NEW VIDEOS

Fred Bahlau

---

In the run up to D-Day, Fred Bahlau lived with four other paratroopers above a pub. It turns out he was the only lucky one. One of them perished due to a highly improbable mishap when he jumped over Normandy. (2:38)

---

It was an unbelievable sight, the English channel full of Allied ships. Paratrooper Fred Bahlau was on one of the hundreds of planes carrying the 101st Airborne to the D-Day drop zone. The men were scattered after the jump and had to form up in small groups and try to find their targets. Part 1 of 3. (8:01)

Roy Beck

---

He didn't really want the deferments, so after two years when his boss at the lumber yard couldn't get him any more, Roy Beck went to enlist in the Navy. Somehow he wound up in the Marines and tthere was an island out there in the Pacific named Iwo Jima waiting for him. (6:55)

---

After a long trip on a slow LST, Marine Roy Beck hit the beach at 10 AM on Iwo Jima. As soon as the company cleared the landing craft, a Japanese mortar shell came screaming in. This was only his first close call. When the flag went up, he thought that it must be over with, but it was only getting started. (6:55)

---

Marine Roy Beck remembers what a hard time they had with a tank in the volcanic ash sand of Iwo Jima. It wasn't much help against the array of tiny hiding holes and miles of tunnels where the enemy could hide and attack at will. When a corporal was wounded, he carried the man out of the battle and was promoted on the spot. (5:47)

---

The job was simple, but dangerous. Roy Beck had to wait near a tunnel entrance and, when the Japanese emerged at night to cause mayhem, he would have a clear shot. An enemy soldier with a grenade had a different idea, but it would pay off, eventually. As the Marines neared the north end of Iwo Jima, a lack of communications caused some artillery targeting that would end in tragedy. (5:20)

---

Roy Beck describes what it was like to land on Iwo Jima and fight in that unbelievable battle, revealing the secret to how he survived. (4:08)

Winfield Baldwin

---

Like all his friends who graduated high school in 1943, Winfield Baldwin was eager to get into the war. He grew up around the water so, naturally, he joined the Navy, where he became a signalman. On the USS Mellette, a troop transport, he was part of the beach battalion, men who landed with the troops and managed the activity on the beach. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH DERRYBERRY.) (5:41)

---

The dawn was beautiful that first day at Iwo Jima, recalls Winfield Baldwin, who was lucky he was not scheduled for the first wave. He was a signalman in the Navy's beach battalion and his turn would come soon. In the meantime, he had a front row seat from the signal bridge of the chaos and misery on shore. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH DERRYBERRY.) (6:06)

---

The second day at Iwo Jima, Navy signalman Winfield Baldwin readied himself to go ashore. His job was to land with Marines and do the ship to shore communications. When he got there, he saw a surreal landscape of wrecked machinery, vehicles and weapons. Then there were the casualties. (This interview made possible with the support of RALPH DERRYBERRY.) (7:48)