Stories tagged "1944-1945": 141
Stories
VE Day
“Yes! A few days before the war was actually declared over, we knew the war was over, because my particular unit bypassed Munich. Because there was no real combat in Munich. Germans did very little, and then they retreated out of Munich. So now…
Liberation of Dachau
Content Warning: This story includes descriptions of dead bodies and other disturbing sensory details encountered during the liberation of Dachau."Okay. You know, we had captured a number of cities and towns such as Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Nuremberg,…
Off to Europe
“Well, I, we were very fortunate for a number of reasons. When the Battle of the Bulge broke out in Belgium, our infantry companies, three infantry regiments, were immediately rushed over as fast as they could to get them involved. They left the…
Brothers Divided
“Well, they sent my brother Howard to the 104th Timberwolf Division in training in the Mojave Desert in California for the North African campaign. They sent me to the 42nd Infantry Division in Oklahoma, Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. In my case, after…
Beginning of the End
“Yeah, well on the way to the flight line, we always went by truck. Usually, the gunners would go first to check the amount of ammunition, and then I would leave about an hour and a half later with the officers. On the way to the flight line was a…
Encountering Prisoners of War
"On one of our POW missions, our military was also in Shanghai. There was a POW camp there, and our mission was to drop food and medical supplies, just before our stop in Okinawa, which was on the flight route. We blew an engine flying there.…
Iwo Jima
“Our very first mission was the worst one. We flew Nippon Nemesis, which was the first plane. After we completed our mission, our plane was badly damaged. There were 72 holes in the plane and the bomb bay doors wouldn't close. Our pilots said that…
Life on Tinian
“When we weren't flying, well, we'd still go up in the air. Actually, in between missions, we would take off and cruise around the islands, mostly for bombardier training. Between Tinian and Guam is an island called Rota, where we'd head for our…
Pacific Island Hopping
“Prior to that, I figured it was just an excursion. You know, a piece of cake, more or less. But Kwajalein was scorching hot and smelled awful. We spent quite a while there, and I kept thinking, what kind of cards am I being dealt? We still didn't…
Staged for Deployment
"After we finished this long flight of 3,000 miles, we were sent to Topeka, Kansas. Topeka had an airfield, and it served as a staging area. There, we were equipped with all of our overseas gear. We still didn't know our final destination.
They…