In 2015, I discovered that my grandmother’s brother was one of the very few Chinese-Americans killed in combat in World War I. Alexander Amador Eça da Silva Kin was the son of my great-grandfather, Hippolytus Eça Da Silva and his first wife, Dr. Yamei Kin, both immigrants from China. They divorced in 1904, and my paternal family believed that Alexander had been taken back to China by his mother. In the 1970s, my grandmother traveled to China looking for Alexander; she found no trace. The truth: Alexander died during the assault on the Hindenburg Line in 1918. He was 22. My grandmother died in 1981, never knowing that her brother was killed in the war when she was 12. — Caitlin McGaw, Davis, Calif.

A German Shell Killed His Whole Squad

My great-grandfather, Peter Court, like many young men, was an absolute bottomless pit at meals. When dinner came in the trenches, the men would argue over who should fetch rations. But Peter never argued because he knew he could usually charm the kitchen into a bit more for himself. One evening when dinner was called, Peter volunteered. After successfully talking his way to a little extra food at the kitchen, he headed back with soup for the others, only to find that a German shell had killed his whole squad. He made the best of the situation and sat down and ate every last bit of soup. — Alex Court , New York

Propellers Proved to be My Grandfather’s Weakness

Image Frederick Jeffreys at Camp Borden, Ontario, in 1917.

My grandfather, Frederick Jeffreys, signed up in 1917 for service with the Royal Flying Corps, training at Camp Borden in Canada. What he referred to as his “first crash” occurred in Dundalk, Ontario. A local paper chronicled the “birdman” and his biplane, which made a “graceful flight low down over the village” before “roosting on a wire fence on the Doyle farm.” As my grandfather tried to alight again, the propeller hit another length of fence, and “the machine was disabled and stood on its head.” Propellers proved to be his weakness. On Sept. 17, 1918, as a lieutenant with the 88th Squadron, flying reconnaissance on the Western Front, his plane was shot down — the second crash that he survived. — J. Anderson, Minneapolis

I Have to Wonder What He Might Have Become Had He Not Been Gassed