COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

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Showing : WWII Videos

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  Virgil Westdale was a college student when he got his private pilot license with an eye toward the Army Air Corps. FDR's Executive Order 9066 allowing removal of Japanese citizens from the West Coast would filter down to affect him, since his father was a Japanese-American.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  Glen Gooch tells what it was like to capture a German soldier for intelligence purposes. You had to be fast and strong.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  Virgil Westdale was progressing in his flight training when a federal inspector showed up and took his pilot license. No explanation was given but he knew why. His father was Japanese. Then the War Department transferred him to the Army.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  There was an incredible barrage from German 88s in the Hurtgen Forest but it wasn't the tree bursts that nearly killed Glen Gooch. A German hand grenade came his way.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  The Army had created a special unit comprised of Japanese-Americans to fight in Europe. When Virgil Westdale arrived to join the outfit, they thought he was in the wrong place. He didn't really look Japanese. The erstwhile pilot became an infantryman and headed to Italy.

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  B.E. Vaughan - Navy +9 Total Videos

  USS O'Brien (DD-725)

  After a nerve-wracking mission to bomb Tokyo and a typhoon, B.E. Vaughan and the destroyer O'Brien suffered a second kamikaze attack which killed all three of his hometown pals who served with him on board. Then, began the grim task of collecting the personal belongings of the dead and preparing them for burial at sea.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  As soon as Glen Gooch left the chaos and destruction of the Hurtgen Forest, he ran right into the desperate German attack at the Battle of the Bulge. It was a running battle and his unit was nearly surrounded at times while playing cat and mouse with Tiger tanks.

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  Michael Mirson +8 Total Videos

  Russian Army

  Michael Mirson was a prisoner of the Germans but that was actually better than being in the Russian Army. He was a trained veterinarian so he was valuable to them as they retreated from the Caucasus. One day, an officer told him that the Americans were fifty kilometers away in that direction and the Russians were close in every other direction. That began a mad dash to the American line.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  Don't let a dictator take over your country. Virgil Westdale had returned from the European theater after the Allies put an end to one such dictator and he began a successful career as a scientist with 25 patents to his credit.

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  Harold Barber - Marines +14 Total Videos

  7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  He didn't even notice that he'd been hit. A piece of shrapnel from a Japanese artillery shell found Harold Barber's leg but he kept right on fighting because of the adrenaline. The Corpsman bandaged him and he was right back in the battle for Peleliu. The Navy was able to stay and take part in the fight unlike when he was on Guadalcanal.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  They fought hard to take and keep the top of that hill. Both sides had on white snow gear and you couldn't tell friend from foe. Glen Gooch describes the action which earned him a Bronze Star.

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  Frank Pomroy - Marines +35 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Frank Pomroy prepared his last stand. He had a bayonet wound and three machine gun bullets in his leg but he was still ready to fight. He lined up his hand grenades on the coral ridge in front of him and waited. At daybreak he heard Japanese voices coming. Part 4 of 4. (Second interview)

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  Virgil Westdale recalls how his unit was sheltering in a French family's house when it came under fire from German 88s. It was soon after that the brass began arguing over what to do with his fabled 442nd Combat Team. It was decided to split the infantry and artillery components and send the artillery into Germany and the infantry back to Italy.

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  Carl Beck - Army +12 Total Videos

  501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  In the middle of the night, thousands of paratroopers loaded into C-47's for the crossing into Normandy. Carl Beck was just a teenager but he was ready. His plane was hit by flak when it neared the drop zone and the jump was rushed, resulting in scattered men and equipment. Part 1 of 2.

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  LtGen Lawrence Snowden - Marines +16 Total Videos

  23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division

  The first operation for the 4th Division was the landing on Roi-Namur. Lawrence Snowden remembers that, though it was an easy victory, valuable combat experience and important lessons were imparted on the Marines.

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  Antonio Mendez - Army +9 Total Videos

  47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division

  As the fighting raged around Aachen, Antonio Mendez watched men fall all around him. The Germans had a tank with an 88 dug in and it was forcing them to withdraw. Antonio Mendez saw a perfect spot for cover and dove in. He yelled for others to join him and they soon had a good fighting position set up. Before it was over, he had earned a Silver Star. Part 1 of 2.

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  Don Scott - Army Air Corps +8 Total Videos

  560th Squadron, 388th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force

  Two engines were out, a third smoking, and they were were losing airspeed and altitude, but they were flying level and pointed home. Then time ran out for the B-17 and Don Scott had to slip down the hatch into the slipstream. Part 2 of 3.

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  Antonio Mendez - Army +9 Total Videos

  47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division

  The officer stumbled upon a group of men hunkered down in a gully during the battle of Aachen. Where's the line? Right here. Where are the Germans? Right over there. Who's in charge here? Silence. Finally, they pointed to Antonio Mendez. He had put the ad hoc group of GIs together and rallied them to fend off the Germans, worthy of a Silver Star. Part 2 of 2.

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  Clyde Burnette - Army Air Corps +13 Total Videos

  713th Squadron, 448th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force

  It was their third mission over Berlin and they were heading home. Four German fighters pounced on the B-24 and it was engulfed in flame and going down. Clyde Burnette fought for consciousness as the other crew in the back of the plane bailed out. He woke in free fall with no idea how he had made it out, and soon he was in German custody. Everyone made it out of the plane except George "Danny" Daneau, the nose turret gunner, who went down with the aircraft.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  The poverty in Naples was severe. Virgil Westdale recalls how civilians would scramble to collect the food scraps discarded by the Americans. In Rome, the Pope came out and blessed the GIs but as soon as they left Rome, they faced the withering fire of German 88s.

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  Mike Doi - Army +5 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  Mike Doi describes his experience as a Japanese-American during WWII, and the relationship the 442nd Regimental Combat Team had with the 36th Infantry Division they served alongside.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  There was a battalion that was lost, cut off and in big trouble. Other units had tried to get to them and failed. It was decided that the 442nd would be sent in. Virgil Westdale was a member of that legendary Combat Team composed of Japanese-Americans. They did not fail.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  The combat could be close at times with the Germans right up in your face. Glen Gooch was worried about one young soldier who wasn't very careful when the action started and, sure enough, he came to a bad end.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  It was near Augsburg that Virgil Wesdale got to see for himself what the Germans were doing to people they considered undesirable. He saw the results of extermination, the bodies in pits and the emaciated survivors. It was sickening. He could go no further into the concentration camp to see the rest of it.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  Glen Gooch describes how his company commander received a concussion during an artillery barrage and how he came to earn two awards during the Battle of the Bulge.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  Virgil Westdate's father came from Japan to the US when he was 16 years old in 1906. After meeting Virgil's mother at church, the couple set about farming in Indiana.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  He'd had his feet frozen but Glen Gooch hadn't been shot yet. It was twelve days before the end of the war when German bullets finally found him near Nuremberg.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  The closer the Germans retreated toward Germany, the harder they fought. Virgil Westdale was a member of the storied 442nd, a unit comprised solely of Japanese-Americans. It was near the Brenner Pass that they had so many casualties, they were withdrawn to get replacements.

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  Glen Gooch - Army +9 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division

  The ice at the Sauer River seemed like it would hold him up but, loaded down with gear, Glen Gooch broke through into the freezing water. He was OK but chilled to the bone. The objective was a hill that the Germans were using for observation.

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  Virgil Westdale - Army +10 Total Videos

  442nd Regimental Combat Team

  When the 442nd returned home, Virgil Westdale was left behind due some beef the 1st Sergeant had with him. When he finally left Germany to travel to France for transport home, he was bunked for a night in a miserable unheated building. He and a friend decided to set out in the night to seek food and warmer shelter in the German town.