10 War Stories That Will Leave You Speechless

 

Heartwarming Short Stories About War That Will Leave You Speechless

 

Inspiring War Stories That Will Leave You Speechless: No one likes war because war is destructive and horrible. Though there have not been any world wars since the Second World War, there have been wars and conflicts throughout the last 60 years. War destroys communities and families and often disrupts the development of the social and economic fabric of nations.

The effects of war include long-term physical and psychological harm to children and adults, as well as a reduction in material and human capital. There are no real victors in wars as all parties involved have to suffer the consequences with often high numbers of casualties on both sides.

Yet amidst the horrific carnage, we can also find some of the most inspiring stories ever told. We hope these heartwarming war stories will remind you that life is not as hopeless as you think it is.

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1. Inspiring Story of A Martyer’s Love For His Country

The noose was tightened. The last love letter had been written by him to his wife pleading her not to waste her time shedding tears. On 18 May 1965, Eli Cohen the greatest spy of Israel, was hanged to death in Syria. His zealous patriotism made even the Syrians cry. Just kidding.

It was a sport, a public spectacle. A retreat for rejoicing Syrians who assembled to witness Eli Cohen embrace the afterlife. Eli Cohen loved his motherland Israel more than his wife. For his wife, he had departed. But for the love of his nation, he would come back again.

The Syrians rejoiced because they witnessed the raging fire of hyper-nationalism dwindling and extinguishing. Little did they know, the same fire would unleash its wrath two years later. On 5 June 1967, six Arab nations launched an all-out attack on Israel.

This attack was supported by Pakistan and a swarm of other Arab nations. Syria had militarily occupied Israel’s Golan Heights. Eli Cohen, when alive, had infiltrated into the top military commands and under the pretense of providing shade to Syrian soldiers, suggested them to grow trees.

Which would later serve as the marked coordinates of attack. Eli Cohen had a photographic memory. Previously in 1964, when Syria dug in canals to divert Jordan River waters to deprive Israel of the only source of water, Eli Cohen simply communicated the coordinates of those canals.

Israel just bombarded the canals. Now, in 1967, all Israel had to do was hit those trees that Eli Cohen had suggested. Israel won back its Golan Heights in just two days. Within four days, they defeated the entire Arab lobby and finished the war in just six days.

Eli Cohen’s unfathomable love for Israel cheated the very death itself. Eli Cohen did the unthinkable many times. No wonder, they make a TV series and the director just dilutes the intensity lest people say, “Why so much dramatization”.

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2. A Short But Heart-touching Story of An Indian Soldier

It was the time of war in India. Soldiers of the Army bravely protected the borders of the nation to ensure its countrymen a peaceful sleep every night. Among them, stood yet another soldier. The Mehendi (henna) in his hands was still fresh, screaming the news of his recent marriage.

He left for war just a week after he took his vows with the love of his life. Every single day, he would travel miles from the border to the only ATM in the vicinity. The security guard there would notice that the soldier withdrew exactly the sum of a hundred rupees every single day.

He would withdraw no more, no less. This went on for days, and the guard grew extremely curious. One day, he could not contain himself any longer and finally asked the soldier politely, “Sir, why do you withdraw just a hundred rupees every day?”

The soldier let out a weak smile and said, “There is no network connection here. I cannot call back home. Every day I withdraw cash from my wife’s account and she instantly receives a message on her cell. That message is a declaration of me being alive.”

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3. Story of A German Farmer Who Helped Many Soldiers In War

An Angel Who Valued The Ideals of Humanity Above His Own Life

Dozens of German cities were the target of British and American bombers during the war, including Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, and Dortmund. German anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft tried to shoot down the bombers, sometimes over Brabant.

The Resistance in Brabant tried, wherever possible, to give refuge to crew members who survived the crash. That is how in May 1944 the lives of a young British pilot and a German farmer became inseparable from each other.

It was 23 May 1944 at one thirty in the morning when 22-year-old pilot Ernest Holmes flew his Lancaster ND 762 over the Kempen region of Brabant, with seven other crew on board. His plane was flying back to England after picking out targets in Dortmund.

Suddenly Holmes was intercepted by a German fighter plane which opened fire on the Lancaster. ‘Bail out, bail out!’ he shouted when it was clear that the third engine had been hit. Before the crew could jump out there was the sound of a big explosion.

Holmes was slung out of the cockpit but became caught up in the straps of his harness. A sudden turn freed him and he flew through the air. His parachute opened just in time and he landed in the cold grass with only a swollen lip. Four men were killed instantly.

He walked across Landschotse Heath – which ironically was a training ground for German bombers – and had no idea where he was going. While on her way to milk her father’s cows, Netje van der Heijden saw a man in a pilot’s uniform, walking in the early morning.

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Story of A British Pilot Who Was Saved By A German Farmer

He was numb from the cold. She wished him ‘Good morning’ and took him to a safe place: the farmhouse where her parents Fons van der Heijden and Mina van Hoof offered shelter to students in hiding and pilots. Ernest Holmes was neither the first nor the last fugitive from this family.

He lodged in a converted chicken shed in the garden, along with two students. Holmes felt welcome and safe, but he wanted to get back to England as quickly as possible. It quickly became clear that this would take longer than expected.

He remembered later, emotionally: ‘A friend of the family begged me, “Please get away from here. If you are discovered, they will be executed.” Then I realized that they were putting their lives at risk to help me. I stayed with them for two and a half weeks.

Holmes finally managed to reach Antwerp with help from Van der Heijden’s contacts. There after being betrayed, he ended up in German captivity after all. Meanwhile, the liberation of Netersel was so close that you could almost sense freedom.

But on the Wednesday morning of 20 September 1944 German soldiers detained Fons as he was coming out of church. They had found suspicious belongings in his house, so they searched his house again.

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A Man Who Sacrificed His Own Life To Save His Enemies

An injured American soldier who was hiding in the attic of the pig shed was not discovered, but they had sufficient evidence. Under severe threats to his family, and because he wasn’t sure what had been found in his house, Van der Heijden admitted to helping three pilots.

In this way, he hoped to spare his family and the fugitives who were still there. He was taken to a meadow on the edge of the village and while he was on his way he saw his oldest brother. ‘Take care, Sjef, goodbye’ he said to him.

Then the soldiers shot him in the back and in the head. He died on the spot. In the days that followed the family’s farmhouse was completely destroyed: household goods and things of value disappeared, and grenades blew holes in the roof and the attic.

The six children in the Van der Heijden family fled to Middelbeers. His wife Mina stayed with her brother. She did not want to leave her husband. It was only later that Ernest Holmes discovered this truth:

That the person who had sheltered him had paid for the help he gave others with his life, just before liberation. It was an emotional discovery for him.

And it makes the passage from the Book of St. John in the Bible even more poignant, he later told the BBC: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’.

Source: Brabant Remembers

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Heart Touching Stories That Happened During The World War

4. A Japanese Pilot Who Was Honored By The City He Bombed

There are victories and defeats in war, but it is only people with a big heart who can forgive the foe with a true heart. The following incident makes us realize this truth. Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita was the only soldier from enemy forces who successfully bombed the US mainland during World War II.

He had dropped incendiary bombs on the forests of Brookings, Oregon, in two separate missions in 1942. However, no casualty was reported in the bombing but this attack brought America into the leading role in the war which was already involved in the war because of the Pearl Harbor attack.

So when he was invited to visit the city twenty years after that unfortunate incident, Fujita brought with him his family’s four-century-old sword. So that he could kill himself if the people of the city demanded it.

However, Fujita never had to commit seppuku as the people welcomed him with open arms. Surprised and deeply impressed by their hospitality, Fujita offered the sword as a symbol of reconciliation.

After that day, Fujita became a lifelong advocate for friendship between the US and Japan. The city honored Fujita one more time in 1997 when it made him an honorary citizen shortly before his death.

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5. Heartwarming Story of A Soldier In The Second World War

Eric Lock was a Pilot Officer in the 41st RAF Squadron during WWII. Whilst patrolling the airspace over Dover in September 1940, he encountered three Heinkel He 111s that somehow had encroached on the area. He immediately shot down one plane.

Then he used his cool determination and skill to successfully shoot down the second plane too. For his splendid act of bravery, he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross.

According to the records of the war, not only did he destroy 2 enemy planes, but he also destroyed 15 enemy planes within a short period of 19 days. War records show that he actually shot down 21 planes in his small but notable career.

He earned the nickname ‘Sawn Off Lockie’ from his comrades for his short stature. Unfortunately, this brave soldier was shot down by enemy troops when he was on a mission near Boulogne, France in 1941.

After that attack, he was never seen again. Nevertheless, Lock has gone down in the history books as one of the many heroic soldiers fighting for his country in the Second World War.

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Inspiring Stories That Occurred During The Terrible World War

6. Roar In The Night: A War Story That May Sadden You

The British started bombarding strategic targets in Germany soon after the start of the Second World War. The roar of planes flying from England to Germany could often be heard in the Netherlands. That was the case on the evening of 23 May 1940 in Mierlo-Hout, two weeks after the war came to the Netherlands.

58-year-old Alex Heldens was looking out of his living room window that evening. Heldens lived in Mierlo-Hout with his wife and a son. On that fateful night, his family was sleeping on the first floor. But he was often downstairs around midnight because the roar of planes flying overhead woke him up.

Three men were chatting outside his house. One of the planes didn’t continue flying over the village but kept circling Mierlo-Hout as the pilot saw the light coming from the torches of the men who were chatting outside. Suddenly the plane fired its weapon, and there was a loud bang.

The bomb landed where the three men were chatting, and they were killed instantly. Alex Heldens, standing by the window, didn’t survive either. His wife and son upstairs had more luck, but they were left without their husband and father.

At first, it was not clear why the plane dropped its bomb at this precise spot but later it was found that the bomb had been intended for a high-level Nazi: Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

For the family and friends of the civilian victims, the reason the bomb fell on that exact corner in Mierlo-Hout remained a mystery for many years. After a long search in the British archives, the pilot’s mission was to find out:

It was to destroy or derail trains so that the railway line would be blocked. But the fact that it was not a German bomb, but a British bomb that missed its target and killed his grandfather made it all the more painful.

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7. An Inspiring Story of A POW Who Forgave His Torturer

For most people, it’s hard to forgive someone who hurt them. But for Eric Lomax, it is otherwise. The British officer was captured in Singapore during the Second World War in 1942. He was then sent to work on the infamous Burma-Siam Railway.

During that time as a Prisoner of War (POW), Lomax suffered too much from his Japanese captors. Especially when they caught him with a makeshift radio and map. But one Japanese official, Takashi Nagase was most unkind towards him.

Although Nagase never laid a hand on him, his death threats during the torture sessions haunted Lomax for decades even after the war. In fact, Lomax planned to kill Nagase when they met again in Thailand in 1989.

Nevertheless, in a truly moving moment, Lomax forgave the repenting Nagase and realized that, just like him, he also suffered greatly during the war. When the second world war ended, Nagase felt great remorse for the misdeeds of his past life.

He marched forward on the path of peace. He became a Buddhist and assisted the Allies in finding mass graves. He did whatever else he could to atone for his sins. He helped build Buddhist temples and schools to educate underprivileged children in Thailand.

In the latter part of his life, he was a harsh critic of the Japanese military and imperial family. But what Eric Lomax showed by forgiving his tormentor is truly exemplary which gives hope for a better future for mankind.

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8. The Story of A Pilot Who Saved A Village

U.S. Pilot Officer Bill Millington was on guard patrol over Kent during the Second World War. On August 31, 1940, he encountered a large number of German Dornier and Messerschmitt aircraft. He went straight into attack, downing one plane immediately.

Then he started following the two aircrafts that were in close proximity. He shot another one down but then the German fighters began to target him. His engine took a hit, wounding him in the leg.

However, instead of bailing out of the plane, which would have caused his plane to crash into a small village, he manned it to clear the village and managed to escape before it exploded. For his bravery, Millington was awarded the DFC in October 1940.

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9. A Touching Love Story of A Soldier In The Second World War

A Heart-touching Story of A British Soldier & A German Girl

British soldier and prisoner of war (POW) Horace Greasley was so besotted with his German sweetheart that he would risk death by the Nazi firing squad by sneaking out of his prisoner of war camp to see her. It is one of the most astonishing love stories of the Second World War.

Horace Greasley was born on Christmas Day in 1918, in Ibstock (Leicestershire). In his friend circle, he was also known as Jim. At the age of 20, he found himself working as a hairdresser at the outbreak of war and he, alongside his brother Harold, was conscripted in the first draft.

Things could have been so much different for the youngster had he accepted an offer of a job as a fireman. Choosing this occupation would have meant Horace avoided the draft, which was offered to him by a client.

Despite the fire service paying better than the army, Greasley turned down the offer and joined the military instead. He joined the British Army in 1939. His regiment landed in Normandy. While the rest of the army retreated to Dunkirk, he and his comrades were ordered to stay behind.

The strategy was clear: fight off the advancing Germans. Soon the exhausted regiment was cornered after they dared to grab a nap in a barn south of Lille, France. They surrendered and were forced to march for ten weeks to Holland.

Many of his fellow soldiers died during the trek but Greasley survived by eating plants and insects by the roadside. Sometimes, while passing through a village, some villagers would also give him some food to eat.

They then took a three-day train ride without food or water to reach a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland. Greasley was soon moved to Stalag VIIIB 344, a POW camp near Lamsdorf, Poland.

Incredible Love Story of Horace Greasley & Rosa Rauchbach

There Horace and his fellow PoWs worked in a quarry breaking marble for German headstones. It was there that he met 17-year-old Rosa Rauchbach. She was the quarry owner’s daughter, brought in as a translator. She could speak English, and so worked for the Germans as an interpreter.

This is how the pair came to be in close contact with each other. There was instant chemistry between them. One worth risking life and limb for. Sparks flew, and after they kissed in one of the empty workrooms, Greasley fell head over heels for her.

Within a matter of weeks, the lovers were meeting in secret to conduct their love affair under the noses of their guards. He began sneaking out of camp to meet her two to three times a week. She also helped his fellow PoWs.

She brought food and radio parts for him to smuggle back into camp. The parts allowed them to build a radio and listen to news on the BBC. A couple of months into their steamy affair, Greasley was transferred to a camp called Freiwaldau.

Being in a remote location, 40 miles from his previous camp, Freiwaldau’s guards were especially lax. They assumed that any escapee was signing his own death warrant from starvation or exhaustion if he attempted to reach the nearest safe country, Sweden, which was 420 miles away.

A lesser man might have thought that the end of a short but sweet love affair had come, but not this soldier. He was determined to be reunited with Rosa. Greasley spent two weeks watching their movements and learned exactly when to time his escape.

A Love Story That Was Destined To Be Ended Soon

A guard was walking around the block, and Horace worked out how long it took the guard to get from one side to the other. Another guard would cross over with him, and when they parted, that’s when he used to jump out of the window without making a noise.

A couple of comrades helped push him out of the window. Then he escaped through the fence and went into the woods. Rauchbach had traced him, and they would meet in a chapel two or three times a week. Their secret love affair continued for some time.

“We’d be up there until two or three in the morning, making love,” Greasley said in an interview a couple of years before his death. Horace sent messages to Rosa via outside work parties. Her replies came back when these inmates came to have their hair cut.

Greasley was the camp barber, thanks to his previous life in England. As soon as he got the chance, Greasley would be under the barbed wire and across enemy terrain to see Rauchbach – who would often travel 20 miles to get to their designated meeting place.

Like so many stories from the Second World War, this one does not have a happy ending – although for a time it looked like it might. After the defeat of the Germans, Horace vouched for Rosa when she applied for a job as a translator for the Americans.

She got the job. However, after returning home, Greasley received news that Rodenbach and her baby had both died during childbirth. Although there might be love stories greater than this one, it is definitely worth sharing.

Courtesy: Prashant M. Oswal