Comments by "Adam Redwine" (@adamredwine774) on "Canada in World War 2 | Retracing my Grandfather's Steps" video.

Excellent. My paternal grandfather joined the US Army. At basic training they asked if anyone had ridden a motorcycle. My pa had been on the back of one with a buddy once so he stepped forward; they put him in the motorcycle unit. He did that for some time including in Europe where he was riding in front of a tank column and came over a little hill. On the other side was a burned out tank and some crashed motorcycles with the bodies of the troops still there. He decided he'd rather not be on motorcycles any more so he went AWOL, walked over to the Air Force base and asked to sign up. They shipped him to England where he learned to be a mechanic for B-17s. The mechanic was top turret gunner as well and he flew several missions over Germany. On one of them, the plane was shot and he could see the tail damaged from his turret. He looked down and saw his buddy bailing out. He said he knew that that meant he should go to so he dropped out the bomb bay doors. One of the crewmen's chute didn't open but he saw a few others get out. When he landed, he saw machine gun tracks in the dirt and turned around to see a jeep full of NAZIs behind him. He surrendered and spent 18 months in a POW camp (even becoming the Red Cross representative for the camp). Toward the end, he was on the "Black March" south to Berlin where about 30% of the prisoners died. He made it out, moved to Western Kansas and opened a car dealership in a town with a single blinking red light. Raised three kids and died of emphazima from all the cigarettes he smoked that he got hooked on during the war. Hell of a life.
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