---
title: "Stories"
description: "WW2 stories from soldiers and veterans. Untold stories of heroism on D-Day June 6 1944 and the war in Europe"
url: "https://www.normandy1944.info/stories"
date: "2026-07-28T01:14:14+00:00"
language: "en-GB"
---
# Their stories live here
## WWII Veteran accounts from the frontlines
Discover firsthand experiences of soldiers on the frontlines of World War II
[](#) [](#)
- [Their stories live here](#)
## Stories of heroism during WWII
Discover the significance of the stories from the veterans of WW2. Inspired by a visit to Normandy in 1999, my mission has been to create a platform that pays tribute to their legacy and heroism. This collection of real stories, serves as an invaluable educational resource, shedding light on the profound impact of the war on those who lived through it.
###### Over 289 stories already collected!
## Urgent Notice: Copyright Protection
It has come to my attention that stories and images from this site are being stolen to create unauthorized, AI-generated films on YouTube. These fabricated videos are deeply offensive and violate the trust of the veterans and families who shared these sacred memories. All content on this website is protected by copyright law and belongs to the veterans and their families. Unauthorized reproduction or modification is illegal. Please respect the legacy of those who served; you must contact me for explicit permission before using any material from this project.
- All
- American
- Brazilian
- British
- Canadian
- Dutch
- French
- German
- Polish
- Russian
[ 
#### George "Jock" Moodie
6th Airborne Division
Early Life in Edinburgh George "Jock" Moodie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 20 February 1925. A keen footbal…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-jock-moodie)
[ 
#### Philip H. Stressel
3rd Infantry Division
The story of Philip Stressel is a poignant account of an "infantry replacement" one of the thousands of young men rushe…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/philip-stressel)
[ 
#### Robert B. Purdy
15th Airforce
Robert B. Purdy (Bob) was born in 1919 in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, the second son of Elinor Purdy (née Harris), a nurse…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-b-purdy)
[ 
#### Florian Spiczka
5th Airforce
It all started with a discovery, a patch tucked away in a plastic container filled with a jumble of mismatched items. T…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/florian-spiczka)
[ 
#### Andrée Raymonde Borrel
Free French Forces
Early Life Andrée Raymonde Borrel (18 November 1919 - 6 July 1944) was born into a working-class family in Paris…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/andree-borrel)
[ 
#### Avery Allen Humphries
35th Infantry Division
Avery Allen Humphries was born on January 21, 1921, in the small town of Alexandria, Indiana a place that would always…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/avery-allen-humphries)
[ 
#### Albert Edward Frampton
Worcestershire Regiment
Over the last few years I've been peicing together the movements of my Great Uncle from where he boarded the SS Canterb…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/albert-edward-frampton)
[ 
#### Nancy Ewing Munro
6th Service Command
Prelude to Serving Nancy Ewing was born near Chicago in Libertyville, Illinois in 1920. Her father was the CEO of a la…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/nancy-ewing-munro)
[ 
#### Frank Hughes
Glider Pilot Regiment
Wolfheze Frank, at the age of 19, moved from Wolfheze east towards Arnhem, passing Hartenstein. En route there was a D…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frank-hughes)
[ 
#### Walter Heginbotham
Royal Engineers
Walter Heginbotham was born on May 18, 1920 and enlisted on August 2, 1940 in the Army as a Sapper in the Royal E…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/walter-heginbotham)
[ 
#### George Rider
Ox and Bucks Light Infantry
My lovely Grandad, Company Sergeant Major (CSM) George Rider, was born in Hackney, East London in 1907. He was the elde…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-rider)
[ 
#### Reg Charles
Ox and Bucks Light Infantry
Reg’s desire and life time commitment to help and educate other’s began in 1934 when he helped to wire the Parish Churc…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/reg-charles)
[ 
#### Herbert James Watts
Ox and Bucks Light Infantry
Dad was born in Bristol and joined the Home Guard at the outbreak of the war. He was then enlisted into the Devonshire…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/herbert-james-watts)
[ 
#### Warner Albert Borgeld
Royal Dutch Medical Officer
This story is in English and In Dutch My parents married in 1937, he was 31 years old and my mother 26 years old. Beca…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/warner-albert-borgeld)
[ 
#### David Joseph Marquard
4th Infantry Division
July 27, 1944 France Dear Dick and Sis: This letter was held up until you had heard of the sad news of Dave. Your typ…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/david-marquard)
[ 
#### Ralph Augustus Jewell
106th Cavalry Regiment
The Polo and Horseman Years In 1939, Ralph was playing polo and perhaps for a few years prior to 1939 as well. On Apr…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ralph-a-jewell)
[ 
#### Owen Arthur Hillier
Devonshire Regiment
Before the war he lived in Grays, Essex in the south of the UK. He joined the reservist wartime regiment, the 12th Devo…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/owen-arthur-hillier)
[ 
#### George M. Hobgood
3rd Armored Division
Dad was a race car mechanic prior to the war. He was exempted from serving due to a medical issue but got it overturned…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-m-hobgood)
[ 
#### Fritz Engelbert
Panzer Lehr Division
Being born in 1925 I was drafted to the German Wehrmacht in 1943. Thereby, at the age of 18, I became a soldier of the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/fritz-engelbert)
[ 
#### Louis C. Graziano
102nd Field Artillery Battalion
Louis C. Graziano was born on February 6, 1923, in East Aurora, New York. He entered active service on January 22, 1943…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/louis-c-graziano)
[ 
#### Eric Henry McIntyre
Northamptonshire Yeomanry cap badge
My uncle, Eric Henry McIntyre was a sergeant in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, Tank Regiment, he crossed on D + 6 (June…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/eric-henry-mcintyre)
[ 
#### Frank Ashleigh
Glider Pilot Regiment
Frank Ashleigh was born on the 23rd December 1924 in Collingwood Street, east London, a true Cockney. The family, mothe…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frank-ashleigh)
[ 
#### Thomas C. Cook
29th Infantry Division
Thomas C. Cook born in Cameron, Clinton County, Missouri, USA on November 5, 1923 was 20 years old when we he was kille…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/thomas-c-cook)
[ 
#### Donald Cook Blackett
9th Field Ambulance RAMC
At the time of his attestation, Donald Blackett was living with his parents in Gosforth, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was work…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/donald-cook-blackett)
[ 
#### George Hollox
The Royal Norfolk Regiment
My mums cousin Lance Sergeant George Alfred Hollox of Wormegay, Norfolk was killed in action on D-Day. The son of James…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-hollox)
[ 
#### Sidney John Bruton
Kings Shropshire Light Infantry
My Dad is Sidney John Bruton. In 1941 he joined the Somerset Light Infantry at the age of 30. Just before the Normandy…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/sidney-john-bruton)
[ 
#### Reginald Saych
Essex Regiment
He was one of the first of Montgomery troops who landed on Sword Beach in 1944. Operation brake out was to circular nav…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/reginald-saych)
[ 
#### Jack Pinder
No.47 (Royal Marine) Commando
Operation Neptune, famously known as D-Day, was the inaugural mission of No.47 (Royal Marine) Commando. On 6th June 194…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jack-pinder)
[ 
#### John A. Rogers
Royal Engineers
My father was John Arthur Rogers, born Forty Acre Lane, Canning Town in May 1924. He went to Rosetta school in Custom H…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-a-rogers)
[ 
#### Ralph Wilson
Royal Pioneer Corps
Ralph Wilson came from Middle Rainton County Durham. He was conscripted into the army in 1939, and there joined the Roy…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ralph-wilson)
[ 
#### John Charles Harvey
Royal Berkshire Regiment
John enlisted at Brock Barracks at the age of 14. He served in Egypt, India, and the Sudan was sent to France with the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-charles-harvey)
[ 
#### Kenneth William Branston
591 (Antrim) Parachute Squadron
Lance Corporal Kenneth William Branston, son of William Pettifer Branston and Louie Branston of Scunthorpe in Lincolnsh…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/kenneth-william-branston)
[ 
#### Frederick Harvey
Royal Army Service Corps
On the 2nd January 1940 Frederick enlisted in the army, and as he was able to drive was assigned to the Royal Army Serv…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frederick-harvey)
[ 
#### James Alan Davies
British Royal Navy
This is a picture of my late father James Alan Davies, also known as Blodwyn due to his Welsh roots. He actually told a…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-alan-davies)
[ 
#### James E. Fulton
Rangers
James E. Fulton was only 20 years of age when he hit Normandy beach between Omaha and Utah. He joined the US army at 17…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-fulton)
[ 
#### Joseph Percival Peppett
15th (Scottish) Infantry Division
My father, Joseph Percival Peppett, was born on 8th October 1918 and he enlisted the army on 15th September 1939. He go…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/joseph-p-peppett)
[ 
#### Frank D. Murphy
8th Airforce
During the war Frank DeSales Murphy was a member of the US Army Air Forces and graduated from the navigation school at…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frank-d-murphy)
[ 
#### Henry Joseph Lingg Jr.
US NAVY
Henry 'Hank' Joseph Lingg Jr. the son of mother Frances Juliette Cole and father Henry Joseph Lingg, Sr. was born Novem…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/henry-lingg)
[ 
#### Jack E. Ammons
90th Infantry Division
This story begins on December 4th, 1944. General Patton’s Third Army, including Jack Ammons’ 90th Infantry Division, ha…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jack-e-ammons)
[ 
#### Frederick W. Johnson
1st Airborne Division
My Dad enlisted In the Anti Aircraft Battery Territorial Army in 1938 he was 17 years old he lied about his age. As a G…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frederick-w-johnson)
[ 
#### George Sands
51st Highlanders Division
26th October found us riding into action atop Sherman tanks towards Vught. We were delayed at the start line due to the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-sands)
[ 
#### Alvin Ungerleider
29th Infantry Division
He had landed with the 115th Regiment on D-Day, fought in the Battle for Brest and across France, Belgium and into Germ…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/alvin-ungerleider)
[ 
#### Guy C. Shoaf
US Rangers
Guy Claude Shoaf was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania on 3 March 1917. He was the son of Aldwin Clyde Shoaf and Mabel D…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/guy-claude-shoaf)
[ 
#### Stanislaw Pleszynski
1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade
Stanislaw Pleszynski was born on May 6, 1918 in the town of Puzniki. He grew up in a family with father, mother and thr…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/stanislaw-pleszynski)
[ 
#### Raymond Nielsen
7th Infantry Division
TSGT Ray Nielsen enlisted in the Army in December of 1936. His Infantry was transferred to Fort Ord California in 1940…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/raymond-nielsen)
[ 
#### Grover Dobson
735th Tank Battalion
My Dad, Grover Dobson was on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day (+1). This June will be the 60th Anniversary of D-Day!&nb…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/grover-dobson)
[ 
#### Roland Fischer
275th Infantry Division
Roland Fisher, born in 1926, was a soldier in the German Wehrmacht. He started out his military career in the "Arbeitsd…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/roland-fischer)
[ 
#### Thomas J. Halbert
Canadian Scottish Regiment
I was born in Montreal Quebec on September 8, 1924. I was raised in Kingston and Sudbury Ontario, the family moved to V…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/thomas-j-halbert)
[ 
#### Mervyn Sydney Kersh
21st Army Group GHQ LOC
Tillie was also born in the East End of London, but moved when she was three or four to Canterbury. She went to college…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/mervyn-sydney-kersh)
[ 
#### Daan van de Velde
Prinses Irene Brigade
Prinses Irene Brigade veteran David “Daan of Daaf” (In the UK they invariably called him "Denny") van de Velde was born…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/david-daan-van-de-velde)
[ 
#### David Ward
Royal Canadian Army Service Corps
My name is David Ward. I joined the army when I was 18 years old. I joined up on the 4th of September of 1939. And then…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/david-ward)
[ 
#### Richard R. Seibel
United States Third Army
I had sent a reconnaissance out on patrol and they ran across this concentration camp, Mauthausen, and they radioed in…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/richard-seibel)
[ 
#### John Nasea Jr.
101st Airborne Division
Out of high school in June of ‘40, I joined Ford Motor Co. as an apprentice tool maker in Feb. ‘41. (Two weeks before t…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-nasea-jr)
[ 
#### Thomas Stafford
87th Infantry Division
Thomas (Tom) Stafford was born in Washington, DC (June 1923) and raised in Petersburg, VA (Colonial Heights) where he l…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/thomas-stafford)
[ 
#### Calvin G. Carrier
1st Infantry Division
My thoughts went back to my mom and sisters and how proud my dad would have been if he had lived to see his son fightin…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/calvin-g-carrier)
[ 
#### Pietro J. Buongiorno
3rd Infantry Divison
I joined the Third Division in Southern France about Feb 4th, 1945 as a replacement together with three other GI 's. We…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/pietro-j-buongiorno)
[ 
#### Clayton R. Byrd
94th Infantry Division
During the night of January 19, the Company L front was attacked by overpowering forces. Casualties included a large nu…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/clayton-r-byrd)
[ 
#### George H. Leidenheimer, Jr.
82nd Airborne Division
We emplaned on the evening of June 5th. The air armada flew into the Atlantic to a rendezvous radio signal on a submari…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-h-leidenheimer)
[ 
#### Glen Louis Nesmith
101st Airborne Division
Glen Louis Nesmith was born in small town in northern Kansas. After having being turned down by the Air Force, Marines…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/glen-louis-nesmith)
[ 
#### Brian Guy
Third British Infantry Division "Monty's Ironsides"
Poh! My word! It's all such a long time ago now, but for many of us, the memories remain as though it were yesterday. B…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/brian-guy)
[ 
#### Herbert Henry Haddrell
43rd Wessex Division
Herbert Henry Haddrell was born on 27th March 1925 at Bristol General Hospital, Guinea Street, the son of Thomas and Ge…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/herbert-henry-haddrell)
[ 
#### Glen A. Derber
101st Airborne Division
On the other side in the city of Nijmegen a Limey convoy of trucks waited for us (we were still attached to the British…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/glen-a-derber)
[ 
#### Norris E. Green
Army Corps of Engineers
I am now (2005) 84 years old. I remember some things on that Day in Normandy, but some things are a little fuzzy…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/norris-e-green)
[ 
#### Jack Agnew
101st Airborne Division
Jack Agnew was part of the Filthy Thirteen a name given to an elite unit within the ranks of the Headquarters Company…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jack-agnew)
[ 
#### George R. Hewitt
101st Airborne Division
My first recollections of war were as an eighth grader in a small Illinois town 100 miles west of Chicago. By this time…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-r-hewitt)
[ 
#### Joseph L. Begin
28th Infantry Division
As a 17yrs old Pfc in Co F 103rd Engineer Regiment an element of the 28th Infantry Division Joseph L. Begin was bo…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/joseph-l-begin)
[ 
#### George Bush
The Cheshire Regiment
At the start of the war the 2nd Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment was mobilised and sent to France where it joined the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-bush)
[ 
#### Walter Lewis Hendrix
101st Airborne Division
My father was Sgt. Walter L. Hendrix, E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. It is my u…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/walter-l-hendrix)
[ 
#### Eugene W. Luciano
4th Armored Division
I am Eugene William “Lucky” Luciano, Serial No. 31048909, born in Torrington, Connecticut on April 20, 1916. I was a Te…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/eugene-w-luciano)
[ 
#### Frank William Kosman
79th Infantry Division
My father Corporal T/5 Frank William Kosman served in WWII as a Radio Operator for the 904th Field Artillery Battalion…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frank-william-kosman)
[ 
#### Elias Sterio
Durham Light Infantry
The letter here below was delivered to Mrs Bridget Sterio, Elias' wife on June 22nd 1944. Elias Sterio was born in Swan…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/elias-sterio)
[ 
#### Noble C. May
3rd Armored Division "Spearhead"
My father, Sgt. Noble C. May, " Butch" was a tank and truck mechanic in the 3rd Armored Division in World War II. No, h…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/noble-c-may)
[ 
#### Walter L. Arnold
83rd Infantry Division
I am Walter L. Arnold. I was born in Garrard County, KY in a little village called Bryantsville. I was born on May 25…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/walter-l-arnold)
[ 
#### Marcus Dillard
4th Infantry Division
If you take a look at my picture, let me tell you do not put the chin strap on your jaw like that in combat. That was j…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/marcus-dillard)
[ 
#### Dusty Rhoads
Engineer Special Brigade
Date of birth: March 25, 1922 Place of birth: Clovis New Mexico Schools: Elementary and High School 1927 to 1939 Farmin…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/dusty-rhoads)
[ 
#### Charles "Chuck" R. Stout
87th Infantry Division
I was a member of Company A, 345th Infantry Regiment, 87th Infantry Division. I joined the division around April 1, 194…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/charles-chuck-r-stout)
[ 
#### John Lee Eubanks
101st Airborne Division
John Lee Eubanks was born on December 23, 1920, in Hancock, Georgia, his father, Lucious, was 32 and his mother, Laura…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-l-eubank)
[ 
#### Walter Neton
101st Airborne Division
My Grandpa enlisted in 1942 at the age of 35 because he was a true passionate American and wanted to serve his country…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/walter-neton)
[ 
#### Jess E. Weiss
1st Infantry Division
Through North Africa, Sicily, Omaha Beach, France and Germany, you and I were inseparable foxhole buddies. My hard Bon…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jess-e-weiss)
[ 
#### Rocco J. Moretto
1st Infantry Division
"My division was out of contact from enemy fire for only 6 days during our eleven months and two days of combat spanned…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/rocco-j-moretto)
[ 
#### Kenneth Cordry
101st Airborne Division
I was drafted in February 1943 and inducted into the army in February of 1943 and went to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas for p…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/kenneth-cordry)
[ 
#### Ensign Don Irwin
United States Navy
All these years have not dimmed my memory of that fateful June 6th day. Many of the happenings are seared into my mind…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ensign-don-irwin)
[ 
#### Jake Gabriel
29th Infantry Division
This is the story of my uncle, Private Jake Gabriel. His body lays to rest at the Brittany American Cemetary in St. Jam…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jake-gabriel)
[ 
#### Irving Greenberg
9th Airforce Airborne Engineers
My husband was D-Day plus 30 and spent the entire war in Europe. He participated in 3 battles in Normandy and was attac…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/irving-greenberg)
[ 
#### Robert Loomis
VII Corps
England, 1944 D Company of the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion sailed to England in April, 1944 on the "Queen Elizabeth…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-loomis)
[ 
#### Cleve T. Martin
United States Navy
Cleve "T." Martin Jr. known to his family as "Jack," was born at his farm home in Jackson County, Kansas in 1920. His a…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/cleve-t-jack-martin)
[ 
#### Henry Carl Strecker
4th Infantry Division
Henry Carl Strecker was beginning his sophomore year of high school at Mt. Healthy. when his days of youthful scouting…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/henry-carl-strecker)
[ 
#### E. C. Woodward
United States Navy
I joined the navy while still in high school in Minnesota. It seemed to me they took too long to call me up so I signed…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/e-c-woodward)
[ 
#### Robert G. HIlton
101st Airborne Division
Robert Goodale Hilton was born on October 10th, 1922 in Ogden, Utah of Weber County. His father was Lalovi (pronounced…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-g-hilton)
[ 
#### Joseph P. Vaghi Jr.
United States Navy
Joseph Vaghi was born in Bethel, Connecticut on June 27, 1920, one of nine children born to Italian immigrants. His fat…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/joseph-p-vaghi-jr)
[ 
#### Harold Rosenberg
29th Infantry Division
It is not easy to conjure up combat events. The vast majority of active combatants involved in the 'killing' fields hav…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/harold-rosenberg)
[ 
#### Joe Kennith Dixon
101st Airborne Division
On Friday March 13, 1942 I was inducted into the army at Camp Beauregard, LA. This was an old army camp built in World…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/joe-kennith-dixon)
[ 
#### Robert R. Chapman
93rd Signal Brigade
I was a radio operator assigned to the 56th Signal Battalion. Our base in England was located at a place called Norton…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-r-chapman)
[ 
#### Parke G. Hoover
102nd Infantry Division
I served in the European Theater - We landed at Cherbourg and I think were the first troop ship to land after that port…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/parke-g-hoover)
[ 
#### Gene Massone
First Army
My name is Gene Massone once of the 296th Engineer (combat) Battalion of the First Army consisting of about 900 men att…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/gene-massone)
[ 
#### Erminio Calderan
101st Airborne Division
I volunteered for the Parachute Infantry July 17th 1942. After Jump School I was assigned to the 501st Parachute Infant…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/erminio-calderan)
[ 
#### Felix A. Cizewski
45th Infantry Division
My late father, Felix A. Cizewski, was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1918. He was drafted in 1942 and was sent to Glasgo…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/felix-a-cizewski)
[ 
#### James Haahr
26th "Yankee" Infantry Division
I entered the US Army in April 1944 at the age of 18, had basic infantry training at Camp Roberts, California, was then…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-haahr)
[ 
#### Paul "Frenchy" Lamoureux
101st Airborne Division
"Frenchy" as he was known in Easy Company was from North Smithfield, Rhode Island. Frenchy was the youngest of thirteen…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/paul-frenchy-lamoureux)
[ 
#### Roy Emerson Pickel
101st Airborne Division
I was born May 22nd 1922 in Rocksborough, Pennsylvania and raised in Philadelphia. I enlisted as a paratrooper at the a…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/roy-e-pickel)
[ 
#### Cleo Franklin Shoultz
86th Infantry Division
At 1600 on April 5, General Melasky was notified by 15the Army, that the 86th Division had been assigned to the XVIII A…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/cleo-franklin-shoultz)
[ 
#### Fred Scamaroni (Severi)
Free French Forces
Fred Scamaroni was head of the cabinet of the prefect of Calvados at the time of the declaration of war. Assigned to hi…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/fred-scamaroni)
[ 
#### Willard J. Barney Jr.
29th Infantry Division
It was cold. Bitter, bitter cold. The day was December 24, 1944, and I remember how cold it was even now 55 years later…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/willard-j-barney-jr)
[ 
#### Lester Leonard McLean
Engineer Special Brigade
Lester Leonard McLean, my grandfather, was a supply sergeant in the U. S. Army, 618th Ordnance Ammunition Company, 6th…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lester-leonard-mclean)
[ 
#### George Luz
101st Airborne Division
England, Upon returning to his tent in Aldbourne England, after having seen a movie in on of the airfield hangars, Geor…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-luz)
[ 
#### Jack Dee Rose
9th Army
I have been told that WW II Vets are dying at the rate of 17 thousand per week. That means there are many stories out t…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jack-dee-rose)
[ 
#### James Lee Diel
101st Airborne Division
My uncle, James Lee Diel, was born on March 3, 1922. He was the oldest child ofJames R. Diel and Nellie Ebbert Diel. He…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-lee-diel)
[ 
#### Lamoine "Frank" Olsen
28th Infantry Division
In July 1940 I joined the Army. The Army was taking volunteers for troops to jump by parachute with plans of forming a…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lamoine-frank-olsen)
[ 
#### James Thomas Moon
Aviation Engineers
My name is James T. Moon, serial number 34220609. I was born in Lula, Georgia on June 4, 1913. I enlisted in the Armed…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-t-moon)
[ 
#### Stanford Lee Arnold
87th Infantry Division
Stanford Lee Arnold was born on 4 Aug 1923 in Nochaway, Randolph County, Georgia, where he completed his education grad…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/stanford-lee-arnold)
[ 
#### William F. Bannister
Ninth United States Army
To anyone who may be interested, the following is a chronicle of my World War II Journey. I hope at times you will get…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-f-bannister)
[ 
#### Owen B. (O.B.) Hill
82nd Airborne Division
Owen B. (O.B.) Hill Served with distinction in the Hq1 Communications Platoon as Battalion Message Center Chief from Ma…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/owen-b-hill)
[ 
#### Eddie Graham and Hilda
8th Airforce
Eddie My memories on looking back to that time are vivid in my mind. I was in a sub-depot attached to a B-17…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/eddie-graham)
[ 
#### Edward P. Kent
4th Infantry Division
Finally we got ready to cast off for Normandy. The date was June 5, 1944. We ran down this little river in Dartmouth an…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/edward-p-kent)
[ 
#### William W. Farris
82nd Airborne Division
This story is about an attack. To begin with, there is something about attacks that I find interesting and surprising…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-w-farris)
[ 
#### Theodore Rowman
8th Armored Division
All my life growing up something was missing. It wasn't until I heard the song, "Daddy's Little Girl" that I realized w…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/theodore-rowman)
[ 
#### Monico C. Amador
3rd Army
Now we would see water and sky and just wait, wait, BS and we played cards till I just didn’t feel like it anymore so I…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/monico-c-amador)
[ 
#### William T. Miller
101st Airborne Division
William T. Miller was killed on the September 20th 1944 at Son, Holland. He came from Kerrville, Texas, had red hair an…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-t-miller)
[ 
#### Marvin M. Smith
30th Infantry “Old Hickory” Division
Why should I record events of my World War II days? Certainly not to preserve them in my memory, for there they are etc…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/marvin-m-smith)
[ 
#### Maurice J. Ott
29th Infantry Division
Pfc. Maurice Joseph Ott was the 8th child of Rev. Joseph Ellwood and Ida Myrtle (Haight) Ott. Maurice was the 1st husba…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/maurice-joseph-ott)
[ 
#### Irving Smolens
4th Infantry Division
During the Invasion of Normandy, at Utah Beach, the batteries would fire from the deck of the LCT's, with the Battery C…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/irving-smolens)
[ 
#### James Kenneth Davis
101st Airborne Division
James Kenneth Davis first entered the armed forces as an enlisted man in the 45th Infantry Division (National Guard) in…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-kenneth-davis)
[ 
#### Marshall Clayton Oliver
101st Airborne Division
Marshall Clayton Oliver some of his buddies called him "Oakie". was a technician Fifth Grade, Surgical Technician, Medi…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/marshall-clayton-oliver)
[ 
#### Duiel J. Miller
4th Infantry Division
The summer of my 17th year my father and I painted our house in preparation for sale. As the days grew long and my pati…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/duiel-j-miller)
[ 
#### Rocco N. Gedaro
90th Infantry Division
I landed on D+2 at Utah Beach, Normandy, France as a replacement for Company " C " 357 Inf. 90th Division. I fought as…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/rocco-n-gedaro)
[ 
#### Merle Lauer
101st Airborne Division
Born in march of 1921 in Hooverville, Pennsylvania. I joined the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Toccoa Georgia in…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/merle-lauer)
[ 
#### Thomas F. Edwards
99th Infantry Division
In Belgium, January 1945, Thomas' platoon was pinned down by withering fire from a German machine gun nest which had al…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/thomas-f-edwards)
[ 
#### Eugene Carson
8th Airforce
Wednesday, October 13th I got up and went to the armament shack and again checked my ammunition and weapons. As I was l…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/eugene-carson)
[ 
#### Robert Burr Smith
101st Airborne Division
My name is Robert Burr Smith, I was a T4 when we first jumped in Normandy. When thinking back on that day, I can recall…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-burr-smith)
[ 
#### Bert Pulles
Dutch Army
I was in the Dutch army when the Germans occupied Holland. I was stationed in The Hague where our unit was assigned to…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/bert-pulles)
[ 
#### Robert K. Shaver
United States Navy
I made my application for a two-year enlistment in the U.S. Navy in Peoria, Illinois on October 24, 1942. The recruiter…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-k-shaver)
[ 
#### Ed Walsh
3rd Army Group
The 242nd Field Artillery Battalion was formed in August, 1942 at Camp White, Oregon. Most of the men in the original u…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ed-walsh)
[ 
#### Elizabeth Hillmann
US Medical Department
Enlisting in the nurse corps I was born in New York on October 4th, 1921. I graduated from St. Vincent's Hospital Scho…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/elizabeth-hillmann)
[ 
#### William Guarnere
101st Airborne Division
A South Philly boy in the depression William "Wild Bill" Guarnere, born 4-28, in south Philly, baby of ten children. A…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-guarnere)
[ 
#### Victor Miller
Rangers
I really don't remember getting onto the ships very vividly at all. We were on these two British ships which were to ca…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/victor-miller)
[ 
#### Paul D. Neumann
8th Air Force
I was trained as an electronics technician by the Air Force and shipped to England in the largest convoy ever to sail u…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/paul-d-neumann)
[ 
#### Edgar Gamble
IX Engineering Command
I completed basic training at Camp Clairborne, LA from there to camp Shanango, PA from there to Orangeberg, NY (beside…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/edgar-gamble)
[ 
#### John Frost
11th Armoured Division
I was a 19 year old Territorial Army soldier in 1939 trained for the Home Defence in Searchlights. i was called up on A…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-frost)
[ 
#### Jerry Bartling
11th Armored Division
I've been putting off telling you something for a long time Mother, and I guess this is time I told you. I heard some b…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jerry-bartling)
[ 
#### Cyril Walter Crain
Special Services Combined Operations
Cyril Walter Crain was born on June 11, 1923 in Nottingham, England to Sidney and Florence Crain. He had one brother, F…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/cyril-crain)
[ 
#### X B Cox Jr.
101st Airborne Division
The 81st Airborne AA Batallion was formed in August 1942 when the 82nd Infantry Division was divided into the 101st Air…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/x-b-cox)
[ 
#### Paul R. Miller
101st Airborne Division
I enlisted into the paratroops and was send to Toccoa, Georgia where the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was being or…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/paul-r-miller)
[ 
#### Ian MacPherson
4th Armoured Brigade
Some time in early July we were pushing forward on high open ground between the Odon and the Ome Rivers. We were suppos…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ian-macpherson)
[ 
#### Thomas Henry Goddard
8th Armoured Brigade
We had been embarking for three days and for three days and nights we had been disembarking, but at last the powers tha…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/thomas-henry-goddard)
[ 
#### George Roger Connor
6th Armored Division
In a field just south of Wardin, Belgium, on Jan 4, 2000, I spread some dirt from his home at the place where he died i…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/roger-connor)
[ 
#### Lawrence Bennett
86th Infantry Division
MY name is Lawrence E. Bennett.I was a Sgt. in company D- 341st Infantry Regiment of the 86th Black Hawk Infantry Divis…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lawrence-bennett)
[ 
#### Charles "Ray" Reeder
3rd Armored Division
I joined the Third Armored Division at Camp Polk, Louisana in early 1942, less than a year after it was formed. I went…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/charles-ray-reeder)
[ 
#### Ian "Roy" Williams
86th "Black Hawk" Infantry Division
Below is a part of the letter which our platoon leader Lt. William R. Jones wrote the parents of Ian Roy Williams. &nb…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ian-roy-williams)
[ 
#### Allen Knisley
3rd Armored Division
After the draft and basic training, I eventually went to OCS, followed by flight training, then was stationed in Englan…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/allen-knisley)
[ 
#### James P. Hennessey
87th Infantry Division
Jim was born November 24, 1925 in Bayonne, NJ. His father died in 1930, leaving his mother to raise him, his three brot…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-p-hennessey)
[ 
#### William E. Bramswig
87th Infantry Division
On Lincoln's birthday, 1943 I had a half-day off from work as an office boy for 20th Century Fox Films, New York City…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-e-bramswig)
[ 
#### John E. McAuliffe
87th Infantry Division
The Ardennes Battle Winter of '44 - '45 The Western front was quiet and soldiers were at rest, They took time out from…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-e-mcauliffe)
[ 
#### Charles J. Adams Jr.
United States Navy
Over the many years those of us that have written about Operation Neptune, the Navy‚s participation in the preparations…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/charles-j-adams-jr)
[ 
#### Donald King
101st Airborne Division
I'll never forget Christmas, 1944. We'd planned for a football game, and entertainment, and a big turkey dinner at the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/donald-king)
[ 
#### Archie Ross
106th Division
My experiences during those first weeks was unique, because our divsion had been annihilated twice! I was on the run wi…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/archie-ross)
[ 
#### Hampton E. Vaughan
United States Navy
This is the log of January 31, 1944, the day we grounded on the reef at Jacobs’s pass. The next few days logs tell the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/hampton-e-vaughan)
[ 
#### Manuel Baker
3rd Armored Division
Approaching Omaha Beach on June 23, 1944, evidence of the violence which had occurred there just 17 days earlier was ev…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/manuel-baker)
[ 
#### Darrell 'Shifty' Powers
101st Airborne Division
My name is Darrell "Shifty" Powers. I will mention a few of my experiences that are not included in the book, Band of B…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/darrell-shifty-powers)
[ 
#### Donald "G" Malarkey
101st Airborne Division
Bill Guarnere, Joe Toye and I landed in the same field about 0,5 mile north of Sainte-Mere Eglise. We spent all night w…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/donald-g-malarkey)
[ 
#### Raymond G. Jensen
United States Navy
This narrative is dedicated to my wonderful daughter, Marie Bailey, who has been urging me to write about my active ser…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/raymond-gene-jensen)
[ 
#### George A. Davison
1st United States Army
My father, George A. Davison, was a member of the all Black Unit, the 320th AA Barrage Balloon Battalion, VLA (Very Low…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-a-davison)
[ 
#### Bob Coop
United States Navy
My name is Bob Coop, Robert Coop. I grew up I was born in San Diego, California. And I grew up in Pasadena where my fat…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/bob-coop)
[ 
#### Arthur G. Willey
United States Navy
The history of the U.S. Landing Craft Gun (Large) ships that took part in the Normandy landings on June 6th, 1944 have…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/arthur-g-willey)
[ 
#### Robert H. Searl
93rd Signal Brigade
The 56th Signal Battalion of the United States Army, was re-activated at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on January 23, 19…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-h-searl)
[ 
#### John W. Gibson
101st Airborne Division
I was born on August 27th, 1921 in Humbolt, South Dakota and joined the U.S. Army on September 4, 1942 in Tucson, Arizo…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-w-gibson)
[ 
#### John C. Ausland
4th Infantry Division
John C. Ausland's book was dedicated to Else Ausland, who patiently relived World War II with me. I was born in LaCross…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-c-ausland)
[ 
#### Anthony Leone
United States Navy
The Allies had mustered 7,000 ships, 11,000 aircraft and over three million fighting men. Twelve countries were represe…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/anthony-leone)
[ 
#### Charles Douglas Caffey
United States Army Air Corps
I was a PFC. Though I spent a year and a half in college, while in uniform, with the prospect of becoming a fighter pil…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/charles-d-caffey)
[ 
#### Robert Webb
101st Airborne Division
This was it, June 5th 1944! We didn’t know it then, but the invasion had already been set back 24 hours once. That was…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-webb)
[ 
#### Frank Rosin
104th Infrantry Division "Timberwolves"
These are pictures of my dad and his buddies, although War was hell they found some time for fun and joking around...Hi…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/frank-rosin)
[ 
#### George "Slim" Macon
26th Infantry Division
Date of Entry 15 Feb 1943, Date of Separation 08 Jan 1946 - Service Company 328th Regiment, 26th Infantry Division (aka…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-sidney-slim-macon)
[ 
#### Earl Lovelace
2nd Infantry Division
After my six months near Birmingham England in a replacement camp, Just before June 6th 1944, we started moving from ca…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/earl-lovelace)
[ 
#### Leroy C. Bowen
Unites States Navy
Going into the beach it looked like the beach was covered with driftwood when we got close we realized the beach was co…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/leroy-c-bowen)
[ 
#### Milton J. Long
7th Army Group
Every WW2 veteran has his favorite story of an experience he had an this is mine. We hadn’t been in france very long be…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/milton-j-long)
[ 
#### Wallace R. "Wally" Hoffman
8th Airforce
There were two basic reasons of why we managed to survive those trips over Germany in an “aluminum coffin”. The first w…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/wally-hoffman)
[ 
#### John A. "OleTiger" Piazza
8th Airforce
This is a short profile of my experiences in the RAF and the USAAF during WW2. Also this picture was taken about the ti…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-a-oletiger-piazza)
[ 
#### Glenn H. Shaunce
1 Army
Here is what happened, On good Friday, March 30th 1945, the night was real quite when I collided with a German tank on…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/glenn-h-shaunce)
[ 
#### Emery Alvin van Every
82nd Airborne Division
Emery Alvin Van Every was born October 4, 1923 near Clear Lake, Iowa. He is just now in 2003, approaching his 80th Birt…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/emery-alvin-van-every)
[ 
#### John Reynolds Bender
3rd Armored Division "Spearhead"
John Reynolds Bender entered the U.S. Army in March, 1941, as a chaplain and was part of the cadre of the newly formed…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-r-bender)
[ 
#### John H. Taylor
101st Airborne Division
All the time we were in England, it was obvious that our training was geared to prepare us for 'The Invasion". In late…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-h-taylor)
[ 
#### Joseph M. Manzella
29th Infantry Division
I was on this LST in the channel waiting to hit the beach when I was woke up by the sixteen inch guns and the rockets t…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/joseph-m-manzella)
[ 
#### Hank C. Zimmerman
101st Airborne Division
I was born in Larksville, PA, a small town in Wilkes-Barre-Scranton area where coal mining was the primary occupation…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/henry-hank-c-zimmerman)
[ 
#### Joe F. Kunze
8th Airforce
I am Joe Kunze, a native of Columbus, Georgia. I was navigator on a B-17 Bomber in World War II. I am here to represent…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/joe-kunze)
[ 
#### Walt A. Maguire
101st Airborne Division
I Walt Maguire was born February 19th, 1920 in Philadelphia, he grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia (52 W…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/walt-a-maguire)
[ 
#### Wynn R. Campbell
3rd Army Group
Born on August 23d 1922, in Dover New Hampshire, Wynn R. Campbell served in the United States Army from 1940 to 1945. H…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/wynn-r-campbell)
[ 
#### Mitchell Kaidy
87th Infantry Division
When we crouched down, we could immediately spot a pool of blood that was dammed-up by the casualty’s coat collar. Unli…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/mitchell-kaidy)
[ 
#### Albert Blithe
101st Airborne Division
When asked by his son Gordon "Hey dad did you kill anybody when you were in the war?". Albert looked at him, didn't say…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/albert-blithe)
[ 
#### Richard E. "Dick" Schwab
2nd Infantry Division
When we (Company I, 38th Inf) were dug in on the approach to Hill 192 in Normandy my Fox-hole Buddy and I had quite a s…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/richard-e-dick-schwab)
[ 
#### Roland H. Hiles
90th Infantry Division
It is July 4th, 1944. We just haw received replacements and have regrouped to launch another attack. We are in reserve…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/roland-h-hiles)
[ 
#### John W. Carson
15th Airforce
Gunnery school was over and I was now a new S/Sgt with a pair of silver wings enroute to the well known repel depot, th…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-w-carson)
[ 
#### Jim M. Kirby
7th Infantry Division
My experience with the military way of life began in 1938 in Scottsboro, AL. when my dad joined the American Legion the…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jim-m-kirby)
[ 
#### James A. Besong
86th Infantry Blackhawk Division
“This outfit will never go overseas! We may send replacements, but go as a unit? Never!” That wishful thought had stood…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-a-besong)
[ 
#### Daniel Robert Shine
75th Infantry Division
Just after midnight...Twenty year old Private Daniel R. "Bob" Shine squatted in a roadside ditch in knee-deep icy water…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/daniel-robert-bob-shine)
[ 
#### Donato Marini
87th Infantry Division
This is not the usual war story that one is most likely to read in this column of "As I Remember It". More often than n…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/donato-marini)
[ 
#### Bunny Wayne Chambers
United States Navy
Now let me ask you this. There’s a lot of side things, should I tell all of those? There are a lot of side things that…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/bunny-wayne-chambers)
[ 
#### Richard V. Ehlert
United States Navy
April 28th, 1944, a convoy of 8 LST’s were holding a simulated invasion exercise called “Exercise Tiger”, when they wer…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/richard-v-ehlert)
[ 
#### William R. Ehlert
Transportation Corps
My D-Day experience was the result of fortuitous events. Upon my graduation from the Adjutant General School in Washing…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-r-ehlert)
[ 
#### Clarence "Clancy" Lyall
101st Airborne Division
I was born on 10/14/1925 in Orange, Texas. I entered the Army in 1942 after moving to Pennsylvania in 1939. I went to I…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/clarence-clancy-lyall)
[ 
#### Teunis Hoogerdijk
Dutch Army
I was born on November 28th 1913 in Oegstgeest and deceased on march 27th 1984 in Leiden, The Netherlands. After 6 mont…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/teunis-willem-hoogerdijk)
[ 
#### Sherman V.N. Best
9th Airforce
In the early days of 1945 there was a particularly frightening crisis in the 9th Air Force that only a few people were…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/sherman-v-n-best)
[ 
#### John C. Raaen Jr.
United States Rangers
The attached story was written shortly after the invasion and is the basis for my story "Intact". I can come close to r…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-c-raaen-jr)
[ 
#### Sanford “Sandy” Schwaber
101st Airborne Division
On Sept. 2, 1943 Sanford received an invitation from Uncle Sam “I want you.” He and his wife had been married for three…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/sanford-sandy-schwaber)
[ 
#### Phil Hooper
101st Airborne Division
It was March 16, 1943 that I marched away as a private into the finest army the world has ever seen. My first stop…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/phil-hooper)
[ 
#### Max Wolff Fiho
Brazilian Expeditionary Force
Max Wolff Fiho was born in the town of Rio Negro, PR, Brazil, in July 29, 1912. In WWII he became a part of the 11th RI…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/max-wolff-fiho)
[ 
#### Forrest Guth
101st Airborne Division
Forrest Guth was born to John H. R. and Mayme L. Guth in the small district of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. He is a dir…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/forrest-guth)
[ 
#### Ralph E. Goranson
Rangers
Ranger Captain Ralph E. Goranson, of Libertyville, Illinois, with the special mission at Pointe de la Percée, led the B…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ralph-e-goranson)
[ 
#### Raymond B. Dierkes
United States Navy
AI was sent my induction notice at the age of 20 1/2 years old. I reported to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Mo. On t…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/raymond-b-dierkes)
[ 
#### Nicholas L. Bonilla
101st Airborne Division
My father Pfc. Nicholas L. Bonilla became a Qualified Parachutist April 11, 1942. In this early photo, he wears the pat…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/nicholas-l-bonilla)
[ 
#### Gerald Paulk
101st Airborne Division
I enlisted the army at Fort Mc Phearson, Georgia in November 1942 at age 18 and went directly into the airborne which w…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/gerald-paulk)
[ 
#### Ernst Goth
352th Infantry Division
My Grandfather, born on juli 28, 1897 Ingolstadt in Bavaria, only dreamed of becoming a mathematics teacher. But life d…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ernst-goth)
[ 
#### Jochen (Joachim) Nubel
719th Infantry Division
I would like to ask you for your help regarding a WWII episode that I witnessed in 1944 as a German soldier during WWII…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jochen-joachim-nubel)
[ 
#### Elmer Schauer
3rd Canadian Infantry Division
In 1944, we were on standby, we were not allowed to leave our barracks, we knew something was about to happen very soon…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/elmer-schauer)
[ 
#### Lester Schauer
1st Canadian Infantry Division
Lester Schauer, Elmer Schauer brother, unfortunately did not surivive the war. There is no specific information o…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lester-schauer)
[ 
#### Maurice Albert Parker
Royal Rifles of Canada
As his children's minds were growing into knowledge their Daddy's was groping into memory; as his life was suppressed b…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/maurice-albert-parker)
[ 
#### Simon Goldenthal
Queens Own Rifles of Canada
I am Simon Goldenthal. I was the eleventh man taken on when the Queens Own Rifles were mobilized on June 5, 1940. I was…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/simon-goldenthal)
[ 
#### John W. Wray
Royal Canadian Navy
I joined the Canadian Navy as a ship's writer. However, the Navy needed officers and anyone with a fair education was e…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-w-wray)
[ 
#### William Henry Fuller
Royal Canadian Air Force
I believe this piece of history should be understood. French Indo China, Thailand (Siam), the Kra Isthmus all the way t…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-henry-fuller)
[ 
#### George Thomas Palmer
The Royal Rifles of Canada
"George was a real hero... he steadied the POWs down because he was so much older than the young guys. Since he was old…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/george-thomas-palmer)
[ 
#### Harry H. Osborne
Royal Canadian Armoured Corps
The cold and wet was unbearable. But the fear and being sea sick was even worse. His thoughts went back to the farm in…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/harry-h-osborne)
[ 
#### Anda Kerkhoven
Dutch Resistance Cross
Melisande Tatiana Marie (Anda) Kerkhoven would not have been Anda if she had not been one of the first to help the resi…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/melisande-tatiana-marie-kerkhoven)
[ 
#### Karl Heid
3rd Panzer "Großdeutschland"
Karl Heid was sleeping with two of his friends in a church somewhere in Russia. In the morning after he woke up, Karl g…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/karl-heid)
[ 
#### Lorne Phillips
1st Canadian Radio Location Unit
Lorne Phillips was born in 1925 in Toronto, Canada. When he was 3 months old his Father deserted him and his Mother. He…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lorne-phillips)
[ 
#### John A. Marin
Queen's Own Rifles of Canada
I (John Anthony Marin ) was born in Kilmar, Quebec, the son of Luigi Marin and Giacomina Bottan. In my early years, our…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-a-marin)
[ 
#### Norman J. Utke
Royal Highland Regiment of Canada
I enlisted in the Army in October 15th. 1943, and was off to the Regina Enlistment Depot where I was issued Army dress…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/norman-j-utke)
[ 
#### Alex
Royal Highland Regiment of Canada
The Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, known as the Black Watch, is one of the most famous regiments in Canada it was m…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/alex)
[ 
#### Robert R. Dumouchelle
Royal Canadian Airforce
My story begins in England. The 2nd Tactical Airforce was composed of many squadrons. I 'wasn't told beforehand the pur…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-r-dumouchelle)
[ 
#### Stan Scislowski
5th Canadian Armoured Divsion
We'd just got moving out of the ditches when mortar bombs smacked down all around us with tremendous crashes, catching…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/stan-scislowski)
[ 
#### Alexander Uhlig
1st Regiment Fallschirmjäger
Uhlig was born at the feudal estate of Meusdorf near Leipzig. After completing his labour service he joined the General…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/alexander-uhlig)
[ 
#### Dan Hartigan
Canadian Airborne Regiment
At the beginning of March 1942 Canadians had two and a half years of World War II behind them. The tremendous losses su…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/dan-r-hartigan)
[ 
#### Les Puttee
British Royal Navy
Les Puttee was only 19 years when he joined the Royal Navy in 1941, born in Woolwich London, a young cockney lad from a…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/les-puttee)
[ 
#### Denis Edwards
Oxs and Bucks Light Infantry
Denis "Eddie" Edwards was born in Sundridge, Kent in July 1924. He had always intended to join the Royal Navy and becam…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/denis-edwards)
[ 
#### Antoni Szulakowski
1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade
Antoni Szulakowski, was born in the village of Sienkiewicze, close to the Soviet border, on 5th December 1924. Sienkiew…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/antoni-szulakowski)
[ 
#### Lewis J. Dube
United States Navy
The United States of America had been involved in World War Two for over two years when my father, a seventeen year old…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lewis-j-dube)
[ 
#### Benjamin Kaplow
26th Infantry Division
I was drafted into World War 2 right out of high school in 1943. This is my story as told in the letters I wrote home…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/benjamin-m-kaplow)
[ 
#### Robert M. Abrahamson
36th Infantry Division
My brothers and I were all drafted into the United States Army. The oldest, Fredrick, was in the first draft lottery dr…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-m-abrahamson)
[ 
#### Arthur William Jasper
87th Infantry Division
In April 1943 I took a test for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). I was notified that I had passed and it w…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/arthur-william-jasper)
[ 
#### Robert (Bob) O'Mara
101st Airborne Division
I took basic training at Camp Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas and spent about 2 months moving to other bases. Left Ba…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-bob-o-mara)
[ 
#### Stokes M. Taylor
82nd Airborne Division
Stokes spent 2 years in the cavalry in Panama from 1939 to 1940. He was called back in 1942 with the 325th infantry at…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/stokes-m-taylor)
[ 
#### Stephen Tunnicliffe
Royal Navy
First ship – Landing Craft Tank LCT The training was over at last. The newly commissioned officers had a farewell get-…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/stephen-tunnicliffe)
[ 
#### Don Frederick
101st Airborne Division
To understand why I became a medic you'll have to hear a little about me before I entered the service. My family consis…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/don-frederick)
[ 
#### Thomas Pflugk
The Green Howards
My grandfather Thomas Pflugk first joined the Green Howards in 1926 at Catterick Camp when aged 19yrs. He was a career…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/thomas-pflugk)
[ 
#### Mahlon Earl Sebring
82nd Airborne Division
Dad started his military "experience" so to speak working at the B-24 bomber assembly factory in Willow Run, Michigan…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/mahlon-earl-sebring)
[ 
#### Albert O. Nielson
5th Air Force
Going through Dad's papers and from what I know, here are the facts on my Dad. Use them in any way you can. He was born…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/albert-o-nielson)
[ 
#### Walter Uden
Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers
"We Cleaned up the Beaches for more Landing Craft to come in and help the craft to get back to U K to reload and then r…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/walter-uden)
[ 
#### Ray Aebischer
101st Airborne Division
My name Is Ray Aebischer, former member of Company F, 506th parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Befor…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ray-aebischer)
[ 
#### Allan Wilford Howerton
84th Infantry Division
I landed with my unit (Company K, 335th Infantry, 84th Division) on Normandy Beach in early November 1944, well after D…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/allan-w-howerton)
[ 
#### Daniel Smith
30th Infantry Division
I was a member of the 30th Infantry Division when it crossed the English Channel to the beaches of Omaha Beach in Franc…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/daniel-smith)
[ 
#### Mariana Milyutina
Medic / Surgeon
The war began when I was in my 3rd year of the 1st Medical Institute. That day we had a physiology exam, for which I wa…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/mariana-milyutina)
[ 
#### Stanislaw Sosabowski
1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade
Stanislaw Franciszek Sosabowski was born on the 6th May 1892, in Stanislawow a town in Austrian Poland known then as Ga…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/stanislaw-sosabowski)
[ 
#### David M. "Buck" Rogers
101st Airborne Division
I was picked as one of the cadre that formed the 506th parachute regiment while stationed with the 501st parachute batt…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/david-m-rogers)
[ 
#### Mike Ingrisano
316th Troop Carrier Group
Staff Sergeant Michael N. Ingrisano, Jr, ASN 12129759, born in Brooklyn, New York, March 28, 1921, enlisted at Whitehal…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/mike-ingrisano)
[ 
#### Arthur Letchford
1st Airborne Division
My twin brother Philip and I were part of a contingent of Paratroopers who were to reinforce the 2nd Battalion in North…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/arthur-letchford)
[ 
#### Colin Reynolds
1st Airborne Division
The first jump was absolute luxury. We budding paratroopers had been fed a splendid breakfast of cereal, followed by ba…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/colin-reynolds)
[ 
#### Aleksandr P. Petrov
Order of the Red Star
Aleksandr Petrovitsj Petrov was a soldier in the Soviet Army. He was born in the village of Chumaki in the province of…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/aleksandr-petrovitsj-petrov)
[ 
#### William M. True
101st Airborne Division
This is my 17th ride in a C-47, but this time it's eerily silent here in the darkness. None of the joking, cajoling or…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-m-true)
[ 
#### Herman J. Moulliet
101st Airborne Division
I enlisted in the army at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. My enlistment date was 16 June 1944. I served i…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/herman-j-moulliet)
[ 
#### Bob Hammons
825th Tank Destroyer Battalion
In the summer it was so hot and the animals and the dead soldiers of the german army would swell and some would burst o…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/bob-hammons)
[ 
#### James T. Lingg
1st Infantry Division
I was captured on the 10th of August 1944 near Mayanne, France on an early morning 4 man patrol into the enemy lines. W…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/james-t-lingg)
[ 
#### Tom Davies
King's Regiment
I landed on Sword Beach whilst a member of the 5th Battalion, The Kings Regiment. The foregoing is my account of my exp…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/tom-davies)
[ 
#### Arthur Platt
6th Airborne Division
On D-Day June 61h 1944, the 8th Para Battalion Group was an independent force of about 760 men, within the 6th Airborne…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/arthur-platt)
[ 
#### Edwin G. Booth
6st Airborne Division
When I left the school at the age of 14 years I started work at a Building Firm the year was 1938. Not long after about…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/edwin-g-booth)
[ 
#### Lew F. Kemp
1st Airborne Division
I joined the parachute regiment 156th Batalion after service in Sicily and Italy 1943. In september 1944 I parachuted i…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/lew-f-kemp)
[ 
#### Roman Figiel
1st Polish Armoured Division
The Second World war grows more distant in history every day, but not in the home of Roman Figiel, born in Poland in 19…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/roman-figiel)
[ 
#### Harold Wiener
United States Airforce
I will give you a brief overviwe which I hope may be of some interest to you and those you try to give some insight on…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/harold-wiener)
[ 
#### Derek Hinton
13th Airfield Construction Group
At the age of 18 years, along with three friends I volunteered for the Army. We all three opted to join the Tank Corps…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/derek-hinton)
[ 
#### Ted Everett
206th Field Ambulance
It is a long time ago, fifty eight years and five months. So much has happened, so many things have changed, some good…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ted-everett)
[ 
#### John Absolon
50 Infantry Division
Where and how did you spend your 21st birthday? Due to events in the autumn of 1922 it was predetermined that my 21st b…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-absolon)
[ 
#### Ray Daniel
British Royal Navy
I remember when my school-days ended and I left Wick Road Senior Boys' School in July 1939, 'War' was imminent and I wa…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/ray-daniel)
[ 
#### Bill Hickman
43rd Wessex Division
My Dad was called up in 1940 and was enlisted first with the Kings Royal Rifles and did his training at Winchester. The…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/bill-hickman)
[ 
#### Wally Smith
Dorset Regiment
On 25th September 1944, having reached Driel, an attempt to cross the river Rhine in the area of W esterbouwing was mad…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/wally-smith)
[ 
#### Norman G. Anstey
50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division
I regsitered for war service early 1940 wishing for a preference for the Navy. After two months I had a reply saying th…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/norman-g-anstey)
[ 
#### John Iddenden
Royal Engineers
Before the push up through the corridor, the Royal Engineers detachment had arrived in a small village called Meerbeek…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/john-iddenden)
[ 
#### Harvey Smith
79th Armoured Division
I joined 6th Assault Regiment Royal Engineers shortly after my eighteenth birthday, having joined up on a Territorial e…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/harvey-smith)
[ 
#### Bill Charles
Cameronian Scottish Rifles
My dad was no-one special to anyone but his family. He was of the “Old School,” he was boss in his house, Ma got a shar…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/bill-charles)
[ 
#### Donald Clifton Ross
101st Airborne Division
Taccoa, and a Jug of White Lightening. While at Taccoa, somebody went up on a hill and got a jug of white lightning. We…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/donald-clifton-ross)
[ 
#### Harvey S. Olson
7th Army Corps
Excerpt from Roland G. Ruppenthal, American Forces in Action: Utah Beach to Cherbourg. Washington, D.C.: Historical Div…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/harvey-s-olson)
[ 
#### Luther Thompson
United States Airforce
When M/Sgt. Luther Thompson of Lula, Georgia, as a boy first began tinkering with an austere looking 1916 Dodge touring…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/luther-thompson)
[ 
#### Howard Andrew Ellis
9th Airforce
My name is Howard Andrew Ellis and I was a 17-year-old living in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. when I quit school and enl…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/howard-andrew-ellis)
[ 
#### Charles W. Stockell
2nd Infantry Division
At the time I was a young 2d Lieutenant of artillery. I found that was great because I love to hunt And shooting artill…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/charles-w-stockell)
[ 
#### Charles Everett Bullard
United States Airforce
A very exciting time for us all, we knew we about to make history – but would it be a good or a bad history? To see all…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/charles-everett-bullard)
[ 
#### Albert R. Panebianco
45th Infantry Division
I was an infantryman with Company "K" , 157th Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. Uncle Sam sent greetings to me, March 1…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/albert-r-panebianco)
[ 
#### Jack E. Foley
101st Airborne Division
When we left our position, Bois Jacques, we were trucked from there, into Bastogne (first time there since 12/19/44) an…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jack-e-foley)
[ 
#### William H. Fullilove
British Royal Navy
In the past I have written various things about LST's, so this time I thought I would "swing the lamp" and tell you of…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/william-h-fullilove)
[ 
#### Jack G. Ammon
4th Armored Division
In January of 1944 we were on the high seas from America to England and entered that part of the world through a port i…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/jack-g-ammon)
[ 
#### Robert L. Cragg
26th Infantry Division
Even though the Allies had air superiority throughout the European Theater of Operations the Luftwaffe was not complete…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/robert-l-cragg)
[ 
#### Roy Burdette Maguire
90th Infantry Division
Roy Burdette Maguire, T/SGT C Company 712th Tank Battalion was my Father. He was born at home on 20 April 1922, in Bent…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/roy-burdette-maguire)
[ 
#### Slawomir Kwiatkowski
1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade
It was the decree of fate for me to have the two maturity exams in my life – both with positive result. The first took…
](https://www.normandy1944.info/stories/slawomir-kwiatkowski)
## Veterans FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I read authentic WWII veteran stories? You can read hundreds of authentic, firsthand accounts from WWII veterans on the Normandy 1944 website. This archive features stories from soldiers of many nations, including American, British, Canadian, Dutch, French, Polish, Soviet, Brazilian and German veterans.
Where can I submit a WWII veteran's story or photographs? If you have a veteran's story, letters, or photographs you would like to preserve, you can submit them directly through my contact page. I am dedicated to helping families keep these historical memories alive for future generations.
Is it legal to use these veteran stories for AI films or YouTube videos? No. These stories and images are the property of the veterans and their families and are protected under copyright law. Unauthorized use, including AI-generated films or fabricated media, is strictly prohibited and disrespectful to the veterans' legacy.
Why did the Einsatzgruppen transition from mass shootings to gas vans? In late 1941, SS leadership introduced **gas vans** (Sonderwagen) to alleviate the "psychological burden" on the firing squads. These mobile gas chambers used carbon monoxide from the vehicle's exhaust to murder victims. While gas vans were used in places like **Chełmno** and the occupied Soviet Union, mass shootings remained the primary method used by the Einsatzgruppen due to the bad roads and technical breakdowns in the East.
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