Colonel Lloyd G. Huggins landed on Omaha Beach three weeks after D-Day as the replacement officer for Easy Company’s Infantry Regiment. They were in continuous combat for nearly one year fighting through France, the Siegfried Line, the Hurtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, across the Remagen Bridge, until VE Day. No one had more respect for his infantry men than Huggins did. Through it all, he put his men first and foremost in his mind. This is his story, as told in his letters to the podcast host and his unpublished 1988 autobiography that he sent to me.

Colonel Lloyd Huggins

Newspaper article - Ft. Wolter

Hurtgen Forest

Hurtgen Forest

Hurtgen Forest

Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen

Following the unconditional surrender of Germany on VE Day and the unconditional surrender of Japan three months later on VJ Day, spontaneous celebrations swept across the US with tinker tape parades, dancing and singing. In Times Square, an estimated two million people gathered to celebrate. But not every veteran participated or received the warm welcome they expected upon returning home. By the time Henry Heller was finally sent home from Germany, there were no hugs or parades. Suffering from a number of maladies, Heller struggled for years to get the help he needed from the VA. Bud Olson and Tom Carr both found the transition to civilian life difficult. The skills they had learned as fighting men in WW 2 didn’t open any doors in the domestic civilian job market. Having lost so many of their buddies in the war, many veterans were in no mood to celebrate. Arnold “Dutch Nagel, Richard Mandich, Lewis J. Gould, Michael Luciano, and Edward Heinle seemed haunted by the friends they left behind. WW II forever changed veterans. Some wore their scars on the outside and accepted them as challenges to overcome, such as Paul Leimkueler, who didn’t let losing a leg stop him from becoming a downhill US Ski Hall of Famer. It was the scars on the inside, the post traumatic stress, that were harder to overcome. Veterans like Robert Erhardt, Richard Morgan, Robert Bowen and Donald Chase dealt with the nightmares the rest of their lives. If they lived long enough, WW 2 veterans saw wars come again, though thankfully not on the scale of WW II. Some reenlisted to serve, while others saw their children serve such as Duane Stevens. Though proud of their service, many WW II veterans came out of WW 2 hating all war and regarded it as an abomination to be avoided whenever possible. Dennis Olson, Lloyd Huggins, Arthur Jackson, David Saltman, Charles Wysocki and Donald Chase wanted to make sure no one glorified war and saw it for what it was: HELL. Those stories and more in Episode 20 When Johnny Came Marching Home: Transitions and Remembrance.

Henry Heller

Bud Olson

Tom Carr

Arnold "Dutch" Nagel

Lewis J. Gould

Robert Erhardt

Richard V. Morgan

Robert Bowen

Stan Davis

Donald Chase

Paul Leimkuehler

Dennis Olson

Lloyd Huggins

Arthur Jackson

David Saltman

Charles Wysocki

When Germany unconditionally surrendered and Victory in Europe or VE Day was announced on May 8, 1945, American GIs were in a mood to celebrate. For Russell Darks in France and Charlie Toole in London, it was an unforgettable night of celebrations. But, in Germany, Murray Shapiro found that German civilians had nothing to celebrate, and all was quiet. Tom Carr wanted to celebrate, but he was recovering from war injuries in a Czechoslovakian hospital. Within days of VE-Day, Tom Morris had to establish a camp for German POWs and civilian refugees who now numbered in the thousands. Lloyd Huggins was already questioning whether the Soviet soldiers, our so-called allies, were any better than the Germans we defeated when he was kept awake all night by the screams of German women being raped in the Soviet occupied quarter. Harry Koty figured he was pretty lucky. His 97th Infantry Division was one of the first to be sent home to the US. Then, he learned they were sent home so quick so they could be redeployed in the Pacific. But his luck continued. En route, the Japanese surrendered and Koty had an enviable assignment once he arrived to occupied Japan – guarding a house full of Geisha girls and preventing GIs from visiting them. The invasion of mainland Japan was expected to be costly for both American and Japanese lives. 370,000 Purple Heart medals were ordered by the U.S. Army in preparation for the invasion. They weren’t needed. Instead, the US became the only country in history to drop the atomic bomb first in Hiroshima killing 80,000, then in Nagasaki, killing 70,000. Almost all of the dead were civilians. Fearful that more cities would soon be obliterated, Japan quickly surrendered. While the US action remains controversial even today, most GIs supported the decision crediting the dropping of the bombs with saving their lives and that of their buddies. But some GIs saw the dropping of the atomic bombs on innocent civilians as an immoral, dirty act, and would have preferred to have kept fighting. In any case, all of the GIs fighting in the Pacific were glad the war was finally over when VJ-Day was announced. These stories and more in Part 2 of our Victory at Last episode.

Russell Darkes

Murray Shapiro

Charlie Toole

Tom Carr

Tom C. Morris

Lloyd Huggins

Harry Koty

Robert B. Nett

Joe Lawhn

Ralph Keller

Rex Whitehead

James and Eva Mae Spaulding

Raymond Komro

Charles Wysocki