The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     TWMP on Facebook     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

210978 Sgt. James Henry Belter United States Army This is a brief story about my grandfather James Henry Belter during his service in WWII while at the Battle of Anzio in Italy. This information was passed down through other family members as he died of a massive heart attack in early August of 1968, which was just a bit over eight years before I was born. Sometime during the Allied invasion at Anzio while in fierce battle, Sgt Belter was captured by the Germans and was briefly a prisoner in a marching line of other soldiers. His location in the line was at the very end where he walked alongside another American Army prisoner. A Nazi guard followed directly behind them on foot as well. Apparently sensing an advantage at the end of this march, Sgt Belter and the other troop member made small talk taking note that the guard understood not a word of English. At this, they plotted an attack and escape where they were able to physically overcome the guard, beat and choke him to death, take his rifle and pistol and get away undetected by other guards further up the marching line. Beyond this information I know little else and apparently grandpa Jim did not like to talk about his time fighting in the war. I did inherit the pistol he took off the guard which is a CZ Model 27 .32ACP caliber single action semi-auto handgun holding 10+1 rounds - including holster and additional magazine. The gun itself was a Czech made firearm with Nazi markings identifying it from the period of time Hitler had control of Czechoslovakia industries supplying the German war effort. I keep one of his dog tags on a small tag chain attached to and hanging from the trigger guard. I would have loved to have known him in this world. But I know I will get to see him some day on the other side. Damn proud of what he did in fighting and surviving a very bad campaign during the war. Jesse Regenauer Add to this record.  Related Content: Battle of Anzio Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.