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Post by Baek on Jun 4, 2012 21:58:06 GMT 9
The soldier forced to fight for three sides in WW2... the ultimate tale of a man who became a reluctant veteran of the Japanese, German and Soviet armiesTHE GISTAmerican paratroopers in Normandy in June 1944 thought they had captured a Japanese soldier in German uniform, but he turned out to be Korean. His name was Yang Kyoungjong.
In 1938, at the age of 18, Yang had been forcibly conscripted by the Japanese into their army in Manchuria. A year later, he was captured by the Red Army after the Battle of Khalkhin-Gol and sent to a labour camp. The Soviet military authorities, at a moment of crisis in 1942, drafted him, along with thousands of other prisoners, into their forces.
Then, early in 1943 he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Kharkov in Ukraine by the German army.
In 1944, now in German uniform, he was sent to France to serve with one of the Wehrmacht’s eastern battalions made up of Soviet prisoners to defend Normandy at the base of the Cotentin peninsula. After time in a prison camp in Britain, he went to the United States. Yang settled there and died in Illinois in 1992.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Golen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Kharkoven.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_L%C3%BCttichImagine this feller would've had some interesting stories to tell. Hats off.
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Post by moose on Jun 4, 2012 22:04:26 GMT 9
I'll say. Like many of the badasses featured in our fine home, I don't envy this man's travails. It damn near makes me ashamed of myself for suffering so little and accomplishing less. Necessity mothered invention, but adversity fathered greatness.
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Post by MuntCount on Jan 26, 2014 11:12:21 GMT 9
Necessity mothered invention, but adversity fathered greatness. Wise words. This Yang guy must have had some talent for languages as well as a talent for survival.
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Post by Baek on Jan 27, 2014 18:33:47 GMT 9
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Post by Baek on Feb 2, 2014 17:50:56 GMT 9
Need More info? Join the IOK.
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