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• Most of the rest of the European peoples had already formed nation states years earlier.  England, France, and Russia had existed for centuries by the time Wilhelm I was crowned Emperor of Germany.  Thus, those other nations had already had the opportunity to lay claim to border areas and to acquire foreign colonies while Germany had not. 
• The German people still were not actually united anywhere near to the degree that the English, French, and Russians were.  Austria was still independent of Germany as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and there were also a lot of ethnically German people living in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire outside of Austria and in areas even beyond the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

Prolly why half the Tuetonic types Germans,Swiss,Austrians,Danes,Dutch up and moved here.

Tough Mofo's - they had to be

Sort of the same here but at least they had some power equipment.Back in the day my dad started out shoveling coal in the resident furnace bins in the cold months and ICe in in the warm months,drove taxi,worked in a meat house.Worked with tinners for a while making duct work/flashing also poured cement for a while.Tried roofing but those old 3 stories were a little too high and the slate roofs helped his decision.No wonder he drank a lot of Beer

19th century Europe was not a pleasant place for the lower classes, and most folks were just that.  It is amazing to me how so many uprooted from family, tradition, launguage, and came here.

I was reading about how the Chinese came over in numbers to build the RR, though quite a few were already here because of gold etc.

This has always amazed me too. Until recently, immigration meant leaving everything and everyone you had ever known and knowing that you would never see and only rarely if ever hear from them ever again.

My ancestors mostly came over from the British Isles before the Revolution. Back then it was a dangerous journey of many weeks across the Atlantic. Imagine making that journey knowing you wouldn't be able to go back even for your parents' funerals or ever see your parents, siblings, cousins or other relatives again.

He was a radar operator on a B-24, 858th Squadron, "The Snoopers".  They flew off Guadalcanal initially, I think the doomed flight was off New Georgia.  I have the official report somewhere of the crash, my Dad said it was wrong for various reasons.  Three men survived out of ten.  My Dad thinks the radar dome hit the water and broke the plane open and he floated out, he was unconscious and injured.  The copilot went through the windshield and the flight engineer apparently followed him and kept them afloat.  They were picked up by a US destroyer the next morning.  I have this book.

Wow, thank you for sharing. 

I'm down to only knowing one WWII vet. When I was a kid I knew a slew of them but they're dying off and only a few remain.

The funny thing is that the one I know that is still alive is neither a relatively young WWII guy nor is he in bad health.

Side note, I knew very well a guy who graduated HS in 1945 and called himself a WWII Veteran in name only. By the time he finished HS Hitler was dead and the war in Europe was over. He joined the Navy because, in his telling, they were the ones taking the war to the Japanese and he wanted to be involved. He was still stateside, learning to be a tailgunner in an Avenger (Carrier based Torpode Bomber) when the A-Bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered. He ended up deploying as part of the first air wing assigned to the brand new USS Midway. He died a few years ago.

Back to the guy still alive. He was supposed to graduate HS in June, 1942 but after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor* he managed an early graduation and joined the Navy in early 1942. He was a crewman on blimps flying out of South America looking for U-boats. Postwar he became a fighter pilot and ultimate served in three branches of the military:

• Navy during the war
• Army as part of the "Army Air Force" before the formation of a separate Air Force
• Air Force upon establishment and later as part of the Air National Guard 

So anyway, this guy is now 98 years old. I see him every Thursday for lunch (Kiwanis Club). He drives himself and walks in on his own, no help, no walker, no wheelchair. It gets better. He only gave up his private pilot license a few years ago because no insurance company would insure a 90+ year old pilot. It gets better. I mentioned that he drives himself to our weekly meetings. In the summers up until two years ago he rode his Honda Shadow to our meetings every week. Seriously, 95 year old guy cruising into our meeting on a motorcycle. 


Dude is 98, if you met him tomorrow you'd probably guess 72 and think that he might have served in Vietnam but that he was a toddler during Korea and born after WWII.

I am in possession of two Purple Hearts, and of course I was never in the military.  One was my Dad's, one my son's.  Some of you likely have seen a documentary about my son's unit.  I remain in contact with many of those Marines today.  

Watch Combat Diary The Marines of Lima Company. - Bing video