Unassociated with this event but during WWII, my grandfather received a medal for being wounded in action, defending a water tower from the Germans. In Saskatchewan.
Near a hastily constructed base to train fighter pilots, there was a town that no one had noticed contained an awful lot of German ex-pats. Worried about sabotage efforts, they posted guards around all the infrastructure. My grandfather was at the end of his shift guarding the water tower, and walked into the break room. His CO came in a couple minutes later and tossed his pistol on the table, which went off, and the bullet grazed my grandfather's knuckles. This event apparently merited a medal.
My grandfather did eventually make it Over There, and his unit (the 404th) saw a lot of action against REAL Nazis, but this story always stuck in my mind.
My gramma has told me a about this. She only saw a little of it, most of it happened downtown. She said it was actually a little spooky, even knowing it was fake.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-19 08:44 pm (UTC)Near a hastily constructed base to train fighter pilots, there was a town that no one had noticed contained an awful lot of German ex-pats. Worried about sabotage efforts, they posted guards around all the infrastructure. My grandfather was at the end of his shift guarding the water tower, and walked into the break room. His CO came in a couple minutes later and tossed his pistol on the table, which went off, and the bullet grazed my grandfather's knuckles. This event apparently merited a medal.
My grandfather did eventually make it Over There, and his unit (the 404th) saw a lot of action against REAL Nazis, but this story always stuck in my mind.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-19 11:46 pm (UTC)