![]() Many Soldiers in Williams’ unit did not survive the Germans cut down 44 men instantly. ![]() The New York native can still recall the day that he and his fellow Soldiers stormed the shores of Normandy to a waiting German Army. But, later, during interviews, he revealed some of his secrets. Williams kept the atrocities he witnessed hidden for most of his life. Preder, as a former suicide prevention manager for the New York National Guard, saw many of the same symptoms in veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. “He remembers everything,” his granddaughter, Julie Preder said. As does the ruins of cities torn apart by war and the dead from both sides lying in the aftermath. Peter’s, decades removed from the war, the guilt haunts him. “A lot of them never had a homecoming.”Īnd even from his room in St. “You lay your head on the pillow at night and you think ‘wow I got to come home,’” he said. Today, fewer than 389,000 of the 16 million Americans who fought during World War II remain. And he said he carries the burden of knowing he survived while so many U.S. Williams left Europe mostly unscathed, with only a broken finger, he told his family. He has four children, seven grand-children and nine great-grandchildren. Peter’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Albany, upstate New York. He lives his days quietly now in the shelter of St. Williams said the memories of war remain with him from the hopeful to the gruesome. “I saw, with my own eyes grown men crying,” said Williams, who turned 100 on January 23. Now that the Americans had liberated the village, Williams and his unit then watched the Jewish family’s young daughter, who looked about two years old, walk into the daylight for the first time, he said. Williams could see two young faces peering behind a curtain in one of the windows. After Williams’ commander nodded yes, the child’s relatives revealed that for two years they had sheltered a Jewish family from the war. The boy’s parents asked Williams’ commander and if they intended to stay and if they could safely come out. There, he said, a boy led Williams and his fellow Soldiers to his family’s cottage. WASHINGTON - During one trek toward the end of World War II, Harold Williams and members of the 1st Infantry Division encroached upon a small village near the French-Belgian border. ![]() (Photo Credit: Courtesy photo) VIEW ORIGINAL Williams served in seven campaigns during World War II. Army technical sergeant turned 100 years old in January 2023. World War II veteran Harold Williams, a retired U.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |