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Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEpisode 13 - Typhoon of Steel: The Battle of OkinawaThe final battle before the anticipated invasion of mainland Japan, Okinawa became the deadliest battle for US forces in the Pacific with savage fighting on land, air, and especially sea. Nicknamed the Typhoon of Steel because of its intense artillery fire and bombardments on land, air and sea, the battle for Okinawa cost 49,000 US casualties including more than 12,000 deaths. For the Japanese soldiers, the battle for Okinawa was far worse with 90,000 deaths. As always, civilians suffered the most with an estimated 150,000 dead. William Agen recalled the terror of kamikaze attacks that occurred three or four times during the day and...2025-06-1441 minAlways Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp. 12 - Prisoners of WarMillions of Allied and Axis soldiers became POWs in WW II. His weight down to 90 pounds, sick with malaria, Edgar Kuhlow overheard two German guards talking about his condition – “He is going to stay laying here in Germany.” Forced to work in railyards 2 – 3 times a week in Munich, William Ledeker knew he was better off than the concentration camp prisoners he would occasionally see from nearby Dachau. Recovering from being shot in the back and the shoulder, Jim Lingg was still loaded onto boxcars along with other POWs by the SS. While trying to liberate the Belgium town of Viller-La-B...2025-05-3140 minAlways Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp. 11 - The Battle of the BulgeWith the Germans seemingly on the run everywhere in Europe, the Allies had hoped WW 2 would be done by year’s end 1944. Those hopes were shattered when the Germans launched their largest counter offensive on the western front, the Battle of the Bulge. A frustrated Tom Carr, who served as a scout, had warned his officers for weeks that the ermans appeared to be preparing a sneak attack, only to be ignored. The Germans weren’t the only enemy American GIs faced. Samuel Erlick recalled it was all he could do just to stay warm and avoid frozen feet. Still, Da...2025-05-1743 minAlways Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp.9 - Sand in Our Shoes: Island Hopping in the Pacific TheaterAs the Allies embarked on their island hopping campaign growing ever closer to the Japanese mainland, they soon discovered that their enemy in the Pacific was adept at presenting new challenges on every island. Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu, Leyte would all forever be ingrained in WW 2 veterans memories - and in their nightmares. Richard V. Morgan remembers Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman,, who stood atop a heavily garrisoned Japanese bunker directing demolition charges despite his being mortally wounded. Bonnyman would receive the Medal of Honor posthumously. For Dennis Olson, his poems helped him cope with the horrible losses he endured at Tara...2025-05-0944 minAlways Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp. 10 - Minorities in World War IIThe African Americans who served on the USS Mason destroyer had already endured 90 mph winds and 60 foot waves that split the Mason's deck as they shepherded convoys to safety in the Atlantic when their beloved Captain Blackford was replaced with a racist captain who claimed the African Americans sailors he led smelled, couldn’t swim, and were hard to educate . 1st Lieutenant Vernon Baker, also an African American, destroyed six machine gun nests, two observer posts and four dugouts at Castle Aghinolfi in Italy only to see Captain Runyon, his white commanding officer who abandoned the firefight, receive the Sil...2025-05-0347 minAlways Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp. 8 - Bloody Red - Blood-soaked Omaha Beach RememberedBloody Omaha Beach bore the brunt of D-Day’s savage fighting with more casualties than all of the other D-Day beaches combined. Aware that the men he led in one of the first waves to land on Bloody Omaha Beach had no prior combat experience, Staff Sergeant Walter Ehlers single handedly took out several German machine gun nests even while he was in their crossfire. Ehlers was at first elated when he was told he would be receiving the Medal of Honor for his actions, but he was soon brought to his knees upon learning the terrible loss he suff...2025-04-0641 minAlways Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp7 Robert Bowen D-Day to Operation Market-Garden to Battle of the BulgeFrom landing on Utah beach amidst floating bodies in life preservers to a combat glider landing aboard one of the "flying coffins" at Operation Market Garden. Robert Bowen saw a lot of action in World War II before he was badly injured and taken prisoner of war at the Battle of the Bulge. As a POW a badly injured Bowen was nearly strangled by an enraged German doctor as Bowen lay on his operating table. Back home, Bowen's young wife Christine never gave up hope that her husband was still alive, despite being told that he had been killed in...2025-03-2246 min
Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEpisode 6 One Tough Gut: Monte Cassino, Anzio, Gunsmoke's James Arness, and a German Troop Train EscapeWhile Winston Churchill believed an Allied invasion of Italy would find it the soft underbelly of the Axis, most GIs agreed with General Mark Clark's description of it as "One Tough Gut" as they faced ferocious fighting at Salerno and along the Gustav Line at Mt. Sammucro, Monte Cassino and Anzio. Episode 6 begins with Helen Callentine, a US Army Nurse whose hospital ship was bombed before she ever made it to Salerno; Russell Darkes who ordered his pinned down platoon at Mt. Sammucro to fix their bayonets before charging; Howard Fay who recalled the American dead that covered Monte C...2025-03-0735 min
Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEpisode 5 - Combat Jumps of All American Panther Arnold "Dutch" NagelArnold "Dutch" Nagel volunteered to be a paratrooper in WW 2 because of the extra $50 per month jump pay paratroopers received and the distinctive uniforms they wore. By war's end, he had participated in 4 combat jumps - Sicily, Maiori, Italy, Operation Market Garden in Holland, and on D-Day at Sainte Mere Eglise, France - and had fought in the invasion of Sicily, the liberation of Naples, Italy, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge. Nagel was one of only three men from Co. C, 1st Squad, 1st Platoon of the 505th 82nd Airborne Division to survive the war. 45 years later he...2025-02-2140 min
Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEpisode 4 - Aerial Dogfights and Headhunters - The Amazing Story of Jefferson DeBlanc and the Battle for the Solomon IslandsIn August 1942 the US launched its first major amphibious landing of WW 2 in the Solomon Islands. The battle became a bitter war of attrition as both sides fought feverishly for months on land, sea and air for the strategically important islands. Jefferson DeBlanc became a fighter ace in just one day as he shot down six Japanese fighters before DeBlanc himself was shot down. With his back, arms, and legs wounded from shrapnel, DeBlanc still managed to swim six hours before he came ashore at Kolombangara, only to be captured by a tribe of headhunters. From his vantage point atop...2025-02-0723 min
Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEpisode 3 We're In the Army Now - America Goes to War in WW 2In the aftermath of the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, and the declaration of war against Germany and Japan, millions of Americans didn't wait till their draft numbers were called upon. They immediately enlisted, including nearly 200,000 underage Americans. In the rigorous basic training that followed, young Americans learned that war was for keeps as they learned the fighting skills that would keep them alive in combat. As Colonel Sin, Commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, told his recruits, "Y'all ain't going over there to die for your country. You're going over there to m...2025-01-2724 min
Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEpisode 2 World Set Afire - John McGoran's Day of Infamy aboard the USS CaliforniaAs he looked into the USS California's CL compartment located on the ship's lower level, John McGoran "...saw pure horror, my first realization that the game was now for keeps. I saw bodies, many bodies, some of which I knew, just by their eyes, were lifeless." Like the rest of the US Pacific fleet battleships moored at Ford Island's "Battleship Row", the USS California had been hit by torpedoes in the massive surprise attack against the US Naval base of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. The surprise attack shattered the fragile peace the US had precariously maintained amid gathering war...2025-01-1727 min
Always Remember - World War II Through Veterans’ EyesEp1 Iwo Jima Meatgrinder: John Snyder remembers Sgt. George Barlow"You're not going to leave me here to die?" Sgt. George Barlow asked his buddy, John Snyder. Barlow had just saved the lives of everyone in his squad by throwing himself on a live grenade the Japanese had hurled into their machine gun emplacement at Iwo Jima. Barlow's lower torso had been blown away, and Snyder knew his friend wouldn't survive until morning without help. Pinned down, could Snyder find a medic?
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