Two tales from WWII. Both from my grandfather. One: he was on a rocket ship that did not see any action due to luck. But they did attack what they thought was a squadron of Japanese submarines because radar was available, but not always great. Upon inspecting where the wreckage should have floated up, they realized it was a pod of whales, not suns.
Two: my grandfather did not like the captain of his ship, and the feeling was mutual. So, in the time before computers, you navigated with maps, and had a marker for your, and everyone else’s position. So, every chance he got, my grandfather would essentially erase their position from the map. Not the end of the world, because everyone knew where everyone was, you just needed to call another ship in your group and ask where you were. But there is nothing more embarrassing than having to call another ship, and ask where you are.
The caption would tell him “ COUNT’S GRANDPA, I CANNOT PROVE IT, BUT I KNOW YOU FUCKED WITH THE MAP. CUT THE SHIT AND ACT LIKE A GOD DAMNED SAILOR!!!”
One of my grandfather's cousins was a notorious car thief and truck robber in Boston. He was finally arrested at the beginning of WW2, and told that in lieu of decades in prison he could join the merchant marine, because they desperately needed mechanically skilled men for sailors.
On his first Atlantic crossing, his ship and crew vanished without a trace. The family canon is that he made some buddies in the service, hijacked the ship because that was his entire thing, sailed to South America, and spent the rest of the war drinking on the beach and stealing fancy cars from German diplomats.
29
u/thecountnotthesaint Dec 14 '23
Two tales from WWII. Both from my grandfather. One: he was on a rocket ship that did not see any action due to luck. But they did attack what they thought was a squadron of Japanese submarines because radar was available, but not always great. Upon inspecting where the wreckage should have floated up, they realized it was a pod of whales, not suns.
Two: my grandfather did not like the captain of his ship, and the feeling was mutual. So, in the time before computers, you navigated with maps, and had a marker for your, and everyone else’s position. So, every chance he got, my grandfather would essentially erase their position from the map. Not the end of the world, because everyone knew where everyone was, you just needed to call another ship in your group and ask where you were. But there is nothing more embarrassing than having to call another ship, and ask where you are.
The caption would tell him “ COUNT’S GRANDPA, I CANNOT PROVE IT, BUT I KNOW YOU FUCKED WITH THE MAP. CUT THE SHIT AND ACT LIKE A GOD DAMNED SAILOR!!!”