Interview with Dwight Pratt by Jason McGarry for the

AAUP Oral History Project, Center for Oral History,

University of Connecticut, April 7, 2001.

McGARRY: Where and when were you born?

PRATT; June 11, 1919 in Hartford, Ct.

JM: Can you tell me a little about your early life?

DP: I lived on Norfolk Road in Torrington most of my

life. I worked in a hardware factory for a while.

When I was a teenager I worked on some of the farms in Norfolk. Stayed right at the farm. Left

there. I did a lot of hunting and fishing. Just liked

country life. Raised all our own vegetables. It

was a small farm. Had our own cows, chickens and

everything else.

JM: What was your occupation before you entered the

service?

DP: I was on the farm.

JM: That was the only job you had before?

DP: Yeah.

JM: Did anyone in your family serve in WWI?

DP: No. Not that I know of.

JM: So were you the first one ever in the service?

DP: As far as I know.

JM: Where were you when you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

DP: I was at home with my father. I had a brother. My

brother was home. Must have heard it on the radio.

JM: Do you remember what your reaction was when you first heard about it?

DP: I was surprised. Could hardly believe what was

happening.

JM: Did you know anything about the Japanese or the

Germans before the war?

DP: Japanese, they were talking peace then attacked

Pearl Harbor. The Germans, I guess I had an

attitude about Hitler. The way he did things. I

always have been a real old-fashioned American.

Proud of my country.

JM: What do you think the general attitude of the

community was when Pearl Harbor happened?

DP: Everybody got behind all the servicemen. Every- body pitched in.

JM: What were some of the things you saw them do

pitching in?

DP: I joined up in ‘42. Up until then people were

sacrificing. They did what they could. They were

getting ready for rationing. All the men had to go

to war; the women went to work in factories.

JM: Did you know anybody who was against

enlisting?

DP: No. I didn’t know too many who enlisted but my father wasn’t too anxious to have me enlist.

JM: When did you enlist?

DP: May of ‘42. I went to Ft. Devans. Had four

four months training there. They shipped me overseas in September ‘42. We didn’t go

directly to Europe. We landed in Iceland for some

reason.

JM: What did you do in Iceland?

DP: They started forming an anti-aircraft unit. We

stayed in Iceland a couple of months I guess.

Then they assigned most of us into infantry. They

had asked me if I knew much about guns and of

course my father always had a lot of guns home

and I was a hunter and had a lot of experience with

guns. Had a lot of training on different kinds of

weapons.

JM: What were some of the weapons you trained on?

DP: Machine guns, bazookas, M1 primary rifle. The

Springfield rifle was more or less for sniping. All

kinds of grenades and stuff like that.

JM: Did you train in Iceland?

DP: Some of it but then they shipped us to Lands End

in England. Got a lot of training there. Special

training.

JM: Like what?

DP: I was put into the 424th Infantry regiment. We did

a lot of special training. One of our officers was

from the Rangers. He gave us a lot of special

training. Hand to hand, scaling walls, rough

terrain, different kinds of terrain’s, camouflage.

JM: Did they train you in urban warfare?

DP: Yeah. House to house.

JM: What happened after the training?

DP: We didn’t get sent in on D Day itself. The place

was loaded with people. Troops everywhere.

Machinery. Unbelievable the amount of stuff that

was there. We crossed the Channel a few days

after D Day. We reached the beach in France and

there was still some fighting going on but it wasn’t

as bad as the first waves that went in.

JM: Do you know what beach you were on?

DP: Omaha beach. We fought our way inland. More or

less of a regiment just by ourselves. We were

quite a few soldiers but we weren’t like a division

or anything. By that time I had made sergeant.

JM: Were you in command of people then?

DP: A platoon. Maybe twenty people. Then after a

while there was so many sergeants, there were

really too many sergeants because it felt like

every time you turned around somebody was a

sergeant. We had a lot of tough times. Ardennes

Forest, Hertigen Forest, Battle of the Bulge - we

were pretty well broken up. Scattered all over.

Took us a while. Some of them didn’t make it

anyway. We finally gathered together enough to

make a fighting unit out of it anyway. From there

on it was the Germans last push anyway.

Christmas - December. The hardest part a lot

of time was the darn weather.

JM: What kind of weather?

DP: If it wasn’t mud it was snow. A lot of mud in

France into Belgium. Ardennes Forest.There was a

lot of mud in there too. Battle of the Bulge was in

December. A lot of snow on the ground. It got

awful foggy. That’s how the Germans took

advantage of the fog because we didn’t have any

air cover. The airplanes weren’t able to operate.

Our intelligence didn’t foresee that I guess. I

don’t know why. The Germans put everything

they had into that. They had tanks coming at you.

I was standing there with a rifle. What you going

to do there? Of course after the fog lifted the air

corp came in and took care of them - killed them

in the tanks. We were able to do something. We

were walking in a forest there. It was bad getting

shelled with artillery, mortars. We were lucky.

The German air force didn’t amount to much by

then. They did strafe a couple of times with some

German fighting planes. they weren’t too in

control most of the time. Want to know about

some of the times I was nervous?

JM: Yes. Anything you want to talk about.

DP: We’d dig in at night so someone would have to

do what’s called up post duty. Two guys - no

man’s land between you and the enemy. The

purpose of that was so the unit didn’t get

surprised by German patrol. It was pretty damn

lonesome out there. I few times we had German

patrols come by our outpost. There were only two

of us and one time we were in a big bomb crater,

staying all night long out there, there was snow

on the ground. I always used to carry extra

stockings under my arms inside my clothing. I’d

change my stockings every chance I got. Take

care of my feet because they were wet a lot. It

was just barely daylight and I had just finished

changing my socks and I heard (interviewee made

a sound). The soldier who was with me, he was

just a replacement. He hadn’t had any much

much experience. Got my boots back on, heard

something coming through the snow - bunch of

people walking. So I looked over the edge and

saw a German patrol coming by. Eight or ten of

them. I told him, I saw the way they were coming,

they were going to se us anyway, coming right

toward us practically. He said what are we going

to do. I said don’t get excited, be ready. You

stay over that side, I’ll stay on this side. When

they get close enough when I say the word just

jump and kill them because otherwise they’re

going to get us. We challenged them. They were

surprised. They didn’t expect anybody to be out

there. So most of them threw their hands up

right away. Lucky. They were just so surprised.

There was a couple - one of them tried to throw a

grenade - I had to shoot him. The other one tried

something and I had to take care of him. But the

rest of them we captured them all.

Another time, I heard a bunch coming by. There

was quite a few of them. There was like a pile of

brush and snow on the ground. The guy that was

with me, he fell asleep. He was snoring. I gave

him a kick and he stopped snoring. I told him I

think there is Germans coming over. He woke up

and I said if you be quiet I think they’re going to

pass us. There’s too many for two of us to do

anything. So we kept quiet. They went by - didn’t

know we were there. But it’s things like that that

make you nervous. Then you see some of your

buddies go down beside you sometimes. Bad too.

JM: Did you ever get injured?

DP: No. Awful close. Holes through my coat.

Shrapnel on my helmet. I never got wounded.

Lot of artillery shells falling around you. Especially

mortars. At night we used to watch buzz bombs

go over. Wondered if they were ever going to

drop. They just had so much fuel in them. When

they ran out of fuel came down. Lucky there.

Just kept going somewhere else. It as tough in

the winter. It was cold. Sitting in a foxhole. Had

one of those sterno cans I used to stick down in

the bottom of the foxhole. It didn’t make any

smoke. Put my poncho over to try and get some

heat out of that and dry out a little bit. Sometimes

you were supposed to be relieved. After being

in the front line for a while some other outfit was

supposed to relieve you. Sometimes they didn’t make it. Then you’d get real tired. Sometimes I

felt like I was going to drop standing up. Just from

exhaustion. You don’t sleep good at night. When

you did get relieved they pulled you back and you

got a hot meal. They put you back in some farm

village somewhere. You got a nice shower. You

get cleaned up. I used to find a hay mow and go

to sleep. Stay there for a few days then you have

to go back in. That’s the way it was.

JM: Did you go toward Berlin at all?

DP: Went right into Germany. Not Berlin - part of

Germany. We had to stay there until they got

around to sending us home because the war was

over. The Germans didn’t want any more than we

did. They were Hail Hitler all the way. There was

a lot of regular soldiers. We talked to a lot of

prisoners.

JM: What were they like?

DP: For one thing they were really surprised because

Hitler was always telling them that Americans don’t

know how to fight. They don’t know how to be

soldiers or nothing. German soldiers I talked to

were really surprised how brave the Americans

were. They couldn’t believe it. They’d been brain

washed.

JM: Was there anything they said that surprised you?

DP: Yeah. They talked about Christmas and stuff.

They had families. They didn’t want the war -

didn’t want to fight. Some of them gave up real

easy. Seemed like some of them were just glad to

get captured. Some of them got sent back here to

the States after the war was over.

JM: Do you have any memories of basic training?

DP: Not that I remember.

JM: What was homecoming like?

DP: Took the train to Hartford. Took a bus to

Torrington. My father picked me up and brought

me home on Norfolk Road. It was great to get

home and catch up on everything and my father

and my brother and everything.

JM: Do you remember if anything was changed in your

community?

DP: Not too much. I was anxious to get back into

civilian life.

JM: Where did you work then?

DP: I started to work at the factory for a little while.

Then I decided to take up a trade so I worked

with a plumber and I kind of like it so I studied,

kept working at it, and got my license.

JM: Did the VA help you with that?

DP: No.

JM: What was the most important thing you got out of

the war?

DP: Just makes you wonder why they have to have

wars. Feel sorry you have to have wars to decide

things. Too bad nations can’t get along better.

JM: If there was anything today’s generation should

have learned from the war, what would it be?

DP: I would wish they were good Americans and be

proud of their country and do what they can to

make the country proud. When there is a crisis

they should stay behind the country. If the country

needs you you should be there.

JM: Is there anything you would like to add?

DP: Thousands and thousands of people went through

it. A lot of them never came back. It was a great

sacrifice to make.

End of Interview.