COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

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Showing : WWII Videos

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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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  Ed Harrell - Marines +12 Total Videos

  USS Indianapolis

  Ed Harrell describes in detail the sinking of the USS Indianapolis from Japanese torpedoes, which left nearly 900 Sailors and Marines in shark-infested Pacific waters. Part 1 of 4.

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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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  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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  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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  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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  Clarence Dodd +4 Total Videos

  US Merchant Marine

  The food aboard the Merchant Marine ship gradually got worse. Clarence Dodd was at sea crisscrossing the Pacific for eight months before he returned to a home port. He crossed the equator eight times and he lost his fear of heights while climbing the mast.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Composite Squadron VC-80

  The machine gun in the turret of the torpedo bomber had a fire interrupter that was supposed to prevent the gunner from shooting the tail or the wings of the aircraft. Fred VanLaningham was on a training flight over the California desert and manning the gun when it went haywire and did just that.

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  Clarence Dodd +4 Total Videos

  US Merchant Marine

  Clarence Dodd's first trip with the Merchant Marine was completed when the ship delivered a load of oil from California to Ulithi. They were about to head back to the States when the orders were changed. They were now going to Iran and then who knows where.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  It was good duty down in the engine room. It was four hours on, twelve hours off for George Sarros with no paint chipping up on deck. Although his captain was aloof, he didn't sweat the small stuff, like being back late from leave.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After boot camp at Great Lakes, Fred VanLaningham had excellent test scores because his high school principal altered the physics course to prep young men for military tests. He had his pick of training locations and headed to aircraft mechanics school.

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  Clarence Dodd +4 Total Videos

  US Merchant Marine

  Clarence Dodd was fourteen years old when when the war started. You'll never have to go, he was told, but he did. When he was eighteen he joined the Merchant Marine and was introduced to the five inch gun.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  It was easy to die on D-Day. Walter Victor saw his friend drown before he ever touched the beach. After the beachhead was finally secured, he pushed into the interior and eventually had some strange adventures, like being tapped to manage a factory in Belgium because he spoke four languages. He was also captured for a brief time but the Polish prisoners had a plan.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Composite Squadron VC-80

  His training completed, Fred VanLaningham joined a special composite squadron of fighters and torpedo bombers as an aviation machinist's mate. He had dual roles as a mechanic and a gunner.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  The LST carried Army engineers so it wasn't in the first wave of the Normandy landing. Once the beach was secure, it was time to unload men and equipment and load up with casualties to return to England. There were also paratroopers who had jumped before the landing and George Sarros listened to their tales and took a look at their souvenirs.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  All sailors remember what happens when you cross the equator. Fred VanLaningham recalls that day and the outrageous rituals. It was special because they also crossed the International Date Line.

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  The Japanese were at the top of a cliff with machine guns and mortars and a group of Marines were trapped directly below them in the sugarcane. If they moved, heavy fire would rain down. The decision was made to send a jeep with water and ammunition through the gauntlet. Harry McMahon's friend was chosen to drive and he volunteered to ride shotgun. It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the mortar rounds.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  LST-515 made 52 trips between England and Normandy after the initial one on D-Day. German prisoners were carried to England on the ship and George Sarros heard the younger ones saying that Germany was going to win the war but an older one was glad he was out of it.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  It was a rough life as a teenager in the coal mine. Walter Victor was stuck there where his father had died when he was a baby. He hitchhiked to New York City and got a job in his sister's dress factory but World War II had come and so had the draft.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Aviation machinist's mate Fred VanLaningham was stationed in San Diego when he got the news that his brother had been killed in Normandy. He finally shipped out to the Pacific but his commander had him transferred to another unit where he wouldn't have to fly as a gunner.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  It was just a training exercise, a dry run for the upcoming invasion of Normandy. Exercise Tiger took place on the English coast at a place called Slapton Sands. It was attacked by German E-Boats which had slipped through naval defenses. George Sarros, a sailor on an LST, describes the action and his captain's efforts to rescue men from the frigid water.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Once Fred VanLaningham decided he was going to join the Navy, he had to get his parents permission because he was only seventeen. No way, you must graduate first. So he went to see if the principal could help him.

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  After ten days of chasing stragglers on Saipan, the Marines were told there's no trucks, we're walking back. Harry McMahon recalls that they were marched through the grounds of a new Army hospital and some soldiers gathered and wondered who they were.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Aviation machinist's mate Fred VanLaningham kept 'em flying in the Pacific and he was very happy when President Truman dropped the bomb. He could go home now but there was a problem. The trains and planes were full and the highway had a long line of hitchhikers. How would he get there?

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  He was too skinny to be a Marine. Harry McMahon tried to enlist but he failed the physical. He was lucky to get a little inside help when someone at his office revealed that her son-in-law was an examining doctor for the Marines. This got him in but he had to pass another physical when he got to Parris Island.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  It was at Dachau concentration camp that Walter Victor gave a duffel bag full of supplies to a starving prisoner. He then turned to the grim task of burying the dead. Decades later, as he prepared to make a speech, he had a surprising reunion.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  On the island of Anguar, two sailors decided to have a quick draw contest. No one's going to shoot, we just want to see who's the fastest. What could go wrong? Fred VanLaningham remembers that fiasco. Years after the war, he traveled to the Pacific again as part of his job and got to see Ground Zero at Hiroshima.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  They took his Jeep. It disappeared but it had one headlight out so when he saw a Jeep like that he and a buddy stopped it and questioned the men. They turned out to be enemy spies and he got a Bronze Star for that. He had some strange encounters while over there, including meeting the biggest of the big brass and falling in with some Poles with a plan for a big bang.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  George Sarros was just six months away from graduating high school but there was a war on and Uncle Sam needed him. He managed to get sent to the Navy instead of the Army because he "didn't feel like walking." He was assigned to a brand new LST and sailed off to England.

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  Fred VanLaningham - Navy +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  In high school, Fred VanLaningham had played the marimba and the drums, so it seemed natural to join the Drum and Bugle Corps when he joined the Navy. It didn't sit well with one of his commanders, though. During his technical training, he got to meet up with his brother, who was on maneuvers nearby.