COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

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Showing : WWII Videos

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  The fighting on Saipan was not quite finished when Harry McMahon was sent to assault Tinian with the rest of his Marine battalion. As he neared the beach, there was an overwhelming stench. What is that, he asked?

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  Carl Beck - Army +12 Total Videos

  501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division

  In the middle of the night, thousands of paratroopers loaded into C-47's for the crossing into Normandy. Carl Beck was just a teenager but he was ready. His plane was hit by flak when it neared the drop zone and the jump was rushed, resulting in scattered men and equipment. Part 1 of 2.

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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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  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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  Don Scott - Army Air Corps +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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  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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  Clyde Burnette - Army Air Corps +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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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  It was at Dachau concentration camp that Walter Victor gave a duffel bag full of supplies to a starving prisoner. He then turned to the grim task of burying the dead. Decades later, as he prepared to make a speech, he had a surprising reunion.

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  Hugo Riva - Army Air Corps +6 Total Videos

  367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group

  Hugo Riva was facing the draft like everyone and he didn't like the idea of walking very much. Luckily, he was accepted in the Army Air Corps and began the long training regimen.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  It was a rough life as a teenager in the coal mine. Walter Victor was stuck there where his father had died when he was a baby. He hitchhiked to New York City and got a job in his sister's dress factory but World War II had come and so had the draft.

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  Hugo Riva - Army Air Corps +6 Total Videos

  367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group

  After a bombing mission, there was always brandy and a debriefing. Hugo Riva reveals that every B-17 at that point in the war had cameras aboard. That put a stop to gunners inflating their numbers. When new fighters were brought in as escorts, the bomber crews could breathe a little bit easier.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  They took his Jeep. It disappeared but it had one headlight out so when he saw a Jeep like that he and a buddy stopped it and questioned the men. They turned out to be enemy spies and he got a Bronze Star for that. He had some strange encounters while over there, including meeting the biggest of the big brass and falling in with some Poles with a plan for a big bang.

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  Hugo Riva - Army Air Corps +6 Total Videos

  367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group

  Hugo Riva did write home to his family and his girlfriend but, like most of the fellows, he would much rather get letters than write letters. When he got home after the war he went into the restaurant business and was quite successful.

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  The fighting on Saipan had already raged for a couple of weeks when Harry McMahon arrived. Soon as they took a look at his records, they put him in charge of the commissary. Again. He wanted to fight and he listened intently to the stories of what had just transpired, including the tale of the Army unit that did not distinguish itself during a banzai attack.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  After weeks at sea dodging German submarines, Walter Victor landed in North Africa where the climate was hot and the culture very different. He was protected by the rest of the men because he was a gunsmith, who kept all the weapons in fighting condition. He saw the awful, like a man selling what no man should, and the amazing, like the Spitfires destroying the Stukas.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  LST-515 made 52 trips between England and Normandy after the initial one on D-Day. German prisoners were carried to England on the ship and George Sarros heard the younger ones saying that Germany was going to win the war but an older one was glad he was out of it.

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  Hugo Riva - Army Air Corps +6 Total Videos

  367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group

  The people in the English town near the air base were very friendly. Hugo Riva recalls how they provided the flight crews with real eggs, a nice luxury. He was the flight engineer on a B-17, a sturdy and reliable aircraft which brought him back safely from every mission.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  It was good duty down in the engine room. It was four hours on, twelve hours off for George Sarros with no paint chipping up on deck. Although his captain was aloof, he didn't sweat the small stuff, like being back late from leave.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  The landing in Sicily was not too bad and the island was quickly secured. Walter Victor found the locals to be very nice people and they had the best spaghetti ever.

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  Roy Rowland - Army +8 Total Videos

  16th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division

  College would have to wait. Roy Rowland was at boot camp getting a different kind of education. At the next training level, he was made assistant driver on a half-track. Then it was on to New Jersey to prepare to ship out but he had enough time there to manage a trip to New York City to meet his fiance.

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  Hugo Riva - Army Air Corps +6 Total Videos

  367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group

  It was a big stink if you accidentally popped your chute on the ground during a pre-flight inspection. Hugo Riva recalls one man who wanted to make sure he didn't have that happen to him again.

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  Roy Rowland - Army +8 Total Videos

  16th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division

  For Roy Rowland the trip home on the Liberty Ship was much better than the trip over. Resisting the pleas to reenlist, he returned to college to pursue his dream of becoming a physician. After that career, he found another in politics.

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  Walter Victor - Army +5 Total Videos

  9th Infantry Division

  It was easy to die on D-Day. Walter Victor saw his friend drown before he ever touched the beach. After the beachhead was finally secured, he pushed into the interior and eventually had some strange adventures, like being tapped to manage a factory in Belgium because he spoke four languages. He was also captured for a brief time but the Polish prisoners had a plan.

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  Roy Rowland - Army +8 Total Videos

  16th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division

  He grew up fast when he went to war. Roy Rowland entertained nothing but serious thoughts after that life changing experience. He credits Harry Truman with saving his life and, despite his political career as a Democrat, he has kind words for a Republican president.

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  George Sarros - Navy +5 Total Videos

  LST-515

  It was just a training exercise, a dry run for the upcoming invasion of Normandy. Exercise Tiger took place on the English coast at a place called Slapton Sands. It was attacked by German E-Boats which had slipped through naval defenses. George Sarros, a sailor on an LST, describes the action and his captain's efforts to rescue men from the frigid water.

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  Roy Rowland - Army +8 Total Videos

  16th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division

  Roy Rowland was relieved when the captain stopped sending men across the Isar River. Some had crossed already and some of them were trapped on the other side. He doesn't remember volunteering but, somehow, he ended up with two other men going across to search for wounded. For this action, he was awarded the Bronze Star.

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  After facing them in battle, Harry McMahon did not feel like he was even killing other humans. They seemed completely different from what he was used to. But when he was told to execute a Japanese prisoner his unit was holding, he had to stop and think about it. (Caution: strong language)

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  Roy Rowland - Army +8 Total Videos

  16th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division

  The memories of combat were still vivid years later for Roy Rowland, especially the frightening fire from the German 88's. He recalls meeting a German woman who forecast the political alignment coming after the war and a German officer who gave him his pistol.

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  Harry McMahon - Marines +12 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division

  He was too skinny to be a Marine. Harry McMahon tried to enlist but he failed the physical. He was lucky to get a little inside help when someone at his office revealed that her son-in-law was an examining doctor for the Marines. This got him in but he had to pass another physical when he got to Parris Island.

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  Roy Rowland - Army +8 Total Videos

  16th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division

  As he sailed past the Statue of Liberty bound for Europe, Roy Rowland wondered, will I ever make it back? He landed in Le Havre, which was pretty much destroyed. Soon, his armored unit would join the final push across Europe into Germany.