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Larry Westbrook

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In order to cut off German troops on their way to Rome, Westbrook’s outfit and the French Foreign Legion traveled through the mountains in Anzio. While staying in a wedge in the mountain, a member of the French Foreign Legion notified the outfit that an intense military barrage was about to take place. The men, as well as 40 civilian women and children, hid in a building in a nearby town. (2:51)

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Larry Westbrook tells a funny story about a man that jumped into a latrine for fear of a German aerial attack. (0:45)

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During a battle on the Rapido River in Italy, after losing 3000 men, the American colonel and the German colonel met on a bridge and called a temporary cease fire. (0:35)

Lawrence Abel

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He chose the Air Corps before the draft could get him. After basic training, Lawrence Abel was a member of the ground crew on a fighter squadron. Taking their P-38's to the Aleutian Islands, they settled into an isolated makeshift base and began the effort to oust the Japanese from their small foothold. (3:58)

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The Japanese had a presence on two Aleutian Islands and American units were pushing down the chain, ever closer to them. Ground crew member Lawrence Abel kept P-38's flying in the miserable weather. He describes the dangers faced by pilots in this unusual battleground of the war. (3:30)

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His job was to keep the planes flying, no matter what. Lawrence Abel describes the conditions at the isolated outpost in the Aleutian Islands. The weather was treacherous for aviation and crash landings were a constant worry. How primitive were the conditions way up there? He was still eating out of a mess kit two years after arriving in 1942. (5:57)

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A landing force was assembled, but when it got to the Aleutian island of Kiska, the Japanese had fled. They were on Attu, their last holdout in the isolated island chain. Lawrence Abel recalls a hectic convoy of ships ferrying American units closer to the action. Called home when his father took ill, he did not return and served the rest of the war at stateside air bases. (3:49)

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Lawrence Abel was called back into service for the Korean War. The Air Force maintenance technician kept the planes flying over the 38th Parallel, then he was selected for a secret unit based in Japan. He made a career of it and even took his family with him to his favorite post in England. (4:34)

Lee Clardy

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Lee Clardy details his responsibilities as a turret officer aboard the USS Arkansas (BB-33), and describes the capabilities of the ship's guns. (2:49)

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As a turret officer aboard the USS Arkansas, Lee Clardy remembers the procedures and emotions leading up the the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. From three miles offshore, his ship provided an artillery barrage in the early morning hours before troops landed on the beach. (6:37)