Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
2:54 | Al Brown slept right through D-Day. He was nowhere near Normandy, he was in Rome and exhausted from the campaign. Hearing the news of the invasion in the north, he wondered how they could have gotten so far inland in one day.
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Al Brown came out of rural Florida to join the war effort with his brother, Frank. In basic training, he remembers being "singularly unimpressed" with the light bazooka that was demonstrated. He knew there was no way that weapon would stop a German tank.
Joining the 3rd Infantry Division as it prepped for Anzio, Al Brown's first experience taught him a valuable lesson, that one had to look out for himself. It started with the first shift of guard duty as he walked a muddy ridge.
A dozen men had made a pact to try and stay together after training and deployment. They made it intact to a replacement depot in Naples, but while Al Brown was on KP, all the rest had joined the Darby Rangers. That turned out to be the most important KP he ever did.
Moving toward Rome, Al Brown knew his brother's unit was nearby, and for an awful moment, he thought he had found him mortally wounded on the battle field. He never found his brother but a mortar round nearly found him.
As Al Brown's unit moved North from Italy into the Rhone Valley, the Germans fought very skillful delaying actions. Digging in near Belmont, France, he noticed an officer and a radio operator casually sitting in the open. Before long, they were all running.
When the war ended, Al Brown experienced high and low emotions. Happy for victory and sad for fallen comrades, and even for the Germans. The turmoil followed him on the trip home in the form of a raging hurricane.
As the Victory Ship entered New York Harbor, the fog cleared just in time for Al Brown to see the Statue of Liberty. It was a good feeling to be home.
