First, the lesser one...my wife is directly related to a Capone-era mobster named Vern Miller. He was a decorated Army vet who learned how to drive and shoot a machine gun, and hence was a valued hit-man when he became associated with gangsters. He was eventually gunned down himself and we have seen some nice photos of his bullet-riddled blood-soaked body.
My relative, a cousin of my grandfather, was Generaloberst Eugen Ritter von Schobert who served as a German officer during both WWI and WWII. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of he Military Order of Max Joseph, which was Bavaria's highest military honor, and which conferred a "patent of nobility" on a recipient who was a commoner. (Unfortunately, it came with no hereditary rights that I can claim). He was commander of the German 11th Army on the Russian front. He died in 1941 when
his plane crashed in a Russian minefield. Here he is:
My father was a WWII draftee who attend Infantry OCS at Ft. Benning and fought in the Pacific theater against Imperial Japan. I guess he would have been torn if sent to the European theater to oppose his relatives.
you know you just said it.
