Phil Antonelli recounts how soldiers fighting their way across France in 1944 dealt with the fear inherent in combat and how the bonds between each other helped them deal with the fear.
Phil Antonelli
Few things went smoothly on Dewey Augenstein’s Channel crossing to Utah Beach on D-Day. His artillery crew had difficulty getting to the beach and though they didn’t land under fire, he soon made a rookie mistake.
dewey augenstein
Foward artillery observer Ron Fenolia could come within yards of the Germans while on scouting and observation missions. He tells how his observer teams operated, where they looked to observe the enemy and what they did when a target was spotted.
Ron Fenolia
Soon after his POW camp was liberated by the Russians, Ed Gitlin embarked on a journey through Russian occupied Poland and Germany motivated by a desire to witness the history unfolding around him.
Ed Gitlin
One of the deadliest and least-known accidents of World War II, Operation Tiger, occurred less than a month before D-Day as Carlton Goodwin recalls.
Carlton Goodwin
Communications specialist Louis Goos found himself isolated from his unit during the invasion of Italy in 1943. He and his crew were left behind during a German counterattack and had to fend for themselves until the Allies could regroup and retake the area.
Louis Goos
German native Uwe Grapengeter served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army’s military government in postwar Germany which helped him locate and assist his own relatives impacted by the devastation of war.
Uwe Grapengeter
Lee Guenther was stationed at General Eisenhower’s Supreme Allied Headquarters during the preparations for D-Day, overseeing women who were sending and receiving coded messages to the invasion units. Soon after the landings, she and and other women from headquarters spent time on the beach in Normandy until communications could be firmly established.
Lee Guenther
Tom Gunning fought from the opening invasion of North Africa to Anzio. Here’s his account of the action during the opening stages of the invasion of Sicily that earned him a Silver Star.
Tom Gunning
As an attendant at hospital behind the lines, Vinton Guy dealt with the casualties of the breakout across France after D-day. The men he helped treat were often inexperienced replacements who suffered devastating injuries just weeks after basic training.
Vinton Guy
The American push into Germany was slowed by the numerous rivers that needed to be crossed. Bill Hessin tells how Army Combat Engineers constructed ponton bridges that allowed entire divisions to cross and continue the advance quickly.
Bill Hessin
As a dietician at an Army hospital behind the lines in France, Ruth Jones didn’t expect to come under air attack by the Germans, but on Christmas Eve 1944, the soldiers a her hospital found that attending a party may have saved their lives.
Ruth Jones
Ben Miller’s ability as a combat medic saved the lives of soldiers in the field, but he was frustrated by the lack on information field soldiers received about their friends once they left the front lines.
Ben Miller
As a combat infantry scout, Wright Morgan would observe German movements and direct fire on potential targets. One day, observing from a captured German pillbox, he witnessed a medical convoy that he suspected wasn’t all that it seemed.
Wright Morgan
Events moved quickly at the end of the war in Europe for Bill Moore. The Germans managed to put up sporadic resistance almost to the very end, albeit with a ragtag collection of troops.
Bill Moore
Not long after arriving at the front for the first time, Al Nelson experienced the first attacks in The Battle Of The Bulge, where he feels history hasn’t given enough credit to his undermanned 99th Division.
Al Nelson
Wendy Oakes treated casualties of the Battle Of The Bulge at an evacuation hospital. Doctors and nurses there had to learn quickly how to adapt to the injuries they were facing, and were affected by the impact those injuries would have on the men who suffered them.
Wendy Oakes
Hubert Peters was in one of the worst places to be when the opening artillery barrage at the Battle Of The Bulge began…by himself in an open field. Hear him tell how he managed to get back to his unit just in time to evacuate.
Hubert Peters
Stepping on a German land mine in Eastern France was the start of Daniel Pettee’s lengthy journey of recuperation from serious injuries.
Daniel Pettee
Joe Sakato of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was recruited into the Army from the internment camps Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in after the war started. He tells of what finally receiving the Congressional Medal Of Honor meant to him 55 years after his heroic actions in France.
Joe Sakato
Felix Sparks, one of America’s most decorated soldiers, commanded the first American unit to enter the Dachau Concentration Camp. Another unit soon entered and a controversial incident developed with the Germans taken prisoner there.
Felix Sparks
Ray Spiro survived over two years of tank combat with the Germans. Here’s his account of the mortality American tankers faced, and the strategies they used to overcome superior German armor.
Ray Spiro
Replacement soldiers often were the first to became casualties as infantry units moved across Europe. Ed Wood spent only one day in combat, and recounts in great detail the event that changed his life forever…and the moment he finally made peace with his wartime experience.