World War II Veterans

[charon 4,943]

Given they have previous and have longevity, the last Japanese WW2 survivor will probably surrender @2030.

 

Plus considering they and Germany won the peace, my cash is on a German, they'll win this as well. Born after 1930 for the HY boys, 2029 is hardly a push.

 

Or should I say putsch

 

[Spade_Cooley 9,527]

Why not an Italian, it's not as if we exerted any particular energy during World War II so our vets should be fit and fighting way up to 120.

[charon 4,943]

Lol, but on further reflection......I've watched xmen , spiderman etc.

 

The imperialists irradiated half of Asia, do maybe a jap @150+ is the winner .

[Bibliogryphon 9,582]

 

I have seen an estimate of 2027 for when the last US veteran passes, somewhat sooner than the one cited above. For the curious, Frank Buckles was the last surviving World War one US veteran dying at 110 in 2011. No doubt a few of the youngest veterans of the Second War will live to a similar rather outrageous age, although one of the local old gents is declining fairly-rapidly, now. There are perhaps a a handful of others besides him who have retired to this region, although several of those have passed in the last year or so.

 

I'm ansolutely certain that there will still be vets surviving beyond 2027. The war ended in 1945, so the youngest vets would be born around 1929, and would "only" be 98 at that time., which is younger than several DP candidates.

I may be a bit optimistic, but IMO a reasonable estimate would be 2042-2044. WWI ended 26 years before WWII, and 2011+26=2037, but I think it is reasonable to expect that medical advances and greater number of WWII combatants will add a few years to that.

My Dad was born in 1929. He did not see active service during the war but did his National Service immediately in the post war period. I think there may be some left after 2029.

[gcreptile 10,972]

Given they have previous and have longevity, the last Japanese WW2 survivor will probably surrender @2030.

 

Plus considering they and Germany won the peace, my cash is on a German, they'll win this as well. Born after 1930 for the HY boys, 2029 is hardly a push.

 

Or should I say putsch

 

I'd guess it's going to be a German as well, because of the "Volkssturm" in the final months of the war.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkssturm

 

That's when the children had to die for Hitler as well. While I'm not sure and too lazy to find out, there might be WW II veterans born as late as 1932.

[Spade_Cooley 9,527]

The US classifies anyone in active service up to 24 July 1947 as a WW2 veteran, which fudges matters a bit.

[Toast 16,140]

The US classifies anyone in active service up to 24 July 1947 as a WW2 veteran, which fudges matters a bit.

 

The same in the UK, although I think it goes to 31 December.

[Shroud 19]

I would agree that a Japanese stands a good chance of being the last world-wide WW Two veteran left. The ones who did not commit hari kari, in any case. It wasn't uncommon for the relatively-few Japanese soldiers who were captured to finish themselves off if half a chance presented itself. It's generally thought of in the US public mind that those who were in service post-1945 as "occupation-force veterans", regardless of how the government classifies them. It perhaps should be kept in mind that a number of US WW Two veterans were called-up again for the Korean War, although a great many of those who were double-veterans are gone by now. Many weren't happy about it as can be imagined.

[charon 4,943]

Served them right for being late to the first one..

[Shroud 19]

As far as Korea goes, there are probably about 2 million US veterans of that one left as there were 5.7 million or so total at its peak.

 

On them being late to the first one, i would advise caution saying that to may of them's face, Charon. One old boy about 90 decked some wise-guy locally a few years ago shortly before his own passing, as it turned out. In any case, I certainly hope the So. Koreans appreciate it.

 

On Frank Buckles, his mind stayed clear to the end, and he wasn't in favor of Bush War 2 in Iraq as I recall.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

Served them right for being late to the first one..

LOL @ late. How's your German? It'd been a fuck of a lot better, woon't

SC

[charon 4,943]

On them being late to the first one, i would advise caution saying that to may of them's face, Charon. One old boy about 90 decked some wise-guy locally a few years ago shortly before his own passing, as it turned out.

Had no problem telling their offspring who chose the same career. Those Seals are soft as fuck, good training when we were schoolboys.

 

Another plus for the Japanese. I think it was about 1 in 5 kamikaze pilots survived the war, the Irish division I think it translated as.

 

There are still some of them alive, and it would be fitting if they took this crown.

[Shroud 19]

It's a good thing that Germany collapsed when it did - I have heard it rumored the first a-bomb was meant for Berlin had not the war in Europe ended when it did.

 

On the Kamiikaze pilots, I have heard stories they were given a drug to help steady the nerves, although given their fanaticism, this probably wasn't needed most of the time, I imagine.

 

I think there was one Japanese pilot who tried to set the forests ablaze in Oregon by dropping "fire bombs," which wasn't that bad a plan, destroy wood supplies, etc., really, but it failed due to the dampness there most of the time. I think he did a book about it -- maybe I Bombed America?

 

Don't know about Seals' toughness - the US ones have a reputation for being real bad-asses.

 

From my father's stories about his training (in the Army), it was a rough sled-ride, and I wouldn't be shocked if standards have been eased considerably since his day. He did tell me about some downright brutal punishments that were meted-out if one got out of line very much back in 1940's.

[Shroud 19]

Not sure if Charon was trying to be clever or what, but a # of the US "double veterans" from WW 2/Korea are/were older guys to begin with, along with the somewhat younger ones. A few "triple veterans" are left from WW 2/Korea/Vietnam, but obviously, not a great many of them. About 300 US Vietnam veterans die each day i understand, but keep it in mind that with the military draft laws of the time, most of them hadn't much choice about being there. Unless maybe somebody like Dick Cheney who "had better things to do," I believe was basically the response of his as to why he missed-out on Vietnam, but had no problem sending others to war. If one's number came up, it was go to or flee the States usually to Canada. Unsure how many in the UK are aware of this, but President Carter pardoned almost all of the draft dodgers early on in his administration, something which was quite unpopular at that time.

[charon 4,943]

I think the Oregon thing wasn't a plane, it was when they randomly put up hot air balloons with explosives. It was them that figured out the how the jetstream worked so tried it with balloons. From memory one person died but as the result of trying to put out a fire/car crash or summat.

 

It was the us seals I was referring to, grew up at the end of the longest runway in Europe, which of course, had a yank base as well as the English one. Seals used to train off the bottom of the Mull, and werent the most popular of rednecks.

 

ETA linky for the balloon thing..

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/130527-map-video-balloon-bomb-wwii-japanese-air-current-jet-stream/

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Re the above discussions, I've met some British servicemen who had to take Japanese soldiers alive - though these soldiers were in the habit of preparing lethal booby traps and shooting to kill - long after the war. The Japanese in question were dug in and not interested in going home in shame so thought the likes of Malaysian jungle outposts more agreeable than Tokyo.

 

Since this went on into the 1950s and some of the British involved would be born in the early to mid 1930s, doesn't that fudge the vets issue too? I mean, at least one side in those skirmishes considered WW2 a going concern a decade after Japan had officially surrendered.

[charon 4,943]

1970's for the last (known) Japanese soldier to surrender...

[charon 4,943]

And if you go down the technical route,,,,WW2 didn't end until 1990/91 I think.

[Shroud 19]

For whatever it's worth, I think one of those last Japanese hold-outs who finally went home in the 1970's died within the past two years or so - least, I recall an obituary over here for him.

 

Let's settle on" around 2030" for the date the last US/UK WW 2 veterans dies. For practical purposes, this is probably close to being accurate, anyway. No doubt a relative handful will live to be 107 or 110 or some such extreme age. But yeah, I agree the issue is fudged quite a bit as to who should be counted as such, who shouldn't maybe, and so on. I think the last American veteran of the Spanish War died in 1989 at 106 just if anybody's curious, although one other old boy the next year may or may not have been the literal final one. There was a fire around 1973 which destroyed the records of a vast number of various US veterans of assorted wars going back to the late 1800's, so some of this may always be in a degree of dispute.

[Shroud 19]

A Japanese Navy Pilot named Nobuo Fujita took off from a submarine and dropped incendiary bombs twice on Oregon earlier in the war before the balloons were tried; his first run caused a fairly-small fire which Forest rangers put out quickly enough. He made his second run, and apparently caused a very small fire a bit later on, which went unnoticed - these fires were generally hard to set because of the dampness of the northwest regions. He died back in 1997, longer ago than I was thinking.

 

The Fugo balloons did kill a family of six on a forest outing who stumbled upon the thing which then detonated in 1945. I believe they are the only known US casualties on the mainland from WW Two.

 

A simple experiment could be carried out regarding US Naval Seals, Charon; find one of these fellows maybe on vacation sometime in the UK, perhaps, go up to the guy and tell him to his face what a candy arse he is. The results should prove interesting, even if it';s an older guy long as he's still in reasonably good health. You do have the famed UK health system there to cover the aftermath which you might well be in some need of shortly- there-afterwards... Not making fun of your health system at all btw - just be a good thing, you realize!*

 

*The Obamacare we have now is more or less a prize for the insurance companies - many people have gotten hardly any good out of it at all. The special interests influence BOTH main parties here to an uncomfortable extent, unfortunately.

[charon 4,943]

Lol tried and tested 30 years ago , they're fine if they outgun a peasant army, but if all you have are pint glasses and ashtrays, they tend to 'wilt', like the murdering fuckers they were/are.

 

 

Cheers re Fujita, that I did not know....

[Whitehouse 872]

Back on topic:

 

Not a veteran but nonetheless the last survivor of one of the great WW2 tragedies. He died in 2014 but outside his place of living this was not widely known. But this story merits a mention.

 

David Stoliar, last survivor of the Struma disaster dies at 91.

 

The Struma packed with 800 Jewish refugees was denied entry by the British to dock in Palestine. The ship went to Turkey where it was quarantined for months, after that, without own power was towed out to the open sea and torpedoed by a Russian sub. Stoliar was the only survivor of the sinking.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

World War II veteran and former prisoner of war Mario Checca, of Amsterdam, died Monday at the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center. He was 91. Checca was drafted into the Army in 1943 and was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge.

SC

http://cms.dailygazette.com/news/2016/jan/27/0127_vetdies/

[Toast 16,140]

Hope your Russian is up-to-date, people. Odds are the day may come when you'll need to learn it if not.

 

Cheers.

 

Take your unpleasantness here, please.

 

http://www.deathlist.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8684

[Shroud 19]

In discussing lines from nuclear war type films, 'I hope you like Vodka.." from Wargames (1983) although that isn't quite a war film per-se.

 

I daresay, thouygh, Davy Jones, charon, etc, al., that if the US withdraws from NATO someday, and the Bear comes west, the white flag will go up quickly once you see we aren't going to do your fighting for you any longer. Surrendering seems one of the better things the British Army does when faced with a serious challenge, and the Frenchies as well, for that matter. What was it in WW 2 for France? They threw in the towel within 6 weeks or so wasn't it? I' mot sure w/o checking, but I believe Poland held out longer than France did which probably speaks volumes.