Alfred Dietrick was born in December 1921 in San Antonio, Texas. His life was happy. His father was a carpenter when he could find work, which was hard to find in those days. His mother was a housewife. She was Hispanic and his father was of German descent. He lived in a poor neighborhood. It did not occur to him that his parents were a "mixed" marriage. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks how The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945, affected his family.] There was help but you had to know about it to take advantage of it. One place was the soup line. You had to bring your own pot to put the soup in. A woman told him she would be sent as a little girl. The person giving it to her was not getting any of the solids at the bottom. The girl said she swore at the person ladling the soup. His family had a radio and about the time he began to get into the news he was in high school. One of his teachers at the trade school he attended, said that out of their class of about 50, about three of them would become machinists, and the rest of them would be toting a gun soon because a war was coming. That was the only time he heard that mentioned. That was 1938 and 1939. He was in the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] in high school and was a Cadet Captain. His commander gave him a medal for being the best officer of 1939. In ROTC in those days, you wore the uniform four days a week. That meant his parents did not have to buy him clothes. The marching and the uniform got people's attention and that attracted him. His father had served in World War 1. After the war, his 2nd Infantry Division was stationed at Fort Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: now JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, part of Joint Base San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas]. That is where he met Dietrick's mother. The Division stayed there until World War 2. His father talked to him about being in the war. He had been a sergeant in supply. He would load up things in wagons and take them to the front-line using mules. Artillery would come in from the Germans to the rear. That made the mules hard to handle. His father thought ROTC was good discipline. When Dietrick told his father he had joined the 36th Infantry Division, he looked down at the floor sadly. Dietrick realized what he was thinking. That was the worst thing you could join. Dietrick had graduated in 1939 and there was no work to be found. He passed by the Armory [Annotator's Note: Texas National Guard Armory, San Antonio, Texas] where the National Guard was drilling. As cadets, Dietrick and his friend were criticizing them. A friend came over and told them to join up. His friend said they would earn money and should go. That's how they got in the service and when World War 2 rolled around, they were already in.

The only time Alfred Dietrick was concerned about what he had gotten into was when he would go to the movies and see the newsreels. He would see the German troops sharply dressed to kill with bayonets on their rifles. They looked like they meant business. The United States military was 16th in strength in the world and were even behind Peru. He was wearing World War 1 uniforms in the National Guard. The only thing new were canvas leggings. The World War 1 rifle was bolt action [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle]. The M1 Garand [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] had just been put into production. When they mobilized on 25 November 1940, all of the infantry divisions in the United States were federalized into active service. That first year, they looked terrible. By 1941, they began to get new uniforms and helmets a little bit at a time. He began to feel like he could compete. It was a good thing we were across the water where Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] could not get to us. The M1 Garand was a great weapon. The World War 1 rifle was almost a duplicate of the German Mauser [Annotator's Note: Mauser designed Karabiner 98 kurz; often Karabiner 98k, Kar98, or K98k, German 7.92mm bolt-action rifle] and was just a single shot. The Garand could shoot eight shots and it had a peep sight in the back. As long as you got even close, you could hit the target. They trained 1940 to 1941. They got new recruits from the draft. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks what Dietrick was doing when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He and his wife-to-be were going steady. They got off the bus on that Sunday and the newspaper boy put the paper in front of his face. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was. He started hearing on the radio to return to base. Everything then settled down because there was nothing to do, and the forces were not ready.

Alfred Dietrick went into combat on 9 September 1943 [Annotator's Note: with Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division in Operation Avalanche, 9 to 16 September 1943, Salerno, Italy]. He was in Europe eight months before Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Before his unit, Americans were in North Africa against Rommel [Annotator's Note: German Army Generalfeldmarschall, or Field Marshal, Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel]. He did not worry about going into combat. You cannot worry about something you do not know anything about. Before going into Italy, he was camped in Africa. One morning around 5 September 1943, his captain said their day was coming for combat. That night they slept on the ground. When morning came, they had a light breakfast. Then they went to get on the USS Thomas Jefferson [Annotator's Note: USS Thomas Jefferson (APA-30)]. The next day they were out at sea and did not know where they were going. The captain issued the order to report to draw ammunition. He said to himself then that something was going to happen. The most ammunition they ever had was 16 rounds before that. Now he was getting about 150 rounds and hand grenades. Dietrick was a rocket man [Annotator's Note: bazooka; man-portable recoilless anti-tank weapon] and his ammo carrier got four rockets. The carrier was to load his bazooka and tap him when ready to fire. Their evening meal was the last one before the beach landing. They had a Navy menu. The Navy eats very well. They had steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, apple pie and ice cream. It occurred to him that for some of them, it would be their last meal.

Alfred Dietrick boarded his landing craft about two in the morning [Annotator's Note: with Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division in Operation Avalanche, 9 to 16 September 1943, Salerno, Italy]. The boat joined the other boats and formed a circle. So many are in the first wave, which is the first circle. They spread into a line facing the beach. The Navy boat tells them to go in. Then they wonder and hope there are no mines, no wire, no Germans. When they hit the beach, none of that was there. They were lucky. They were trained that certain men would throw themselves on top of barb wire and other men would step on them to get over. But there was none there. They moved in. Dietrick was assistant platoon leader. Whitaker [Annotator's Note: US Army Sergeant James Whitaker] was the platoon sergeant. Dietrick was late from pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] once and lost his position as platoon leader. It was dark. To the north, the British were landing. Their Navy was firing at the beach. On Dietrick's landing, the Navy was silent. They had been shown a photo of the landing beach that was marked where the flanks were. There was only one little building in the middle of the field as a landmark that was painted white. The Navy had landed them exactly where they were supposed to be. Dawn broke and they could hear German tanks in the distance. They were told to dig in. The ground was too hard. To his left was one man and there was an explosion close to him. He saw the man laying down and hollered to him. Dietrick grabbed his carbine and went to him. He was dead. Dietrick looked up and saw a German come out of the brush. Dietrick dropped his friend and fired at the German who began withdrawing. He fell. Dietrick took out his grenades and threw them into the brush. He only had one more clip of ammunition. He took the rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] from the dead soldier along with his ammunition and backed up. He came across another soldier who asked him what was going on. Dietrick asked him for his grenades. He went back and threw two more in where the Germans were. He heard his name hollered with the word "tanks". Dietrick picked up his rocket launcher [Annotator's Note: bazooka; man-portable recoilless anti-tank weapon] and ran to a rock wall. He shouldered his weapon and hollered "load." He fired at the tank and hit the rear bogey wheel near the engine and the engine stopped. He hollered reload three times and there was no response. Maslow [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was dead. The platoon sergeant said to get out of there. The sergeant was out of ammunition and ran. Dietrick was alone. The men had withdrawn to an aqueduct. The gunner on the tank opened up them. Dietrick said to himself it was a short war for him. He does not know how he was not hit. Whitaker was hit in the right hip which was shattered. They got him to the medics later. Dietrick hit the ground. He saw a German pointing at one their men and Dietrick shot him. There were three Naval officers there with a radio. There were two more live tanks there. In two minutes, the first volley came in from the warship, low over them. The tanks wheeled around and went out of sight. The disabled tank crew gave up and were taken prisoner. An officer said he was going to recommend Dietrick for the Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. Dietrick never got it, but the officer did for taking the prisoners back.

After his first combat [Annotator's Note: during Operation Avalanche, 9 to 16 September 1943, Salerno, Italy], Alfred Dietrick and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] got orders to not let German tanks come around and get behind them. They fought off a few German infantry. When the tanks headed for low ground, the infantry went with them. The next day they reorganized because the Germans had withdrawn into the hills. Then they headed into the hills. The first night, they were not receiving any artillery, so the lieutenant said to dig in. They had a password for use in the dark. They were told shoot and ask questions later. He got the platoon bedded down. The enemy could be anywhere. Dietrick looked for his own place and found an artillery shell hole and got in it. He had a German pistol he took off a tank officer. He was wondering what his family was thinking about. He heard footsteps. He pointed his pistol up and saw a figure. He heard a noise and realized it was a horse. The next day they went into the mountains. They were asked to march back to the beach to a highway. The 45th Division [Annotator's Note: 45th Infantry Division] landed after the 36th Division and there was a gap between them. His battalion was supposed to go seal it. The next day around noon, the lieutenant said the battalion commander wanted them to get a prisoner. The lieutenant, Dietrick and six or eight men went into a ravine. After going about a half mile, they surface to the top where a tobacco patch was. There was a German soldier there sound asleep. They motioned him up and they took him prisoner. It was just luck. A few years ago, he was watching "Band of Brothers" [Annotator's Note: 2001 war miniseries based on the 1992 book of same name by Stephen E. Ambrose; chronicles history of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division] and one of the officers said he had an order to do that, but they lost men doing it. When Dietrick got back with the prisoner, they were ordered to do that again. The lieutenant told him that if anyone asked him, he was to say they went out but could not find any. The same thing happened to the Band of Brothers. [Annotator's Note: From 0:51:46.000 to 0:53:33.000, someone comes to the door and Dietrick asks the interviewer to answer it for him and then gets up as well.] The next day they went into a village and bivouacked [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite] next to it.

Alfred Dietrick and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] went into Altavilla [Annotator's Note: Altavilla Silentina, Italy]. The 142nd Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] and a battalion of the 82nd Airborne [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] fought hard for that village. There were civilians there that were glad to see them and get chewing gum, cigarettes, and candy. Bill Mauldin [Annotator's Note: William Henry "Bill" Mauldin, American editorial cartoonist] did cartoons of Willy and Joe. Only a G.I. [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] could really understand the points he was trying to drive across. One shows an old Italian couple who lived in a village that kept changing hands between the Germans and the Americans. The Italians had to keep changing their welcome signs. He and his outfit went into reserve, rested, got replacements, and treated their wounds. Hitting the ground bruised and scraped his forearms and he got infections. From there they went to an area called the apple orchard south of Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy]. It was large. The apples were ripe, and you could not walk without stepping on them. They put up pup tents [Annotator's Note: small sleep tents often shared by two soldiers]. One of the boys in another platoon, Foley [Annotator's Note: Army Private Earl W. Foley], wanted to transfer to his platoon because he had two fellows from his hometown. Dietrick said "okay." The First Sergeant wanted Dietrick to go a special school for a week. When Dietrick came back, he noticed guys talking who told him that Foley was dead. Foley had joined the platoon and gone out on a tactical problem [Annotator's Note: a training mission] with another platoon. Alsbury [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] had come off guard duty and had ammunition in his rifle. His gun had not been cleared and he had a bullet. He hit Foley right in the artery and he bled to death.

Alfred Dietrick and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] went into the Liri Valley [Annotator's Note: Liri Valley, Italy]. From 1 October [Annotator's Note: 1 October 1943] to 1 November [Annotator's Note: 1 November 1943], they just kept busy exercising. They were ordered into the front lines to relieve one of Audie Murphy's [Annotator's Note: US Army Major Audie Leon Murphy, Medal of Honor Reciptient] regiments of the 3rd Infantry Division. Dietrick left his camera on the truck, and he lost it. They moved in the Liri Valley near Cassino [Annotator's Note: Cassino, Italy]. They unloaded about five miles from their destination. The trucks do not have lights, but they have a little slit to use to keep them from hitting the truck in front. They unloaded and filed on each side of the highway. It started raining hard. It stopped, the moon came out, and artillery came in. They got to their destinations and two guides were there to take them in. Dietrick was looking at the layout and heard a rifle fire in the group. A guy had shot himself in the hand to get out of combat. Dietrick wondered what made him ruin his hand. They were going to be there for about a month. He was assigned a position ahead of their platoon headquarters. They had a telephone. They were an outpost watching the highway to Cassino. The lines were repaired every day due to artillery fire. One day they saw they were being cut by wire cutters. He had three men dig a big hole with grenades and automatic weapons. About two in the morning they told him they heard footsteps. He got six men and after about 50 feet all hell broke loose. He got there and found that they had hit one, but they retreated. After that, the wires not broken again. Artillery was going to shell the German positions and Dietrick was told to get out of there. They moved back in after the shelling. Dietrick was told that back where they had gone, the sergeant had left his phone but was afraid to go get it. Dietrick went back with him and then decided he could not trust him. Another time they were sitting together eating. A bullet hit between them from a German sniper.

A lot of men are killed because of carelessness. You get tired of lying in a hole. A cook got drunk and was then sent to Alfred Dietrick's platoon [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division]. He brought flour and made tortillas and gave them out. He got out of his hole to pass them out. A sniper killed him. Carelessness. One morning he heard a motor vehicle coming down the highway. They said to wait until he had to slow down at a curve. When he did so, 30 rifles, a bazooka [Annotator's Note: man-portable recoilless anti-tank weapon], and an automatic weapon killed him. The person with him rolled into a ditch. During the night, the Germans sent a patrol with gasoline. They burned the vehicle. When they fired on the car, it gave their position away. The artillery came in then. It was the wrong kind of fire though. They never hurt anybody. From there they moved into the reserve area again which was about four miles to the rear. It was a bright, clear day and chilly. Dietrick went to sit at an olive tree. He looked up and a German and an American plane were dogfighting. There was an explosion in the ground that missed him by about an inch and was smoldering. [Annotator's Note: Dietrick's phone rings at 1:19:37.000 and he answers it.] He burned his fingers scraping the ground. It was a .50 caliber [Annotator's Note: from a Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] projectile from one of the planes.

One morning for breakfast, the commander told Alfred Dietrick and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] that they had a mission to go to Mount Sammucro [Annotator's Note: Monte Sambucaro or Sammucro, Italy] to take supplies to the 504th Paratroopers [Annotator's Note: 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. They left after supper. They did not take weapons with them. The mountain was steep, and they were climbing in the dark. About one in the morning, they reached the top. Before that, they came to a flat area where there were four dead paratroopers. Mules could reach that spot and they would use them to take the men down. Dietrick went and looked at them. They got to the top and put down the rations for the 504 and then went back down. They got to camp at dawn. At lunch time, they got told they were going back up and replace the 504. They got to the top about midnight and relieved the 504 who had lost contact with the Germans. The next morning they took off. The top was steep sides to a ridge. They moved forward and there was a dead German sitting behind his machine gun. Another soldier takes a camera from the German. Dietrick got his wallet. He had one picture of a girl. Dietrick took it. She was going to get a bad letter. They advanced and a shot rang out. It was all rock up there. The runner came back, and the captain asked there were any casualties. Dietrick said no. Markham in the other platoon was dead. Marcum [Annotator's Note: Army Private Roscoe Marcum] had bought the German pistol Dietrick had taken off a German soldier. Dietrick searched Marcum for the pistol but then realized he was probably in sight of the Germans. After the sun went down, it was cold. Dietrick had no officer and was in charge. He was told to report to a meeting with the captain. They had orders to attack that night with fixed bayonets. They were not fire a shot. He got the squad leaders and told them the orders but said to fire at their own discretion. About one o'clock in the morning, the runner brought back a lieutenant to take over the platoon. The artillery barrage to assist them was late. They moved in slowly. Rocks were tumbling as they moved, and a machine gun opened up. It fired right over him. Dietrick called his man with the rifle grenade to fire where the gunner was. Dietrick took the rifle from him and aimed it directly at the gun. It hit dead center and the German screamed in pain. Three flares then lit up the entire mountainside. When they started to burn out, three more were fired. The lieutenant said it was going to be daylight soon and they would be caught in the open. They moved back. At least they hurt them a little. The next night, some strange troops came in. He told them where the guns were. That morning at dawn the sergeant stood up and blew a whistle as loudly as he could and hollered to go. They went over the top. Dietrick saw a machine gun cut down five of them. In ten minutes, the fight was over. In 20 minutes, they picked up their dead and wounded and were gone. The Germans that were not killed went down the mountainside. They wore American uniforms but used the British troops. Most of them were prisoners and were working for their freedom by surviving. He was told they were the 1st Service Special Force [Annotator's Note: 1st Special Service Force, 5th Army]. After the war, Dietrick looked it up. To qualify you had to not be afraid of anything and only go forward. Their officers led from the front, not from the rear. He will never forget them. The next day, they got off the mountain.

Alfred Dietrick took a patrol [Annotator's Note: of men from Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] out in the daytime and got caught in the open by enemy artillery [Annotator's Note: 19 January 1944]. They all scattered, and he tore the ligaments in his knee. They did not mess around with knees in those days. At the hospital, he was put into a non-combat unit [Annotator's Note: the 229th Ordnance Transport Company] that hauled tanks to armored units as replacements. It was a relief to be put with them. He would have gone back if they told him to. The doctor had seen that he had been in combat quite a bit. It was like moving into a palace after sleeping on open ground for months. It is a shame that a man has to go through those horrible conditions and then has to fight. He stayed with them from March 1944 until the end of the war, 8 May 1945. He came back to the states with them. He did not stay in because all the time he was overseas, he was constantly moving and was tired of it. He wanted to live like a human being. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] a little for close to two years of junior college. He had waited too long, about five years and he was not into schoolwork anymore. He wanted to get an architectural degree. His second course in algebra was with a rough teacher. He still did alright and his happy. He was married before he went overseas and was married 67 years. They communicated with V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail]. He would draw cartoons on his.

Alfred Dietrick had no problem becoming a civilian whatsoever. He was just thankful that he came back. He had one dream one night that he was in combat and was ordered to the front. He got a cold sweat but woke up and it was over. His wife could not help but hear his stories because he has been interviewed eight times. After the war, the neighborhood he moved into was completely different. He maybe spoke once or twice about combat, but he found they were looking through and past him and he realized they could not understand or imagine what he was saying. If you have not been there, you will not understand. Once he got involved with the museum at Camp Mabry [Annotator's Note: Brigadier General John C.L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum, also called the Texas Military Forces Museum, Camp Mabry, Austin, Texas], he began to talk automatically. He began to talk more and more. His most memorable experience of the war was the invasion of Salerno [Annotator's Note: Operation Avalanche, 9 to 16 September 1943, Salerno, Italy]. That was his first combat [Annotator's Note: with Company B, 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division]. His reaction in combat was favorable. Too many men cringe instead of fighting back. That weakens the unit. He knew men who never fired their rifle in combat. Dietrick decided to fight and serve because he was young and did not have sense. This is why they get young men. The war makes problems that bother a lot of people not worth worrying about to him. He feels lucky and fortunate. He has forgotten his service really but is proud to have served. He thinks a lot about what the war means to America. Like past wars, it will be forgotten. Every generation is affected by its own; he can talk to a young man like his grandson. His grandson asked if it got cold out there where he was. He thinks the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana] is important but when he worked at the museum [Annotator's Note: at Camp Mabry], young people who had not served went through like they were going to catch a bus. It does not mean that much to them. Dietrick does not know if it is important to teach future generations about the war. There are excellent programs on television that shows things that even he did not know. He could not understand why the German people became victims of Hitler's philosophy [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. When Germany started, it was easy as pie, but eventually they met their competitor. The worst things the Germans did was attack Russia and bomb England. Dietrick saw Kassel [Annotator's Note: Kassel, Germany] leveled in retaliation for London [Annotator's Note: London, England].