Charlie Green's narrative as an Infantry Rifleman during WWII.
This all began when I asked my father, Charlie Green, to write down what he did during during the war.
Like most WWII vets he never really spoke of his wartime experiences in detail. In 2000 and 2001 he emailed me installments of the story. I lightly edited the result to create a website "One Soldier Remembers". The website was active for many years.
Dad died on September 9th, 2016 at the age of 91. After his death I found he had the letters he had written home to his mother and this reignited my interest in learning more about his service during the war.
What follows is dad's original story in his own words annotated with some of the research I have conducted over the past two years.
He recalls the impressions and feelings of an eighteen-year-old soldier with honesty, clarity, and humor.
Charlie was in F company, second battalion, 101st Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry (Yankee) Division
Contents
Click the chapter headings to read the story
Milford: I was born in Milford, Connecticut in 1925
Enlistment: I got my draft notice right away
Fort Benning: Basic training
Christmas 1943: Northeastern University in Boston, weekends at home!
F Company: 101st Infantry, 26th Yankee Division
Over There: On the 27th of August 1944 we boarded the Saturnia
Our Commander: We thought he acted and looked like someone's Grandma.
The Front Line: Some of those nights were the longest I can remember
Hill 310: I was sure that I was about to die and didn't
Trench Foot: Each stop had a doctor with his own theory of treatment
To Oxford: Some nut yelled, " must be a torpedo"
Luxembourg: Our outfit was in Luxembourg and shortly,
Replacement Depots: We slogged through snow a good part of the day
Occupation: Our occupation duty started out in the Sudatenland
Netolice: The Yankee Division organized a school
One Lonely Soldier: Got no mail from home for several months
Camp Lucky Strike: Military installations named for cigarettes?
Chapel Hill: One of the oddest New Years Eves I have ever spent
Epilogue: The Green Family