Kraken

Back during my sophomore year in high school, a Wehrmacht veteran came to talk to our class to talk about the war and especially from the German perspective. I cannot recall the specifics of what unit he was in, but I know that he served on the western front in France, and experienced one of the biggest coincidences I've ever heard about.

At a certain point during the fighting, he said that he was physically exhausted and went to temporarily regain his strength by taking cover in a culvert. While he ducked in there, to his amazement, there was a Canadian soldier attempting the same thing. They both stared at each other dumbstruck over what they saw. The Wehrmacht veteran said that this Canadian could have been his identical twin.

As they were both extremely tired, the two soldiers began a conversation, as the German was able to understand english. It turned out that along with looking identical, they shared the same last name and were most likely distant relatives.

Pancho35

So did they just get up and leave afterwards?

sturm

Did they meet after the war? If the canadian soldier survived the war that is.

SPERRO

I have a similar story to tell. My fathers brother was in the 8th army in north africa. During the fighting in Tunisia, his unit had been on the advance at a rapid pace and on his own, he decided to jump into a shell crater for a short respite. Imagine his consternation when he saw a German soldier (fallschirmjager) doing the same thig on the opposite side of the crater.
They were both out of breath so communication was not immediate. This german was unsual to my uncle because he had a beard (not allowed in the British Army). Seconds past and neither of them was inclined to make a move with their weopons. All of a sudden, the german raised his hand, smiled and indicated his next move out of the crater and on the line of retreat. Apparently my uncle could not help but smile as well, made walking movement with his fingers and signaled 3 minutes. The german soldier got up, indicated thankyou and ran out of the crater.

It just goes to prove that killing someone does not come natural to most human beings.

Kraken

Indeed. They both basically agreed to nonchalantly exit and regroup with their units, not mentioning a thing about it.

They were never able to track each other down unfortunately.

Edward

The little-known and remarkable tale of a Nebraskan's bizarre adventures in the early years of World War II emerged with the wreckage of his Royal Air Force Spitfire from its grave in an Irish peat bog.
For his daughters, however, the excavation was a stirring reminder of their father's aerial combat career in three wars and his passion for flying — especially the Spitfire fighter and its powerful Rolls-Royce V12 piston engine.
“If he had been able to be there and see his plane rise up out of the bog, that would have been meaningful for him,” said Betty Wolfe of Durham, N.C. “I could imagine him really eager to get his hands on it again.”
Said Barbara Kucharczyk of Semora, N.C.: “He loved to fly, and he wanted to fly the fastest airplanes, so off he took. The rest is history.”
What a history it was.
Wolfe's and Kucharczyk's father was Roland “Bud” Wolfe, who learned to fly at Lincoln's Lindbergh Field in the late 1930s and later volunteered for the RAF to defend Great Britain from Nazi Germany's assaults.
Jonny McNee, an aviation historian from Northern Ireland who organized the search and recovery of Wolfe's aircraft, said the aircraft is the holy grail of Spitfires because of the history it conveys.
Wolfe was a 23-year-old pilot officer when his fighter went down. He was returning from a routine Sunday patrol protecting maritime convoys off the coast of County Donegal at Ireland's northwestern tip.
It was Nov. 30, 1941 — one week before Japan's attack at Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war.
The Spitfire's engine overheated — a common problem with the aircraft — and the fighter lost altitude. He was about 13 miles from his RAF base at Eglinton, now the airport at Derry in Northern Ireland.
Wolfe's final radio message: “I'm going over the side.” He slid back the cockpit canopy, unbuckled his seat straps and launched himself into the air over the cold and foggy Inishowen peninsula.
The Spitfire smashed into mountain moorland.
Wolfe parachuted safely to the heather-covered hills a half-mile away — and into a diplomatic stalemate between Britain and Ireland.
A member of neutral Ireland's local defense force apprehended Wolfe near Moneydarragh, and Ireland added him to a growing population of detained Allied troops, German U-boat crewmen and Luftwaffe airmen who ended up on Irish soil.
Wolfe was sent 175 miles south to a detention camp outside Dublin.
Camp security was lax. Guards had blank rounds in their weapons. Prisoners came and went as they pleased to pubs and other social events. Internees were allowed to own bicycles. Visitors were permitted. There were fishing and fox-hunting outings and supervised trips to Dublin.
About 100 Allied servicemen from Poland, Canada, New Zealand and Britain and 140 German internees mixed together. Germans and Brits played soccer. There were boxing matches.
Wolfe is said to have been the lone American at the camp.
After two weeks at the camp, Wolfe apparently decided to rejoin the war. He signed himself out and walked away.
Accounts vary, but Wolfe made his way to Dublin and may have taken a train the next day to Belfast in Northern Ireland.
“Dad apparently played fast and loose with the rules,” Kucharczyk said. “Therein lies the sticky wicket, as they say over there, in terms of international relations.”
Wolfe was detained and held for 10 days while authorities in Britain and Ireland debated his fate. Britain's Air Ministry ordered Wolfe sent back to the camp.
“He wasn't real thrilled,” Kucharczyk said.
She said camp authorities reacted by clamping down on prisoner privileges. Upset detainees took out their frustration by challenging Wolfe to fisticuffs — he had won boxing trophies in his youth, Kucharczyk said.
McNee said Wolfe may have been the only Allied escapee of World War II returned to his captors because his superiors disapproved of how he escaped. Diplomats apparently judged Wolfe's walk-away as outside the spirit of parole at the camp, McNee said.
Wolfe was a reluctant prisoner.

Lawnmowerman

A good friend of mines maternal grandfather came out from Wales to Australia for the first time where he met my friends grandfather from his step-fathers side. They looked at each other and recognised each other instantly. His grandfather had been ordered to capture a bridge on D-Day, when they were finally relieved 3 days later his grandfather was the highest ranking survior, (lance corpral). The man who relieved him was none other than my friends step-grandfather a young leutanant in the Australian army.

On a side note his paternal grandfather was actually a member of the German army fighting in France at the time. Although i don't think they ever encountered him.

Galladrim

My grandfathers uncle was part of the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba. As they were charging he felt his leg become wet. He thought he'd been hit and he had started to bleed seriously. He withdrew, and discovered that the bullet had in fact hit his water bag, spilling out what he thought had been blood. A close call.

Kraken

Lawnmowerman, it's a small world after all!

viking

My story is of the Blitz in London. I was a child then and at the time sheltered in London Bridge underground, the Tube.
One morning as we were packing up to leave the Civil Defence Warden stopped us. There was a German parachute mine hanging on the signal arm of the railway just outside the exit. No one knew how long it would take to disable it and the people in the Tube had no provisions including water, for a long stay. Then someone had an idea. Turn off the power to the rail line and we could walk to the Borough, which was the next station. This was done and by the light of hurricane lamps the large body of women and children, me of course included, walked to safety. I remember it well because of the strange silence. In that large body of people, no one spoke. They concentrated on walking and listening to instructions. Naturally for me it was one great adventure.