Join us as we delve into the valiant life of Francis Turner, a World War II veteran who shares his firsthand experiences of major campaigns across Europe and North Africa. From landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day to navigating the challenges of minefield clearance, Turner’s compelling recollections offer a rare glimpse into the realities of war. His courage, resilience, and the echoes of brotherhood shine through in this in-depth conversation.
00:00:12 Introduction to America’s Veteran Stories
World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and her other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s veteran stories with Kim Monson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Monson.
SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And the show comes to you because of a trip that I took in 2016 with a group that accompanied four D-Day veterans back to Normandy, France for the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings. Returned stateside realizing that we need to know these stories. We need to broadcast them and archive them. Hence, America’s Veterans Stories was born. But we have such a treasure trove of interviews that we thought it might be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear history from the men and women who lived it. I am absolutely thrilled to have on the line with me Francis C. Turner, World War II veteran. And you are just a little over 100 years old, aren’t you, Francis?
SPEAKER 07 :
I am now, yes.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, well, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re very welcome.
SPEAKER 09 :
So you have quite a story. You were involved in seven major campaigns in the European, well, in the North Africa, European theaters. And that is pretty amazing. And you have two bronze stars. So let’s start about at the beginning. Where did you grow up, Frances Turner?
SPEAKER 07 :
Where did I grow up? I grew up in eastern Crawford County near the town of Centerville.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, and is that in Pennsylvania? That’s in Crawford County in Pennsylvania. Okay. Yes. Okay. And your daughter, Susan, sent me some really interesting information. You were with the 17th Engineers.
And this is pretty amazing, just the pictures and the information that she sent over. Tell me about how did you get into the service? When did you join the Army?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I volunteered for the Army in January 1941. My reason was I had just become unemployed, and my draft date was due in April. So since I was unemployed and I was about to be drafted, I enlisted in the United States Army.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, now this was before the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, and this was almost, well, 11 months before. Were you anticipating that we for sure were going to go to war?
SPEAKER 07 :
Not really, but I knew from publicity that we needed to be prepared, and we needed to rejuvenate the Army in Japan. Navy of the United States government. So since I was unemployed and about to be drafted, I enlisted in the Army and I was sent to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. And tell us, what was boot camp like?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it was a short, quick, about six weeks of intensive drilling. and all those things that goes with basic training at Fort Belvoir. But then I was assigned to a special company at Fort Belvoir called the 31st Engineers. It was one company, and that company was attached to the engineer board, and they were doing research work on all kinds of engineer equipment.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, and I am not sure that novices that haven’t really studied this a lot knows what engineers did in World War II. So could you explain that to our listeners, please?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, the short definition is the Army engineers were educated infantrymen. We were schooled in such things as Mine field installation and recovery, bridge building, and I guess the other thing, we were trained to be soldiers.
SPEAKER 09 :
Trained to be soldiers.
SPEAKER 07 :
And, you know, you could say we were, like I just said, educated infantrymen.
SPEAKER 09 :
So you were building things while sometimes you might be possibly shot at as well, right? That’s correct. Okay. So you are going through your training. What happened after that? Where did you go after this?
SPEAKER 07 :
Fort Belvoir, for the first year, we were busy with the engineer board doing things like… putting up travel loads of boats and bridge equipment and building bridges and learning how to build bridges and turn them down. After a year, they began to call for more officers and engineers, well, in the Army. And so I applied for Officer Kennedy’s school. was accepted, and I graduated in August of 42 as a second lieutenant. And I went from there to Fort Atterbury in Indiana and then to Fort Knox in Kentucky in a short order. And I found out what kind of engineer unit I was going to be assigned to, and I requested a transfer to a combat engineer. So I got a transfer from Fort Knox, Kentucky, to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and joined the 2nd Armored Division in the 17th Engineer Battalion.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
And we were training dead for the invasion of North Africa. So we would make a train trip from Fort Bragg to Norfolk, go through an exercise in the Chesapeake Bay, recover our equipment, and go back to Fort Bragg. That happened about twice. And then the third trip, we found out that we weren’t going back to Fort Bragg. We were going overseas. And what happened, the fleet that we were in sailed to Casablanca and Port Leone in North Africa and Morocco.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, and so that was really the first foray generally into Europe. Well, to prepare to go into Europe, wasn’t it? But we had to get North Africa first. Am I correct on that?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, I think that’s quite correct. And that was the initial battle in the European theater. It was a capture of northwest Africa, Libya, and I’m on a bike here as to the countries. Port Lioti is in Morocco, and we moved from there to… Mustang and Algiers. And then that was when the combat elements of the division were engaged in the capture of Sicily. I happened to be in that company and the engineers, that was in reserve, so we didn’t go.
SPEAKER 09 :
to sicily but we moved from there to england and prepared for the northern generation wow okay let’s go back though francis because um i’ve done just enough studies on north the north africa campaign to just not really know a whole lot about what i’m talking about on that but But if I remember right, wasn’t it Rommel that we were really fighting there?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Rommel was in half of North Africa and near Egypt. And the British Army chased Rommel. back to Tunisia before he escaped to Italy and Europe. I’m not sure. It was a Vichy French military that we engaged in Morocco and And that just put up sort of a token resistance, shelled us a little bit and chased us a little further out to sea when they could reach us with our long-range artillery. The ship that I was on and my duties on that ship with my engineer platoon was to unload the ship. And there were 108 vehicles, 36 of which were tanks, on board that ship. And we put them craft and they went into shore. Before I got off of that ship we were torpedoed and abandoned ship and I went back aboard the ship. There was 500,000 gallons of aviation gasoline and 5 gallon cans in the deep tanks on that ship plus tons of aerial bombs 500 pound bombs and artillery ammunition as well as boxes and boxes of small arms ammunition. Some of it was destroyed when the ship was torpedoed, but we unloaded all of that in Port Lioti before we were put ashore at Casablanca and joined the rest of our combat units at Port Lioti.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
So we spent our first Christmas there in Morocco.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Anything else about North Africa that you think is important for our listeners to know?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, at this date, a lot of things. We did a lot of things. And in fact, one of the things that we were charged with was the retraining of the French army to use our American equipment. So we had quite a relationship with the French army. Army back and forth between our Bivouac in Africa and their headquarters in Algiers. So we spent a little time training French troops with American equipment before we went to Algiers to be trained. in support of our combat units that went to Sicily.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Okay. But you did not participate in the Sicilian campaign. You were reassigned, and you were shipped to England then to prepare for the D-Day invasion. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. Well, we were still in the same unit, the same battalion, the same division, the 2nd Armored Division that we were. Only Combat Command A and Combat Command B of the 2nd Armored Division went to Sicily, and all the rest of the troops that weren’t assigned to those combat commands were in reserve when we stayed there in Algiers.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. And then when did you leave Algiers then?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, we left Algiers, gosh, 1944, would it be? Yeah. Okay. Yes, and went to England. We were in Tedworth Barracks in England over Christmas and, of course, preparing for the invasion of the Europeans. We went ashore. First troops went ashore in Normandy.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, so how many days after the initial D-Day? I hate to call it invasion because it was really a liberation. So how many days before you went onto the beach there at Normandy?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I went into Normandy Beach. We called it Omaha Beach Red on the third day after the first troops arrived. So that would have been June the 9th. We went ashore, moved to the vicinity of St. Louis and Normandy. And then we were preparing for getting out of the beachhead. Well, we had about two or five miles of depth into France at that time. And so it was… In July, I think, we made the attack down at the beach end and made our way all the way to Belgium.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. What did you see when you went on? You said you went on to Omaha Beach then. What did you see as you went into Normandy on that third day after the initial liberation activities?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you know, one of the things that surprised me was that the beach was cleaned up. All of the men that lost their lives on the initial landing had all been picked up and taken care of. And I guess they were buried in a cemetery on the back of Omaha Beach. cemetery that still exists there today. We went in maybe a couple of miles off of the beach and prepared for the breakout of the beachhead, which the Well, it was maybe within a month or two after we had landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy during the 6th. Dates didn’t mean much to us. We were involved in defeating the enemy at all costs, and so whatever was required, we did.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
All Kim’s sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening. Welcome back to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. I am honored to have on the line with me Francis C. Turner. He is a World War II veteran. He is 100 and a half years old. And I stand corrected. I said that you had two bronze stars, but you actually have a bronze star and a silver star. So, Francis, tell us about, first of all, the bronze star.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, the bronze star… courageous action. And that probably was awarded shortly after I landed in Normandy. The Silver Star was awarded to us in Germany, and we were involved in a mine removal activity to the town of Julek in Germany. And that’s where I got the Silver Star.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, so let’s go back to the Bronze Star. What happened exactly when you were then awarded the Bronze Star?
SPEAKER 07 :
I don’t really recall what the citation, how it reads now, but I would guess it was awarded in 1990. Okay. Is there a particular story? I’m looking at something. Okay. It just said that you were leading a minesweeping party. Yeah, when we got into Germany, north of Aachen, near, well, I guess it was in the town of That’s a better term. To clear the roadway into the town of Julek Mine. So we were on a mine discovery operation, cleared the road so that the rest of the combat team could make their way into Julek in their vehicles. Suffice to say, we didn’t find any mines. the removal of minefield later after we crossed the rural river in Germany.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. What about the Silver Star? What happened then?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, the Silver Star was a mine sweeping detail, and I’m sure was in the rural industrial area in Dulich in Germany. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. I’m looking at a newspaper article that your daughter sent to me, and it was talking about you. It says the McGee town man wouldn’t talk much about the experience. It was just something that had to be done, and he happened to be there at the time to do it, he said. And that’s pretty humble, Francis Turner. That’s pretty humble.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well… I was a second lieutenant, fresh out of officer candidate school when I went to North Africa. And I was still a second lieutenant when we landed in Normandy. And I guess I didn’t get promoted to first lieutenant. We couldn’t until after the war was over. But I think one of the things I remember most vividly was the mine sweeping that we did on our own into Washington. And when we crossed the rural river on our way to clear the west bank of the Rhine, we heard a pass through a minefield on that side of the rural river that made it pass for the tanks to get through on their way to their objective near Baisweiler, Germany.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, Francis Turner, I am thinking about this. I’m not sure I understand how you clear a minefield. So, you and your engineering colleagues are coming up to a minefield. What do you do? How do you do that?
SPEAKER 07 :
You do it very carefully. I’m sure you do. We had mine sweepers, a piece of equipment that was kind of like a radio that would detect mines. any metal that was in the ground and we used those and we managed to clear a path using those mine sweepers and picking up the mines and we did that on the road to Jewel Lake and then again on the east bank of the rural river when we crossed out on our way up to the Rhine river and i can’t remember the name of the town now the minesweeper it was a one-man opera piece of equipment. The worst part of it was the man that was operating the mine sweeper had to be standing on his feet, and he was a target for small arms fire. That bothered me a number of times when we were clearing mines. We were out in front of the American army while we were clearing mines, preparing a path for the tanks to go through. And there might be some infantry with us or ahead of us at the time, but even so, we had to remove those mines, and they didn’t know. They had no idea whether the mines were moving draft or whether they were anti-personnel mines in that minefield. So neat.
SPEAKER 09 :
So how did you remove a mine? I mean, I’m fascinated with this. First of all, it sounds like extremely dangerous work.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you had to uncover it first. And their mines were such that they could place detonators in the mine for, I guess, personnel. So we had to attach a rope to it. or a line, if you want to say it that way, to the handle on the mine and then get back away from the mine and pull it out. If it didn’t go off, then it was safe to handle. And fortunately, we didn’t, in my experience, we didn’t really remove any of those that were booby-trapped and exploded when we pulled them out.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. So then you’ve done that particular maneuver. Then you, what, I mean, do you guys have to pick the mine up, or what do you do with it?
SPEAKER 07 :
We picked it up and looked for a good place to dispose of it. We were quite lucky where we were picking up the mines. There was an anti-tank ditch right there, so we picked the mines up and we dumped them in that anti-tank ditch. because the tanks weren’t going to go into that tank. That ditch, they were going to either go along it or cross it at one place. And if it crossed a ditch, an anti-tank ditch, we would usually have to build a bridge or some other activity like bulldozing the banks of the anti-tank ditch out so we could get the tanks out.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. That is absolutely fascinating. Producer John and I are both just shaking our heads thinking about what you guys were doing on that.
SPEAKER 07 :
It was an ordinary thing. It was one of those things. We carried rifles and… machine guns. And engineers, their primary objective wasn’t really to act as infantry, although we could do that when we were called upon and did. At times, we often pulled duty on us, guarding the tanks at night when they were in a stationary position. We would fortify ourselves around the Have someone awake so that we weren’t surprised and the enemy had a chance to destroy our tanks.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. So now we’ve talked about that you were involved in seven major campaigns. So you have seven battle stars, right? Am I correct on that?
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
So we have North Africa.
SPEAKER 07 :
North Africa, even though we didn’t participate ourselves, A Company and B Company were in Sicily. The whole battalion got credit for that. Okay. We had troops there. And then, of course, Normandy and northern France and Belgium and Germany. And we crossed the Rhine north of the rural industrial area. the town of Magdeburg on the Elbe River, which, of course, was the end of the war.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Okay, so Normandy, the next battle, you say Northern Front. Is that really coming off of the beachhead? Is that what battle that is?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, that was, no. The beachhead was one battle. Then Northern France, we had a few battles. around the beachhead before we made a mad dash to the Belgian border. And then, of course, we had some battles in Belgium and northern Germany and captured Basweiler in northern Germany. And then we had to go backtrack and participate in the Battle of the Bulge, which was a The German Army’s last campaign, we, the 2nd Armored Division, Command A and B, stopped the German thrust short of their objective and threw them back, and then we chased them back across the Rhine, I guess you could, well, the Ruhr River. Okay. At that time, that was right around Christmas time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. And I hear it was really, really cold during that time.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it was cold. I didn’t vouch for that. I went out to dig foxholes, and the weather wasn’t that good. It would rain a little bit in the foxholes and fill up with water. So it wasn’t a whole lot of fun, and I guess that would be it. to keep moving and destroy the German army if we could do that.
SPEAKER 09 :
So you could get home quicker and not be in those kinds of… Yeah, we can get home quicker. Yeah. Well, let’s back up a little bit. You mentioned Belgium. So were you involved in Operation Market Garden?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, we weren’t. Market Garden was the airborne division. 82nd and 101st Airborne were involved in that operation. A skirmish at Market Garden, although we were south of there, south of Market Garden in Belgium. I think the town that we were thinking was Ophelies.
SPEAKER 09 :
And Francis Turner, as you were liberating these towns, did you see many of the people that live there? I remember that when I was in Normandy in 2016, there were photographs on just even on the walls of businesses on the outside and the streets. Just the glee of the people of Normandy as they saw the American soldier was pretty amazing. Did you have any interactions with the people as you were liberating the places that they lived?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, not really. There was a directive issued by General Eisenhower that the American Army was not to fraternize with the Americans So we were forbidden to socialize in any way with the inhabitants. It wasn’t until after we got to Moggyburg and took Moggyburg on help that that requirement was relaxed, and we started to And as quickly as they landed in the vehicle, we threw them out. Because why? We threw them out because we were still under the impression that anything that came your way could explode.
SPEAKER 1 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, so very quickly threw those out.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
All Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, KimMonson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for listening to America’s Veterans Stories. We are rebroadcasting some of the shows that we have recorded in the past because we have these amazing guests and these amazing stories, and we need to hear them. And so we thought that it would be a great idea to rebroadcast some of these so that you can hear our history and know our history because it is so important. So again, this is something that was recorded earlier, and thank you for listening. And just I’m learning so much, Francis, it’s just really fascinating to get to chat with you about this.
SPEAKER 07 :
decoration that I think is important. And that was, we were awarded the Belgian Fort de Guerre with the colors of the Crown de Guerre. And it was an award that we received from the Belgian government that was a permanent award. We could put it on our uniforms and wear it. So that’s one that I have that I look at once in a while. It’s a red and green braided rope with a little tassel on the end of it that you wore around the arm of your uniform on your shoulder.
SPEAKER 09 :
Francis Turner, have you been back to Europe for any of the anniversaries of any of these battles or been back to Europe by any chance?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, I have. In fact, I just returned from a trip that was sponsored by the best defense organization where we visited in Belgium multiple times. I went over one other time earlier, and I don’t remember the dates now, but we made a journey all the way to Burley. And in Berlin, after the war ended at Magdeburg on the Elbe, we were the first combat division of the U.S. Army to occupy the city of Berlin. So we got there first of the American troops. One thing that sort of destroyed us a little bit was the Russians got there first, and they looted the town. They took anything and everything that wasn’t tied down and moved it back to Russia. The only thing they didn’t pick up was the streetcar tracks.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. I had heard that the Germans really wanted to surrender to the Americans versus the Russians if they had a choice.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, that is true. And I guess because… We were advancing without resistance, so it was just a matter of building a bridge over the Elbe River and… We could have been in Berlin, but in fact, at one place just south or west-east of Magdeburg, we did have a beachhead across the Elbe. And when the high command, the American command, learned that we had troops across the Elbe, they ordered us back. Any reason why? And why do you think… And you sat… So why? Why do you think that happened? Well, I think the simple story is that when Roosevelt and Churchill Casablanca they agreed on what everyone was going to do and we were the Americans were given the objective of the Elm River and we weren’t allowed to make it into Berlin okay what did you see when you arrived in Berlin then When we got to Berlin, it was a pile of junk. Buildings were all destroyed. The Germans had cleared a part of the streets so they could get around. But most all of the buildings were destroyed or damaged. I know when we went into Berlin as the first occupation troops, of course, this was all division. I was lucky to find a section in Berlin that wasn’t completely destroyed. And we moved in German occupants that we were commandeering our homes and to get out. So we were living in houses that weren’t destroyed while we were in Berlin.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. And so what happened to the people when you guys commandeered their homes?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, We didn’t really care. We didn’t follow up. We just told them, find some other place to live. I assume that most of them had relatives in the city where they could up in their home and their home is what was left on them while we were there. Go ahead. Well, okay. You can go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Well, what about food? Were the people, did they have food from what you could tell or had they been hungry?
SPEAKER 07 :
No. That was one of their problems. Their communications or their transportation way of getting food. So I know when we first set up in Berlin, people around there, old ladies and children, would come into our mess section and take the scrapings out of the biscuits that our men were discarding in the garbage can.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. This is fascinating. I want to go back, though, just a little bit to Battle of the Bulge. We only just hit on that. And exactly what you did at Battle of the Bulge, you mentioned the 82nd Airborne, the 101st Airborne. And this was Hitler’s kind of last hurrah. He was he was low on supplies. He needed he needed fuel. And so it was kind of a surprise attack right before Christmas time. And so where were you at exactly in all of that, Francis?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, we were stationed in the town of Baysweiler in Germany, and Baysweiler is north of Aachen, which was another large. German city that was destroyed by the Air Force. So we were ordered to go back into Belgium near the age in Belgium. We were given an area for our assembly area in Belgium, and we picked up and moved. That was about $100. mild march that we made in a day’s time or more, a couple of days back into there. When we got to our assigned area in Belgium, we found it occupied already by the Germans. So we went from traveling to combat immediately. And I think our actions We made an attack of our own then towards, oh, I can’t think of the name of the town. Maastricht seems like one that comes to mind. clear the west bank of the Rhine.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, at Battle of the Bulge, our guys were in a difficult situation. In fact, they were almost encircled at Bastogne, if I remember right. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, the American Army was really stretched out over a long piece of ground in Germany, The positions were pretty thin in their line. On the Bulge, their first initial thrust was successful, you might say, until we regrouped and put a stop on it. And, of course, the 2nd Armored Division had moved from the Baysweiler area down to the Hage, and we went right into the attack. And we… ostrich that we were taking and that was winter time and that made it a little hard for the tanks. Well, actually it was late winter, early spring and when In the back area, we rearmed and cleaned up our tanks and got ready for the attack towards Berlin.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow, this seems like a long time. So, Francis Turner, you left your family and went to serve. How long was it that you were gone before you came back to see your family?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I was gone for three years. for North Africa in 1942, 41 or 42, until we ended up to war in 1945 on Helm. And, of course, we had to, General Patton had promised we would occupy Berlin, so the Eisenhower honored that promise, and we occupied, we were the first combat unit to occupy sort of established a norm for Berlin. But at that time, the Air Force was flying food and supplies into Berlin for the German population. And so there was a constant flight of aircraft from France and Belgium into Berlin.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, what I’m hearing, Francis, is a couple of things that I find so interesting. First of all, as you’re moving through Europe, you guys have orders not to fraternize with the people that live there. And in a way, that’s kind of unheard of in war as victors are moving through. And then also, what country that actually is victorious over another country then does food drops to the people that are there? I mean, I find that pretty amazing, Francis Turner.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, well, we did that. Of course, the order for non-practicalization that came down from Schaaf headquarters didn’t last very long. It was kind of difficult to do that when you got all these people around you. When we were in Berlin and work in our kitchens. Girls served for us waitresses, for the men and officers. So I sort of got the fraternization. And of course, the German people who were in Berlin, when coming to our areas and actually take what the men didn’t eat from their mess kits before they could get it into a garbage can and the German family would have it in their plate. Wow. That’s how hungry they were. They were hungry. And it took a while for the transportation system to finally catch up and of course the Air Force, the flew a lot of supplies into Tempelhof Airport to get food to central Germany.
SPEAKER 09 :
I find that really amazing. So, Francis Turner, we are just about out of time. One final question. What would you say to the young people of America today?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I don’t know. I had the opportunity when we were living in western Pennsylvania to there about World War II, and I had a map of the battle area that I took with me that helped to describe what it was all about. But we did give quite a few talks to schoolchildren about our experience in World War II.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. Well, Francis Turner, I am so grateful. I appreciate you sharing many of your stories with us today. So thank you so much. It has been an honor. Okay. And so this, we were talking with Francis Turner, World War II veteran. Thank you for joining us for this episode of America’s Veteran Stories. While some of the details may be a bit dated, the courage, sacrifice, and stories of our veterans never go out of style. For more incredible stories, past and present, check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com or catch new episodes each week. Until next time, thank you for listening and for honoring those who served. We indeed stand on the shoulders of giants. God bless you and God bless America.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 05 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
Join us as we delve into the valiant life of Francis Turner, a World War II veteran who shares his firsthand experiences of major campaigns across Europe and North Africa. From landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day to navigating the challenges of minefield clearance, Turner’s compelling recollections offer a rare glimpse into the realities of war. His courage, resilience, and the echoes of brotherhood shine through in this in-depth conversation.
