The WWII Relatives thread

My grandfather was drafted in February 1944 when he was a 38 years old, a few months after my mother was born. Served in France and Germany, under Patton, so he arrived on the continent after D-day. He told me he was a 'light machine gunner', I assume he meant the BAR (Browining Automatic Rifle). He recalled one story where he was taking a dump right when the Germans decided to start attacking. There was alos another story, about which I never asked him about, that my mother told me when his unit had to wade across the Rhine(or perhaps some other river in Germany), he ran off and hid a monastery, because he was afraid of the water. They threw him in the brig, but he was discharged honorably. I never asked him a whole lot, I thought the war was horrible and I didn't want to dig up bad memories. Sadly he passed away three years ago.