Hey all,

I'm looking to find out about the war-time activity of my recently deceased grandfather during WWII, and I figured this subreddit would be the place to come and maybe find out how. His name was William James Raynor, and lived in Omaha, NE as an extremely successful stock broker after the war. He rarely ever spoke about his activities, which I understand is common in people who see intense combat. Much of his activity was classified, but it's possible that those documents have been declassified in recent years. We simply don't know, and have no idea where to start looking. Here is what we know from what he said, or what we could get out of his war time buddies.

1. He was drafted into the army because of his knowledge of money and finances. He acted as a counter-spy, tracking German and Italian spies in the middle east and southern Russia using money trails, among other things.

2. He was involved in protecting the supply line that provided spam and other essentials to Russian troops via the middle east, part of this program.

3. He made his way into Europe, and saw the aftermath of concentration camps. I heard him speak only once on this subject, and simply stated that he was there. He wouldn't say more, and I could tell this memory really bothered him.

4. He was in the room with Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt during the Tehran conference, providing security for Roosevelt. He sat a few feet from Stalin, and at one point caught a Russian spy by accident. He related this experience to us at length.

5. He was part of a team that was tasked with capturing Mussolini, but failed when the dictator was caught by partisans. There is a picture online of Mussolini hanging upside down, and a man that looks very similar to my grandfather is standing in the foreground with his back to the camera. We think this was him. I will do my best to find this picture, although I'm not sure if it will help. Can't seem to find it online right now.

6. He saw intense combat in the middle east, most likely engaging middle easterners themselves. We know for certain that he had violent interactions with Palestinians. I will say that as a naive child of maybe 8 or 9 I asked him if he had ever killed anyone, and he deflected by simply showing me how to properly kill a man in hand-to-hand combat with a knife. I remember seriously regretting the question, and being lectured on why he had not given me a straight answer. The consensus among my family is that he killed quite a few people, and engaged in torture.

Any useful information regarding him, or how to find out about his activities during and after WWII would be hugely appreciated by my family and I. He went on to live an extraordinary life after the war, becoming very successful, contributing a great deal to his community, and raising a wonderful family.