[unclebankster]

My paternal grandfather(1911-2002) was a radioman in the US Army from 1943-1945. He was in Europe and was headed to the Pacific before we dropped the bombs on Japan.

I asked him once about WW2 and his response was “People had to keep their lights off on the West Coast.”

I never broached the subject again, but did enjoy the German ammo box, card deck and maps he gave me from his campaign through France & Germany.(Too bad somebody else got the German army helmet & bayonet.)

[SaxxonWoods]

Great stuff, Banks! The guys were told they couldn't bring back souvenirs but word got out they weren't checking anything, so it was open season. Dad got back with a Luger (disarmed a local police chief), an SS dagger, his tank helmet and battle maps. He said near the end they were lining up rifles by the hundreds and driving the tank over them. I was lucky, he wrote a 50-age memoir of his experiences, though a war buddy of his told me he left out the worst stuff, like Ebensee.