The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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216916 William "Wild Bill" Guarnere United States Army 101st Airborne Division from:Philadelphia William "Wild Bill" Guarnere of South Philadelphia, a member of the famed 101st Airborne Division whose World War II exploits were portrayed in the TV mini-series Band of Brothers, died Saturday, March 8, 2014 He didn't talk about the war when his two sons were growing up, even though he organized Army reunions beginning in 1947 and even though he lost his right leg while helping a wounded comrade. "He never said a word," his son said. "I served in Vietnam in 1967. When I came home, I asked my father what he did in the war. He said, 'The war is over, kid. Forget about it.' " Forgetting was not an option after writer Stephen Ambrose immortalized the members of Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in his best-selling book, later made into the HBO mini-series. The chronicles followed the soldiers from their training in Georgia in 1942 through the harrowing battles they fought across Europe until the war ended in 1945. As Mr. Guarnere told The Inquirer in 2010, D-Day was not only terrifying but vengeful. He learned of his brother Henry's death at the hands of the Germans in Italy just before parachuting directly into a firefight in Normandy, France. "I couldn't wait to get off the plane," Mr. Guarnere recalled. "I killed every German I could. That's why they called me 'Wild Bill.' I landed in the middle of a square and they [Germans] were shooting at us. They were kind of scared; we were scared, too." Mr. Guarnere was instrumental in getting a monument erected in Normandy to honor the leadership of his unit, particularly his former commander, Richard Winters. s flynn Add to this record.  Related Content: D Day and the Battle of Normandy 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.