The Air War

[gumby]

I have been thinking about the types of planes that were being built in the 1940's by the major military powers. When I was Katie I saw many of these planes, I even remember riding in a few Germany military transport planes. I also saw many planes crash during the war. There was so much misfortune involving the bombing and downed planes during this war.

My father, now deceased, flew 25 sorties over Germany in a B-17 Flying Fortress. On one mission, his plane was hit with flak and they had to fly back to England almost at tree level. They barely made it back.

From 1942 to 1945, my father was "up there" bombing while I was on the ground in the city of Stuttgart, as my former incarnation. I remember when my father ( in my present life ) would talk about these bombing raids. He did not talk very often about it, and I know that he had deep remorse about it. I could tell because he appeared very upset whenever I would ask him about it, his face became white and he almost shook. That is why I did not ask him too often about it. But the few time he did talk about it I myslef would feel sickened, I could feel his disgust of the war, there was something about him which made me feel that something went wrong in the war, something horrible happened that made him a different man. He had seen something so horrible that it affected him emotionally for the rest of his life. He never would tell me what it was, but I have concluded that it was watching his buddies plane getting hit, and having to watch it crash and burn below on the Germany countryside. This may have been it, or perhaps the unspeakable, that he accidently hit one of the other planes in his formation, or a "friendly fire" mishap. Whatever it was it tortured his soul for the rest of his life.

[sarque]

This topic hit home with me just because I was in the Luftwaffe during WWII and so much of what I remember revolves around the planes and the misfortunes of the pilots and the planes themselves.

It's so interesting that your father was bombing Stuttgart while you were there as your previous incarnation -- that sort of thing always makes me wonder how much similar things like this happens. I'm sure we're all more connected than we would ever really know.

[gumby]

Yes I agree sarque, sometimes we don't even realize how we are connected in past lives to our present one. I wonder if I chose to be reborn into the family of an Army Air Force serviceman because when I died so young in Germany, I was married to an American serviceman. He had promised me that we were going to go to America to live. Yet I was tortured by the air war over Germany, as everyone who has read my accounts of my PL as Katie know. So it is curious that I would chose to be reborn in the family of a man who participated in these bombings. Perhaps it was because of his feelings of pain and agony about the war, because he felt such grief over the war the way that I did. Or was it because he reminded me of my German father? It is difficult to say.

[Laurasia]

Thank you for sharing all of this with us Gumby. Indeed the twisted & very intricate ways in which many of us can (or are) connected from previous lifetimes can be absolutely baffling. I have often wondered if my father I have some sort of karmic connection somehow related to WWII as well. I don't really have anything to directly point me to that (other than feelings) though. I just know that there is a lot of karma between him & I from somewhere.

Sincerely,
Laurasia

[Leutnantzursee]

Hi Gumby :-)

Yes, I can empathize with you on this one! My dad lived through the occupation of Jersey during the war and it certainly scarred him for life, added to that were the campaigns he served in during the 50's in the far East, the effects of war were something I was born into in this life as well. Recently I've wondered if I ever came across my dad as a boy when I was Emil, there was certainly a strong naval presence in Jersey at that time, so it's odd you should post about this :-) I wouldn't be at all surprised if we connect to our present life families from the war, as we were then, somehow it seems like the sort of irony of karma that we should. I had a very troubled relationship with my late father, he certainly didn't have much time for Germans though they seemed to luridly fascinate him, especially the SS who used to frequent my grandfather's hotel bar and apparently saluted him as he was a decorated WW1 vet. He was also part German through his Danish mother, though I doubt he breathed a word to the Germans, despite them commenting on his 'Aryan looks' or so my dad told me! Did your father also feel this way, unforgiving of the Germans? I think the civilians effected like my dad, maybe felt more bitter, for combatants like your father, I daresay they saw another side to war, where the enemy can occasionally be humanized and so pitied. Interesting post :-)

Liz

[gumby]

Thanks for those insights lizzie and Laurasia. It is odd in many way how we can be connected with loved ones and family members over the ages of time. This adds to the riddles of the many lives which we do recall, and the ones we don't.

My father hated everything to do with that horrible war (WWII) He would often drown out his torment with strong drink, and on one occasion, I found him up in the attic of our home ( in Ohio ). I could see him from the bottom of the stairs up there, going through some boxes which were packed with old stuff. He pulled out some old clothing, and then he came down the stairs. I asked him what that was he was holding, and he told me that it was just some old things that he didn't need anymore. I saw that it was an army uniform. He promptly went outside, and it was night,; and he lit a big fire in the trash bin, and I saw him throw the uniform into the fire. He stared at it as it burned, as though he felt that by burning his army uniform, he could be released from that agony of bad memories from the war.

My dad was unusual in that he did not hate the Germans. in fact I always felt that he cared for them, and he was sorry for the heavy toll we had inflicted on them. Perhaps it was the killing of the German civilians which he was the most sickened about, having flown 25 missions over German cities and watching bombs obliterate entire blocks of those cities. Sometimes when he did talk about Adolf Hitler, it was as though he had a secret admiration for him.

[Leutnantzursee]

How sad about your father Gumby, I'm sorry he had to carry all that pain and deal with it alone. So many ex-servicemen come home damaged like that, their minds are never the same (a friend's boyfriend was in Iraq, so I know first hand :-( ) and as we know, it can be carried through into another life if we don't get to survive a war and maybe work some way on healing those issues when they are still relatively fresh. Your dad must have seen some horrific things and had to live with that, its just a shame that generation were too conditioned to just 'get on with it' that they couldn't seek professional help for PTSD. I think there was a sneaking admiration for the Third Reich among some of the allied servicemen, maybe they admired the discipline and the sheer meteoric rise of so radical a political movement, had National socialism been totally benign and inclusive, how different it would have been and maybe that's what your father saw. The bombing of the German cities was something I think many of the RAF and American bombers regretted, even Churchill is quoted as having his doubts about the continual and systematic destruction of Germany towards the end of the war, a profoundly sorrowful legacy for that generation, it makes me very sad when I hear these stories, I feel very connected to those men because I was one of them once upon a time.

[gumby]

Yes you are right in every regard, lizzie. Towards the end of the war it was inhumane to bomb Germany cities when the luftwaffe had already been destroyed and there was no longer an air defense. There was not much of challenge to the allied bombers after 1944. This left German airspace wide open, and the allied bombing missions took full advantage of this, wave after wave of bombers hitting urban centers until nothing remained. The fact that Germany rose from the ashes in such a short time is amazing, to a world status of envy in our time.

[Demi]

Modern warfare is horrible and immoral in all regards. The ancient Warrior Laws specify that a battle is only to occur on battlefields chosen for the purpose, and is only to be fought by professional warriors. No civilians, farmers, merchants, women or children, or their property, is to be involved, unless they are trained warriors of an army. Modern warfare does not follow this code, thus all modern warfare is basically a criminal act.

All the best,
Demi

edit: Gumby, West Germany was rebuilt fast due to the economic support from US and the allies. East Germany and all of the Eastern block was under Soviet control and thus had more poverty for many years.