World War II Interviews

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World War II Interviews

Vincent Speranza - World War II

Vincent Speranza grew up on Staten Island, part of a large and colorful Italian family. Following Basic Training, he became a paratrooper and joined the 101st Airborne Division just prior to the Battle of the Bulge, where the unit became famous for its defense of Bastogne. Speranza tells of returning to Bastogne 65 years later, and of his participation in an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. to visit the new WW II Memorial in 2009.

Robert Spitze - World War II

Robert Spitze served in the United States Navy in the pacific theater during World War II. Spitze was a radio communications officer on LST (Landing Ship Tank) 642. His ship was involved in the invasions at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, delivering supplies and marines to the mainland. While the crew was in the Philippines preparing for the invasion of Japan, the war ended.

Kelly Ann Sproul - World War II

Kelly Ann Sproul was born in 1988 and grew up hearing lullabies of vintage songs from World War II and hearing stories about the blitz of London. In 2006, she began a career as a musical therapist and was offered the chance to perform at a veterans group, which she has continued to do ever since.

Edward Stapleton - World War II

Edward (Pat) Stapleton saw extensive action with the 143rd Infantry Regiment of the fabled 36th Infantry Division in Italy and Southern France during the Second World War. Stapleton first saw action at Anzio, participated in the liberation of Rome, and later was shipped to southern France, where he fought in the Vosges Mountain campaign before advancing into Germany.

Harold Steele - World War II

Harold Steele was a farm boy from Illinois who saw action in France and Germany with 89th Infantry Division as an infantry platoon leader. He was one of the first to discover the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp near Buchenwald, and finished the war on occupation duty in Vienna, where he met his future wife, an OSS cryptographer.

Margery Steele - World War II

Margery (Whiteley) Steele served with the Office of Strategic Services working as a cryptographer during WW II. She spent 1945 in Egypt, then was transferred to Greece where she continued with the OSS during that nation's civil war. She was working for the Army in Vienna in late 1946 when she met Captain Harold Steele. The two soon married.

Fred Stockmeier - World War II

Fred Stockmeier is a World War II POW, plus a veteran of the Korean War. He was assigned to the 100th Infantry Division during WW II. The division took part in operations in southern France until Mr. Stockmeier was captured on December 4th, 1944. He spent the rest of the war in various prison camps, and eventually was liberated by the Russians southeast of Berlin. He was recalled into the Army in 1950 following the beginning of the Korean War. He was shipped to Korea, arriving in late December, 1950 where he was assigned to the personnel section of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division

Owen Streeper - World War II

Owen B. Streeper served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, flying missions over Europe as a ball turret gunner in B-24s. In May 1944 his aircraft was shot down over Nice, France, where he joined the French resistance. He was briefly taken prisoner by the advancing American troops before they were able to confirm that he was an American airman.

Earl Swanson - World War II

Earl Swanson served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War. He was commissioned as an artillery officer in 1943, but was then transferred to the infantry. In 1945, he was deployed to the Philippines and assigned to the 25th Infantry Division, which was searching for remnants of the Japanese Army and preparing for the invasion of Japan. After the dropping of the atomic bombs, Swanson’s unit occupied various areas of Japan.

Merlin Taber - World War II

Merlin Taber was a Conscientious Objector during World War II. He volunteered for the Civilian Public Service and spent the rest of the war in various locations in the United States. During those years, he helped build roads and dams, developed irrigation facilities, fought fires, and worked at a mental hospital. He also was a medical test subject and was infected with jaundice and Hepatitis A.

Ernest Thorp - World War II

Ernest Thorp grew up in Illinois with two passions - farming and flying. He earned a pilot's license while in college, and enlisted into the Army Air Force in May of 1942. Thorp was assigned to the 729th Squadron, 452nd Bomb Group, and flew missions as a B-17 co-pilot over northern Europe. He was shot down on August 4th while on his eighteenth mission. He bailed out over the North Sea, was pulled out of the water by German fishermen, and spent the rest of the war as a Prisoner of War, moving from camp to camp as Germany was nearing defeat.

Robert Underbrink - World War II

Bob Underbrink graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1944 and was soon drafted into the Army, where he served as a tanker in Patton's famed 3rd Army. He arrived at the front in April, 1945 as the war was coming to an end. After a short time in Czechoslovakia, he served in the occupation army until August, when he was sent to the Shrivenham (England) American University, a temporary institution staffed by American professors.

Thomas Varns - World War II

Thomas Abrams Varns was drafted following his graduation from Springfield High School, and attended Army basic training at Camp Barkley in Abilene, Texas. He was assigned to the 415th Medical Collection Company, which was attached to Patton's 3rd Army. Varns' unit accompanied 3rd Army as it moved through northern France and into Germany, providing medical assistance and support throughout its campaigns.

Robert Wahlfeldt - World War II

Robert Wahlfeldt served in the United States Navy during World War II. He served in the engineering section on the U.S.S. Waldron, a destroyer. The ship traveled to Bermuda and the Panama Canal before going to the Pacific. By 1945 the ship was assigned to a fast carrier task force, and supported combat operations in and around the Philippine Islands, the South China Sea, and during the invasion of Okinawa. After the war he say Yokosuka, in Kanagawa province, Japan.

Francis Walle - World War II

Francis Walle was 101 years old at the time of this interview. Born in 1912, he was nearly thirty when drafted in early 1942. He did well in Basic Training and was selected to attend the Field Artillery Officer Basic Course. He shipped to Europe in August, 1944, and finally reached the front in late November, where he was assigned as a forward observer to an artillery unit in the 79th Infantry Division. He saw action in the Lorraine region of France and in northeastern Germany. He also served on occupation duty for several months.

Linda Weber - World War II

Linda Weber worked in the drafting department for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation at a plant in Columbus, Ohio building the SB2C Helldiver dive bomber. She had studied aeronautical engineering, physics, and calculus at Purdue University before working at the plant. She remembers the rationing of meat, chocolate, sugar, and butter during the war as well as the collecting of scrap metals.

Samuel Weldon - World War II

Samuel Weldon served with the Marines during World War II. He saw action with the 4th Marine Division at Iwo Jima in February, 1945. Following the surrender of Japan, his unit spent several months at Guam before he was discharged in April, 1946.

Sandy Wheeler - World War II

Sandy Dehner was the young daughter of Fred Dehner, a U.S. Army soldier deployed to the Pacific during the Second World War. She describes how his deployment overseas affected her mother and the family, and how they all coped with his long-term hospitalization from an illness contracted while in Bougainville.

James Whitson - World War II

James Robert Whitson served in the United States Navy during World War II, working as a torpedoman on the USS Herndon, a destroyer. The ship supported the invasion of Sicily, and on Christmas Day 1943 the ship barely rode out a dangerous storm in the North Atlantic. The Herndon supported the D-Day landing in June, 1944, and the invasion of southern France a couple of months later. The Herndon eventually ended up at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Theater.

David Wiant - World War II

David Wiant was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943, and upon completion of his training, was stationed in the Philippines, arriving in 1945. While there, he was involved in operations rooting out pockets of Japanese soldiers in remote locations. While awaiting for redeployment to the U.S. after the war, Wiant worked as an ambulance driver for a field hospital, then was transferred to the Military Police, and helped guard Japanese General Masaharu Homma, (commander of Japanese forces during their occupation of the Philippines), who was awaiting his war crimes trial.

Hershel 'Woody' Williams - World War II

Hershel 'Woody' Williams grew up on a West Virginia dairy farm during the Great Depression, and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps shortly before the U.S. entry into World War II. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he hoped to join the Marine Corps, but had to wait until May 1943 when the Corps changed the height requirement. Woody received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. Over a four hour period, and armed with a flame thrower, he took out seven enemy pill boxes. He received the Medal of Honor in October 1945 from President Harry S. Truman, and has spent the rest of his life speaking about his experiences and inspiring younger generations by his example.

Jack Williams - World War II

World War II broke out during Jack Williams's first year of college at the University of Illinois. He decided to join the U.S. Navy and trained at the Great Lakes Naval Air Base as a gunner. Williams served in the Pacific theater from 1944 to 1945, and was assigned to the U.S.S. Petrof Bay (CVE 80), an escort carrier. Williams served as a gunner in a Grumman TBF Avenger, a carrier based torpedo bomber. The ship saw action in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and at both Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Ralph Woolard - World War II

Ralph Woolard served with the Army’s 36th Infantry Division in Europe during World War II. He landed with the Division in North Africa in April, 1943. As a member of the 36th Division, he was in some of the fiercest fighting in Italy, including the bloody battle of Monte Casino. He later saw action in southern France, at Germany’s Siegfried Line, and into Austria. Woolard was wounded twice during the war.

Gerald Yaxley - World War II

Gerald Yaxley served in the U.S. Army’s 104th Infantry Division (Timberwolves) during World War II. The unit fought in the bloody fighting at Aachen, Germany as well as at the Nazis’ Siegfried Line. During fighting in Germany, Yaxley’s division was ambushed and he was hit by shrapnel from a mortar shell

Iver Yeager - World War II

Iver Yeager grew up during the depression on a small ranch in northwestern South Dakota, attending a one room school and doing plenty of chores on the ranch. He was attending Macalester College in St. Paul, MN when Pearl Harbor occurred, and after graduating went through officers training at Plattsburg, New York and Hollywood Florida. He was assigned to the USS Dyson, a Fletcher-class destroyer cruising the dangerous waters of the western Pacific. His ship survived both a horrific typhoon and kamikaze attacks while supporting the fighting on Okinawa.



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