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Hilbert Margol

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The 392nd Field Artillery had Forward Observers on the ground with the infantry and in the sky in a small plane. Gunner Hilbert Margol describes the operation of the unit and recalls the time he saw his first jet aircraft. It was at a most inopportune time. (5:49)

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Hilbert Margol's unit finally pushed into Germany just before Passover and the Chaplain convinced the commander to let him organize a Seder, the traditional meal and ceremony that marks the beginning of the holiday. That had not been done in Germany for quite some time. Later, when his outfit had a break, Margol heard that there was a shower unit in the rear. That was great news but it only worked out so-so. (5:27)

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In the Bavarian town of Wurzburg, truck drivers in Hilbert Margol's unit found some cases of champagne and fruit brandy. He says for a while they were drinking champagne instead of water, and even cleaning the gun bores on their howitzers with it. Later he encountered the vast anti-aircraft batteries around Schweinfurt. (4:37)

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The artillery unit was pushing toward Munich when they were ordered to pull off the road and prepare to fire. There was a peculiar odor in the air as they set up the howitzers. Hilbert Margol and his twin brother Howard walked around to investigate and they stumbled upon the Dachau Concentration Camp. (8:17)

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Hilbert Margol remembers the ride into Munich, with hitchhiking infantry swarming everything with wheels. After a bit of post surrender guard duty, he was back home in America with the only thing he kept from the war, a piece of World War I trench art. (5:45)

Horace Kippels

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Horace "Kip" Kippels describes being part of the second echelon of troops in the invasion of Okinawa, and his time in the area leading up to the anticipated invasion of Japan. (5:44)

Howard Dean

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Howard Dean was an engineering student at Georgia Tech when he was turned down by the Navy. He settled for the Army and they sent him back to Georgia Tech, where he finished his degree, then they sent him to Boston for a Harvard and MIT program studying radar. (5:26)

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Radar officer Howard Dean became a specialist in gun laying radar, a system which linked radar with the fire control on an anti-aircraft battery. The Army wanted his engineering talent at MIT, designing radar units, but he wanted into the shooting war. Eventually he got his orders to ship out for Leyte. (6:19)

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Shortly after the main landing on Leyte, radar officer Howard Dean came ashore. He had no assignment, yet, so they sent him to a nearby anti-aircraft battery. He began to observe gunners on the ships in the bay, who were undisciplined and shooting up the shore when they fired. (5:54)

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Radar officer Howard Dean was in the 12th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, but he didn't know it yet. He'd arrived in the Pacific with no real assignment, and was attached to an anti-aircraft battery for a while. Then he was told to load a radar unit on a ship and prepare for a landing. Where was that going to be? (6:20)