This is the minute by minute German reaction as intercepted and decrypted by Enigma.

Krauts

My Grandparents came over from Germany in the early 1900's. They done it right and became staunch Americans. Bled Red, White, and Blue. Dad and His brothers all fought in WW11 but they would not send them to Europe to fight. We had a lot of relatives fighting on the other side and thought there might be a problem with Dad and brothers fighting there and that they could be shooting at kinfolk.. Dropped them into the Pacific fighting the Japanese on the Islands. All came back with metals. Dad was in 4 years and was a Staff Sargent. Looking at my Dad's Folded Flag right now, that was on his coffin, and proud of Him and for All that stood up and fought for this great Country. Thanks Dad.

One thing I wish I did when I had the chance was talk to my grandfather more about his service.

Quite often, that generation spoke very little of the war.

My Grandfather (Mom's Father) was the first German in the family to be born on US soil. Spoke perfect German. Tried to join the military, but was exempt. Widower, with two young daughters and a farmer. He was able to get German POW's from the camp in Hereford to assist him around the farm. He kept in touch with most of them until he passed. Mom got a lot of letters from them saying how lucky they were to have met him as POW's.

Some WWII facts that may explain the lack of stories. There were about 16 million Americans that served in WWII, a little over 2 million served in the European Theater, the number in the Pacific was a little less than 2 million. Or basically about 4 million went overseas. Of those that did go overseas, you have all of the support troops, the cooks the mechanics, the supply clerks and thousands of others. Fact is, it takes 9 people to support one Infantryman. Those 9 people are as important as the 1 person on the frontline, because without them, we would have lost the war.

About the only time my dad would talk about the war was when the fishing was a little bit slow. His favorite place to tie up was at the junction of Big Cypress Bayou and the Government Ditch on Caddo Lake. Back then there was not a house in sight and we might go over an hour without seeing or hearing another boat.

My german grandfather was stationed in the Aleutian islands...

Very true, but my dad came back from Europe with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and he would barely speak of it. I think it was more of a generational thing.

Same with my Father in Law his unit, the 321st Inf Regiment, relived Chesty Pullers 1st Marines on Peleliu and fought to the end. He was a mortar squad leader, so Sledges character in the Pacific series, would be very similar to what he did. He didn't talk much about it either.

My fathers father was in the Marine Corps and never talked about it. He wouldn’t watch any war movies and had a drinking problem. The only thing I ever heard him say was he spent 36 days on Iwo and it was dog eat dog on Iwo. My other grandfather was a plane mechanic in the pacific islands. I spent a lot of time with this old man. He didn’t mind talking about it and I think he enjoyed his time over there. He had some pretty horrific stories and some interesting ones. He learned to fly over there and flew enough missions to get flight pay. I know he only got leave from the islands one time in 4 years, he had a great story about his week in Melbourne. One thing common between both old men is they hated japs with a passion.

My dad and uncles (his brothers) when I was a little fella would talk about things to themselves and when my brothers, cousins and I would come up ,,,nuttin. We asked but nothing. "Go play". Brave bunch of Men for sure.

Exactly the case with my Dad. He would talk about some of the funny or lighter side things from time to time but he never mentioned the fighting. He was with the 11th Airborne in the Philippines.

My grandfather that was a paratrooper with five combat jumps never spoke a word about it. Then when I came home on leave having just completed basic, infantry, and jump schools I went to see him. We sat at the kitchen table and he talked for about two hours about his time over there. Where he went, what he did, friends that were killed or wounded....and then he never spoke of it again.