COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

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Showing : WWII Videos

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  Lyle Gittens - Army +10 Total Videos

  92nd Infantry Division

  Lyle Gittens was nearly ready to graduate college and get married when he got drafted in 1941. He went to the draft board to seek a deferment. Not only was it denied but he encountered some particularly vile racial hostility. He resolved to serve out his year and get back to his life but the attack on Pearl Harbor changed all that. (Caution: strong language.)

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  Bill Adair - Army +4 Total Videos

  Advisor to Philippine Army

  Bill Adair was suffering from the effects of a concussion when the battle for the Philippines came to an end for him. Along with thousands of others, he was forced to surrender and was facing the prospect of joining what would become known as the Bataan Death March. Then fate intervened in the form of an ambulance without a driver. Part 1 of 2.

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  Bill Livingstone - Army Air Corps +14 Total Videos

  334th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force

  He bunked with regular B-17 crew members, but Bill Livingstone was a gunnery instructor who was there to keep skills sharp. He was also there to substitute for any crew member who was not able to fly. His very first mission turned out to be a memorable one. Part 1 of 5.

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  Lyle Gittens - Army +10 Total Videos

  92nd Infantry Division

  The men of the 92nd Infantry Division had to fight on three fronts. They had to fight the Germans. They had to fight the racial animosity of their fellow soldiers and commanders. And they had to fight Congress, which wanted to maintain segregation in the Army. Lyle Gittens made it through all that with an undampened spirit.

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  Jim Wicker - Army Air Corps +7 Total Videos

  22nd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, 7th Photo Reconnaissance Group, 8th Air Force

  When he had to bail out, Jim Wicker was literally sucked from the cockpit when he released the canopy because of his high rate of speed. He was just a hundred miles inland a few days after D-Day and the Germans caught him almost immediately. As he sat in solitary confinement waiting for interrogation, he was comforted by his faith.

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  Hannah Deutch +12 Total Videos

  German Civilian

  Hannah Deutch was a teenager when the Kindertransport rescue effort became her means of escape from Germany. England was taking in thousands of Jewish children and she got her papers in order and left. Right away, as the oldest one in the large group, she became the leader on the journey.

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  Rufus Dalton - Army +10 Total Videos

  397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division

  Rufus Dalton was at the Maginot Line bouncing mortar shells off an old citadel. His unit was suddenly pulled and sent to take Patton's place in the line after the general was summoned to the Bulge. Once they got there, a fierce ten day battle ensued due to the last major German offensive, Operation Nordwind. Part 1 of 2.

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  Robert James - Navy +12 Total Videos

  USS Keokuk (AKN-4)

  Robert James was propped up against a bulkhead, going in and out of consciousness. The kamikaze had destroyed the starboard gun mounts and there were many dead and wounded. He was grateful when someone gave him some morphine to ease the pain from multiple shrapnel wounds. This was the beginning of a painful journey to healing. Part 2 of 2.

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  Wes Ruth - Navy +6 Total Videos

  Utility Squadron 1 (VJ-1)

  Wes Ruth was eating breakfast when he saw the planes coming in. He thought they were ours until the bombs started falling. As he drove frantically to his hangar on Ford Island, he saw the USS Arizona hit. The Japanese had made their move. As a photo-recon pilot, he was dispatched as soon as the attacks ended to search for the enemy fleet.

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  Bill Adair - Army +4 Total Videos

  Advisor to Philippine Army

  Bill Adair may have been the luckiest man in the Bataan Death march. With a commandeered ambulance full of casualties, he threaded his way through the ordeal thanks to luck and guile. At the end, though, there was a camp waiting for him just like all the rest. Part 2 of 2.

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  Rufus Dalton - Army +10 Total Videos

  397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division

  It was a fierce week long battle for the city of Heilbronn. Even though they were only delaying the inevitable, the Germans weren't beat, yet. Forward Observer Rufus Dalton went into the demolished city looking for a rifle company he was instructed to find. It was an eerie setting with the city in flames all around him. Part 2 of 2.

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  Bill Garrison - Army Air Corps +6 Total Videos

  Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional)

  Bill Garrison was standing in a chow line when a man up the line suddenly dropped, shot dead by a sniper. That was only one hazard at the air fields in China; the others being Japanese air raids and infiltrators. (This interview made possible with the support of COL ROBERT W. RUST, USMCR (ret.) in honor of LtGen Lawrence Snowden & LtGen George Christmas.)

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  Henk Duinhoven +8 Total Videos

  Dutch Civilian

  Henk Duinhoven was in church with his family when the sounds of bombing started. The Allies had arrived in Holland. At first, there was jubilation, but that turned to fear as he hid in his basement for a week while the battle raged for Arnhem.

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  John Souther - Army +8 Total Videos

  81st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Armored Division

  On his first raid in North Africa, reconnaissance platoon leader John Souther captured a hundred Germans with no losses to his own unit. His job in the 1st Armored Division was to be out in front with his eyes open, and he was doing just that when a huge amount of enemy was spotted. Rommel's big push had begun.

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  Bill Toombs - Army Air Corps +8 Total Videos

  8th Air Force

  B-24 flight engineer Bill Toombs was over Germany when bad went to worse. One engine was shot out. Then an 88 round went right through the number four wing tank. It didn't blow up the plane, but they lost all the fuel for that engine, so now they had two engines out. They made a desperate run for Brussels, which had been liberated.

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  Henk Duinhoven +8 Total Videos

  Dutch Civilian

  Near the end of the war, the food supply in Holland had been disrupted and there was widespread hunger. Henk Duinhoven was lucky to be in the countryside, where gardens had been harvested. When he heard the sound of Canadian tanks, he knew that liberation was finally at hand.

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  Robert James - Navy +12 Total Videos

  USS Keokuk (AKN-4)

  Robert James was in the shower aboard ship when the alarm went off. He scrambled to his gun mount to man the 20 mm gun and then the threat became apparent. Kamikazes had broken through the air cover and were headed for the convoy. He heard some firing from another gun and turned around just in time to see a horrifying sight. Part 1 of 2.

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  John Souther - Army +8 Total Videos

  81st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Armored Division

  John Souther was on reconnaissance patrol when he nosed his halftrack up over the edge of the gully in the Tunisian desert. A round from a German 88 immediately tore through the engine compartment, but left him unhurt. They paid mightily for that shot. With his radio, he began spotting artillery on their position, under fire the entire time. He was awarded the Silver Star for this action.

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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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  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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  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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  Lyle Gittens - Army +10 Total Videos

  92nd Infantry Division

  The 92nd Infantry Division was training at Fort Huachuca but it wasn't clear that they would get into combat because of the racial policies in the Army. The War department forced the issue on sending candidates to OCS, fighting it's own commanders who wanted segregation to continue.

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  Frank Capuozzi - Army +2 Total Videos

  691st Tank Destroyer Battalion

  Frank Capuozzi was born in Naples. His father worked as a chef in America and as soon as he became a citizen in 1939, he sent for the rest of the family. Frank learned English and worked in the restaurant with his father. After Pearl Harbor, he was drafted and became a citizen in the Army before he shipped out to Europe.

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  Lyle Gittens - Army +10 Total Videos

  92nd Infantry Division

  When Lyle Gittens got home from the war, there were no jobs to be found. It was like the Depression all over again. He tried his hand at a variety of sales jobs, but it was tough.

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  Frank Capuozzi - Army +2 Total Videos

  691st Tank Destroyer Battalion

  He came in as a replacement to a tank destroyer battalion. Frank Capuozzi was a rifleman who rode in a jeep ahead of the guns as they pushed across France. His unit joined the forces ordered into the Battle of the Bulge, where he had to get some help when he was frozen in a foxhole.

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  Lyle Gittens - Army +10 Total Videos

  92nd Infantry Division

  Back in Harlem, Lyle Gittens played stickball and baseball. When he moved to the Lower East Side, there was a new game, basketball, or, the way it was played there, murder basketball.

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  Frank Capuozzi - Army +2 Total Videos

  691st Tank Destroyer Battalion

  Without enough points to go home in the first wave of returnees, Frank Capuozzi became an acting mess sergeant and took over a kitchen. After all, he was the son of a chef. When he did get home he started a family and worked as a top rate hairdresser in New York.

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  Lyle Gittens - Army +10 Total Videos

  92nd Infantry Division

  The Atlantic crossing was 33 days and Lyle Gittens was seasick 33 days. He was in the 92nd Infantry Division which was the only black unit to see combat in the war. He describes the heartbreaking living conditions he found in Italy, where children begged for table scraps and lived on the street.