns into the jungle (or drive) with another hand AND put their helmets on- with yet another hand. As my Dad said- “everyone suddenly had three arms”.
My great-uncle, officer at sea, died in WW2, during an interrogation by the SS. He jumped out of a window rather then being forced to betray military secrets.
It’s in the link below, in Dutch. My great-uncle was a naval officer, and headed the department of sea-maps. Apparently he also played a role in the resistance, as many army officers did. In 1942 the Germans occupying the Netherlands decided to intern most of the navy officers, and they did zo under a false pretense. About 2000 of them came and were taken to camps for interrogation. Remmert jumped out of the window rather then being forced to implicate other resistance people, and then being killed anyway.
Technically not directly related- but an uncle of mine was killed by a Japanese torpedo in the Pacific while he was on a troop ship en route to the Gilbert Islands during WWII. He was in his 20’s and never married.
I don’t have any relatives or ancestors I know of that were killed in battle. One almost died while imprisoned at Andersonville, during the Civil War, but he managed to survive, just barely. That was my g-g-grandfather.
No direct ancestors, but a relative was in the Union Army unit that chased Morgan’s Raiders through southern Ohio, and eventually took a rebel ball at Knoxville.
Two of my great uncles were killed in the Great War. One had been badly wounded at Gallipoli and repatriated to Australia, but the Great Grandmothers favourite son was fighting in France and after the Somme she was on his back to do something- so he re enlisted and went to Europe. By the time he got there his brother was dead and he was killed in the last battle the unit fought before the Armistice. Her husband also died in 1917 so I guess she had a rough trot.
He didn’t exactly die in battle, but my ggg-grandfather, Robert Blum, was one of the leaders of the Frankfurt Parliament in the Revolutions of 1848, was captured by the Austrians while in Vienna supporting the revolutionaries there during the Vienna Uprising, and was executed.