COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

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Showing : WWII Videos

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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/Air Force +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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  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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  Jack Houston - Marines +10 Total Videos

  G Company, 22nd Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division

  Jack Houston had just helped his buddy dress a wound when he volunteered to return to the Okinawa hilltop where they were getting the enemy cleared out. When he got the jump on three of them, his muzzle flash gave him away and he had to leave in a hurry. He flung himself off the hill where he came face to face with a rifle. Part 5 of 6. (This interview made possible with the support of JOHN & BARBARA MCCOY.)

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  Jack Lemonds - Army Air Corps/Air Force +9 Total Videos

  567th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group

  The Russians were close enough that the American POW's could hear the fire in the distance. Their guards roused them all and put them on the road in a forced march, leaving their camp in Poland and heading for Germany. It was seventy nine days of freezing cold out in the open, with very little food. (This interview made possible with the support of PHILIP J. O'NEILL.)

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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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  Don Scott - Army Air Corps/Air Force +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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  Nathan Radin - Army +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Most guys were already assigned and shipped out of camp but Nathan Radin found himself in charge of marching new recruits around. Finally, he got an assignment that matched up with his college degree, a medical dispensary in Charleston. Then it was on to a laboratory in Ohio where he trained pilots in a decompression chamber. His eventual wartime assignment was still waiting for him. (This interview made possible with the support of KETURAH THUNDER-HAAB.)

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  Jack Litchfield - Merchant Marine +7 Total Videos

  Merchant Navy (United Kingdom)

  The British prisoners were well treated on board the German cruiser that sank their cargo ship. This came to an end when they were sent to Japan to be imprisoned there. Jack Litchfield watched as the first group of men went down the gangplank and promptly received a beating. When they arrived at the prison camp, the Japanese commander had some sobering words for them.

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  Dr. C.B. Skelton - Army +6 Total Videos

  538th Quartermaster Group, 3rd Field Command, Graves Registration Service

  C.B. Skelton was in a small Austrian town looking for the missing remains of a downed American flyer. It turned out that the town he needed was actually in Italy, so he had to set out alone through the Alps with a jeep and a trailer full of fuel. The road to the town got narrower and the drop on one side got deeper, but he forged ahead. He didn't know it, but he was about to make local history. (This interview made possible with the support of DONALD FAWCETT (Capt.) R)

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  Albert Sturgess, Jr. - Navy +12 Total Videos

  USS Radford (DD-446)

  The goal was to intercept and destroy Japanese ships. RADAR Officer Hank Sturgess had help finding the enemy convoys from the coast watchers, civilian residents with hand cranked radios who acted as spotters. His ship was assigned a dangerous mission, to move in at night right in front of one of these task forces and lay a mine field. (This interview made possible with the support of ALBERT SMALL.)

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  Walter Marshall - Marines +7 Total Videos

  G Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  The Japanese defenders on Tarawa were very good soldiers, Imperial Marines experienced in Manchuria. They would rather commit suicide than surrender and hundreds did. Walter Marshall hated them during the war, but time has changed his perspective. Not long after it was declared that organized resistance had ceased, he was shot through the thigh and had to be evacuated. Before that happened, he got to see the heroic actions of future movie star, Eddie Albert, a Navy Ensign at the time.

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  P.G. Caudell - Navy +6 Total Videos

  USS Adair (APA-91)

  You were not supposed to have a camera aboard ship, but P.G. Caudell had a miniature novelty camera that he broke down and brought with him anyway. He was wondering if the little thing would work, so he and a buddy gave it a try. (This interview made possible with the support of Vietnam Veteran, Capt. GRAHAM G. KYLE, JR.)

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  Nathan Radin - Army +7 Total Videos

  929th Quartermaster Petroleum Products Laboratory

  Nathan Radin felt badly for the natives in New Guinea, who were malnourished and poorly treated by their supposed allies. He succumbed to the environment himself when he contracted Dengue Fever. As he was traveling homeward, the atomic bomb ended the war. With his academic background, he understood immediately when he heard about it. (This interview made possible with the support of KETURAH THUNDER-HAAB.)

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  Dr. C.B. Skelton - Army +6 Total Videos

  538th Quartermaster Group, 3rd Field Command, Graves Registration Service

  C.B. Skelton was studying to become a physician when he was drafted late in 1944. He was sent to Officer Candidate school, but while he was waiting, he was put in charge of quarters and had to solve a very difficult problem when a recruit was threatening suicide. After OCS, he was training for the invasion of Japan. (This interview made possible with the support of DONALD FAWCETT (Capt.) R)

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  Rock Merritt - Army +12 Total Videos

  508th Parachute Infantry Regiment

  Rock Merritt had no knowledge of what he was training for in Nottingham, but soon the paratrooper was part of the vast invasion of Normandy. He describes the huge scope of the effort, the airplanes they used, and a unwanted responsibility he had regarding a bicycle. (This interview made possible with the support of JOHN & BARBARA MCCOY.)

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  Frank Noonan - Navy +14 Total Videos

  USS Helm (DD-388)

  The Japanese had been bombing a weather station south of Hawaii, so the USS Helm was dispatched to evacuate the civilian survivors. Frank Noonan was a lookout on the bridge and he was having a problem with his helmet. (This interview made possible with the support of JANIS HAUSER In Memory Of Alfred W. Hauser, Army Air Corps.)

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  Rock Merritt - Army +12 Total Videos

  508th Parachute Infantry Regiment

  Operation Market Garden, a huge airborne drop into Holland, was considered a failure, but, to paratrooper Rock Merritt, it was a great success following the chaos of Normandy. Years later, he would meet the author of A Bridge Too Far, which documented the battle. (This interview made possible with the support of JOHN & BARBARA MCCOY.)

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  Albert Sturgess, Jr. - Navy +12 Total Videos

  USS Radford (DD-446)

  During one battle, the destroyer USS Radford was guarding some small carriers when a Japanese submarine got in close and sank one. Soon, Hank Sturgess picked up a blip on SONAR and the fast ship closed in to seek revenge. On another occasion, a well known pilot was missing and the men of the Radford joined the search. (This interview made possible with the support of ALBERT SMALL.)

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  Jack Womer - Army +7 Total Videos

  506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  Jack Womer witnesses a V-1 "buzz bomb" attack on London. (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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  Rock Merritt - Army +12 Total Videos

  508th Parachute Infantry Regiment

  They jumped at 0230. Paratrooper Rock Merritt missed the drop zone and he was lucky because it was flooded. After struggling out of his parachute and unpacking his weapon, he deployed his Crackerjack cricket and clicked once when he heard a noise. Part 1 of 4. (This interview made possible with the support of JOHN & BARBARA MCCOY.)

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  Hal Puett - Navy +4 Total Videos

  Naval Base New London

  After two years as a Navy radio instructor, Hal Puett was finally moving toward the action in the Pacific. He was sent to the New London base in Groton to train for amphibious landings, in which he would manage communications once on shore. (This interview made possible with the support of T. RICHARD BARBER, JR.)

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  Dave Vogel - Army +4 Total Videos

  771st Anti-Aircraft Gun Battalion

  After returning home to New York, Dave Vogel tried to return to a normal life in the city. One of his favorite memories after returning home was getting invited to Yankee Stadium on a special invite.

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  Jack Womer - Army +7 Total Videos

  506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  Weeks into the Normandy invasion, Womer's unit is ordered to take the town of Carentan. Following a surprise attack that takes many American lives, a frustrated Womer seeks to bring a possible Nazi collaborator to justice. (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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  Roy Scribner - Navy +11 Total Videos

  USS Dorsey (DD-117/DMS-1)

  As the USS Dorsey approached Pearl Harbor for repairs, the pet dog smuggled on board got very excited. He was about tired of Navy life. Almost as soon as the minesweeper returned to action, the war ended. Roy Scribner tells the story of the typhoon that nearly put them under off the coast of Japan.

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  P.G. Caudell - Navy +6 Total Videos

  USS Adair (APA-91)

  P.G. Caudell chose Navy because his two brothers chose Army and he wanted to be contrary. There was only one problem, he weighed less than a hundred pounds and they wanted at least ten more on a recruit. (This interview made possible with the support of Vietnam Veteran, Capt. GRAHAM G. KYLE, JR.)

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  Bill Galvan - Army Air Corps/Air Force +4 Total Videos

  Air Defense Command

  Growing up with Filipino & Ecuadorian descent, Bill Galvan remembers the role his heritage played in his upbringing. He considers himself first and foremost to be an American.

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  Roy Scribner - Navy +11 Total Videos

  USS Dorsey (DD-117/DMS-1)

  Roy Scribner sailed under the Golden Gate bridge in September of 1944 on his way to join the fray. The radioman was also a loader on one of the ship's 20mm guns. The USS Dorsey, a minesweeper, was also armed with depth charges to engage with submarines.

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  Frank Fancher - Army +10 Total Videos

  Troop A, 32nd Cavalry Squadron, 14th Cavalry Group

  Frank Fancher was in a cavalry reconnaissance platoon. Their job was to gather information and return, not to fight and hold. Attached to Patton's force as he began his move into Europe, they cleared many small towns. Frank earned the nickname Lucky Lindy in one of those towns. (This interview made possible with the support of RICHARD & BARBARA ROSENBERG.)

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  Rock Merritt - Army +12 Total Videos

  508th Parachute Infantry Regiment

  You will never forget the first combat order you are issued. Paratrooper Rock Merritt was a corporal when he was given his first real task during the invasion of Normandy. Part 3 of 4. (This interview made possible with the support of JOHN & BARBARA MCCOY.)