"We were the most forward element in that sector of Normandy." (Interview)

John R. Sudyk

John Sudyk [detail] War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Unit: 187th Field Artillery Battalion Service Location: Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Vermont; Tennessee; Virginia; France; Belgium; Germany; Czechoslovakia Rank: Corporal Place of Birth: Hinckley, OH

John Sudyk and his artillery battalion weren't the first to land on the beach, but they helped spearhead the subsequent thrust of the American Army through France and Belgium and into Germany. They witnessed the horrors of the Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge, were in Paris when it was liberated, and saw desperate Germans fleeing vengeful Russians the war's final chaotic days. In the last portion of the interview tape Sudyk's wife Helen contributes her home front memories of working in a defense plant.