This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

Welcome to the World War II podcast. Today I'm speaking with Eric Kreps about a remarkable family mystery.

His grandfather, Colonel Kenneth Ray Creps, served in the Second World War and after returning home,

he sealed his belongings in a chest with instruction that it should not be up until after his death. For decades, it remained closed, and no one in the family knew what was inside.

After Colonel Creps died, the chest went to storage and was almost forgotten. At one point,

it was nearly auctioned off, which could have meant the contents

were lost forever. Instead, it was saved, and when it was finally opened, it revealed a life and a

wartime experience that Eric had never fully known. Eric, thanks for joining me. Before we get to what was

inside the chest, I wonder, growing up, how much did

you know about your grandfather, his war service, and where he's from? I knew very little.

So in my realm of understanding at that point, I just kind of knew him in a grandfatherly way.

He was living in California with my grandmother. I had other family out there. And so we

would visit in the summers, and that would be kind of my time with them. And I really didn't have

any clue. My dad had mentioned to my brother and I a couple times growing up, this one-time

conversation that he had with his dad when he was younger. But then as I got older, I got more interested

in family history and more interested in learning more about my grandfather's secret past. My dad

kind of wanted to follow in his footsteps. And so when my dad was 16 and in high school, he joined

his ROTC. And so on his 16th birthday after he signed up

then my grandfather sat him down and I think that he didn't want to dissuade him from this path

but he wanted him to know what it might cost and he said you know listen close son I'm only

...