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"I traded in my walking cane for an M-1 rifle and some hand grenades." (Interview)

   Kenneth T. Delaney
Image of Kenneth T. Delaney
PFC Delaney, after discharge January 1946
War: World War II, 1939-1946
Branch: Army
Unit: Company C, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Service Location: England; Normandy, France; Belgium; Germany; Czechoslovakia
Highest Rank: Sergeant
Place of Birth: Astoria, NY
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"I wasn't really nervous," Kenneth Delaney writes of landing on Omaha Beach, "I was just seasick." As he got off his landing craft, loaded with grenades, maps, a rifle and Bangalore torpedoes (explosive devices for removing barbed wire and other obstacles), Delaney was shot in the foot. As he watched many of the medics being killed, he managed to drag himself to safety and eventually got help. Wounded again that winter, Delaney was released from the hospital just in time to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.

Interview (Audio)
»Interview Highlights  (2 clips)
»Complete Interview  (11 min.)
»Transcript
  Photos
»Photo Album (7 photos)
 Memoirs
»View List (2 items)
 Official Documents
»View List (2 items)
 Personal Correspondence
»View List (5 items)
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»D-Day On the Beach
 Audio (Interview Excerpts) (2 items)
Last combat, in Czechoslovakia after the German surrender. (01:16) Leaving a hospital to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. (04:25) 
  
 Memoirs (2 items)
"D"-Day Battle of the Bulge 
  
 Official Documents (2 items)
Company "C" roster, March 31, 1945 Award for Conspicuous Service and letter from Owen Johnson accompanying award, September 19th, 1979. 
  
 Personal Correspondence (5 items)
V-mail to Irene C. Delaney, 28 December. 1943. V-mail to Mr. and Mrs. Delaney, 31 January. 1944. To "Mom and Dad", dated "April 30"
To "Mom and Dad", June 27, 1945 Just a WAC, V-mail envelope and accompanying explanatory note by Kenneth Delaney. 
  
 
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  The Library of Congress
  May 29, 2007
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