Panther and Flak 88 found in basement

[svauto-erotic855]

Your German military timeline is off a touch.

No it is not.

Also, if he served in the French Foreign Legion post-WWII, he did shitty stuff that we still haven't finished cleaning up to day. The French went a little haywire after suffering through the German occupation, and they did stupid things to their colonial subjects.

He was fighting in Vietnam and was doing quite well when the press got wind of former SS officers fighting for the French so all of the Germans were kicked out. His son, my father, was killed in Vietnam in 1970 and that bothered him until his dying breath. If the French had let the German veterans keep fighting there would not have been a Vietnam war; or at least that was his belief.

[YALE]

Also, if he served in the French Foreign Legion post-WWII, he did shitty stuff that we still haven't finished cleaning up to day. The French went a little haywire after suffering through the German occupation, and they did stupid things to their colonial subjects.

[David]

I have a fucking headache.

[Rick Modena]

Your German military timeline is off a touch.

Just a touch, alright...

[YALE]

Your German military timeline is off a touch.

[svauto-erotic855]

Soldiers below and above the age of enlistment were not unusual in the slightest. However an officer would be almost unheard of at age freaking 16.

It was not unheard of at all. Every single cadet in his class did exactly the same thing. He was destined from birth to be a cavalry soldier, all of his schooling was geared to being a cavalry soldier, he was riding a horse almost before he could walk because every other man in his family did the same shit. His father was a Prussian officer in the Imperial German Army from a very wealthy family. His grandfather or great grandfather had been an officer in the Napoleonic Wars. If my grandad had been born a few hundred years earlier he would have been a Teutonic knight or a Barron or something along those lines. He joined the Legion after WWII and fought is southeast asia, he even taught the Jews how to fight with tanks; soldiering was kind of his "Thing" off and on for nearly 70 years.

[71chevellejohn]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rB-5ul-yG8[/ame]

[68RR]

excellent post!

[racrguy]

Something smells like bullshit...

[68RR]

I'm not saying yea or nay, but just adding info on what was common back then. You just can't apply today's life to what happened back then. Considering the war started in 1914, and the losses (unreal) who's to say a war hardened youth might be looked upon as a leader??? Remember, we're talking about Germany, where males were trained at a very early age for military service..At 12 years of age, my grandpap was running the roundhouse for the Conemaugh and Blacklick Railroad. Can any of you imagine your kid doing that now???
Again, I'm just saying the beliefs and way of life back then was completely different than today. Anything could have happened.

[Moose242]

Soldiers below and above the age of enlistment were not unusual in the slightest. However an officer would be almost unheard of at age freaking 16.

[68RR]

Kid-Soldier, then Senator



Senator Mike Mansfield was a kid-soldier from the Great War, although not many people know that.
Mansfield was a son of Irish immigrants. In 1917, fourteen years old, he quit school and tried to enlist in the armed forces, but he was turned down.
He then went to the Catholic church where he had been baptized, obtained a copy of his birth certificate, and forged it to show that he was born a few years earlier.
With these papers he was accepted in the Navy and he crossed the Atlantic seven times before officers discovered he was underage and discharged him.
After the war he worked in copper mines, then took high school, then university. He became a professor in Far Eastern history and went into politics.
Mansfield served 34 years in Congress, 24 of those in the Senate (Democrats). He presided over the Senate from 1961 to 1976. The picture on the right was made in that time.
He was an early supporter of the Vietnam War, yet he became one of that war's most persistent critics when he learned that he had been deceived by the government. In 1976 he was appointed ambassador to Japan.
Michael Joseph Mansfield died on 5 October 2001. He was 98 years old. He never told much about his time in the war.

[Silverback]

this mutha fucka got more stories than Craig after a few drinks!

[svauto-erotic855]

Being from a wealthy family, knowing the right people, and going to the right military school meant that the normal rules did not apply. Germany was also fighting in a war of attrition and many, many exceptions were made to fill the gaps. I don't know what rank he began as but I do know that everyone from his class served as officers from the get go.

I am going from memory and would have to check with my mother for the fine details; she is the family history buff. I remember more of the WWII and Nam stories and not much about WWI.

[Moose242]

A 16 year old officer who the government knew was not 17 (the minimum age required for service in the German Empire)?

According to R. H. Keller:

"A "Jugenwher"(youth Corp) was established in a local towns throughout Germany trained boys 14-17 years of age in the use of rifle and machine-gun, preparing them in basic military discipline for their future role as soldiers."

But your gramps was a 16 year old officer, not a regular soldier mind you, in either the Brusilov Offensive or the Romanian Campaign? Do you have evidence to prove this?