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Arnold Mathias

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An enlisted man in a tank usually had no idea where he was, but Arnold Mathias knew he was at the Siegfried line because of the sawtooth obstacles and bunkers. Warning a group of teen boys away from the bunkers, he engaged them in conversation and was highly amused before it was over. (8:27)

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Combat puts you in a different frame of mind and, years after the war, Arnold Mathias was trying to explain this to a young interviewer. He suddenly realized that she had no concept of what war really is. (5:18)

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When Patton said, "Go get 'em," you went and got 'em says Arnold Mathias as he relates the tale of his armored unit's push on the Ruhr Valley. The enemy defense was strong and it wasn't long before a round from a German 88 found his tank. (8:54)

Arnold Whittaker

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Providence is the reason he's here today. Arnold Whittaker had a series of close calls with death, not only during the war, but in childhood and in civilian life. His generation was tough, having come through the Great Depression and the fighting men epitomized this. (4:36)

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It wasn't long after basic training that Arnold Whittaker joined thousands of other GI's on the RMS Queen Mary and headed for Europe. When he boarded landing craft to go ashore at Normandy, he had to negotiate a tricky drop from the cargo net to the boat. Then he learned how to dig a foxhole. (6:52)

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The engineers had bulldozed a road up to the top of the cliff. Arnold Whittaker was coming ashore at Omaha Beach but it was well after D-Day. As he came to the top of the road, he saw thousands of white, wooden crosses. Was this his destiny? (5:00)

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His first night in combat, there was an artillery barrage in the rain and he lost his M-1. Not a great start for Arnold Whittaker but he found his weapon and began trying to find acceptance as a replacement. There were a lot of these green troops as they moved into Metz where they had to deal with snipers. (7:16)

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As his company moved from Metz into Germany, they lost 100 out of 144 men in a fierce counter-attack. Arnold Whittaker had been a replacement just a month ago and now he was meeting new replacements. Then, the Battle of the Bulge was on and the 5th Division headed to the fray in the midst of the worst winter in decades. (5:40)

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It was layer upon layer of clothing. Arnold Whittaker details his garb in the fierce winter at the Battle of the Bulge. It kept you warm but sweat in the inner layers was a problem. Socks were a problem. Meanwhile, there was a war on and a tree burst could rain down hot steel on you. (4:51)

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It was Christmas day, 1944. Patton's prayer had worked. The weather had cleared and the 5th Division moved up to a spot that was way too open for Arnold Whittaker. He pushed four feet of snow aside and began to dig his foxhole. He had a hole about as big as his head in the frozen ground when he heard it, the unmistakable sound of Screaming Mimis. (4:29)