[Annotator's Note: Coughing can be heard throughout this segment.] Allen Porter was born in Market, Michigan in 1925. As a child, he spent a lot of time in Milwaukee [Annotator's Note: Milwaukee, Wisconsin] with family. He graduated school in 1943. Porter's father was an attorney, so his family did not suffer greatly during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. His house had a telephone, and often he would get calls for his neighbor to go to work at the manufacturing plant that day. Allen Porter made money by doing odd jobs for his neighbors. His family was aware of the uprising tension in Europe and Japan. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, his family first heard about when listening to the radio [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. When he heard about the attack, he knew it would affect his life. Porter grew up with four siblings and when he returned home from service, he had a fifth sibling. One of his brothers served in the Navy during World War 2, but never saw any action. [Annotator's Note: Interviewer pauses interview at 0:07:43.000.] Porter enlisted into the Army with his friend, Morgan Pilgrim [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. They were able to stay together all through basic training. Porter was then sent to Fort Devens [Annotator's Note: in Ayer and Shirley, Massachusetts] and joined the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers]. He was sent to the University of New Hampshire [Annotator's Note: in Durham, New Hampshire] where he spent six months. Porter was then sent to Camp Pickett [Annotator's Note: now Fort Pickett, near Blackstone, Virginia] to join the 303rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division, and to gear up for the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. After six months of more training, his unit was sent to New York, where Porter boarded a boat to head across the Atlantic. He disembarked in England. After a month, his unit was given orders to cross the English Channel. He ate his Thanksgiving [Annotator's Note: annual American holiday in November] dinner in an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] as it sailed for France. A lot of the troops got seasick on the way over and lost their meal.

[Annotator's Note: Coughing can be heard throughout this segment.] In November 1944, Allen Porter [Annotator's Note: in Company B, 303rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division] was shipped to Rouen, France. His unit moved through France quickly, but still had time to interact with French and Belgium civilians, who were extremely friendly. He saw buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] go over as they flew into London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. His unit moved into Belgium and stopped for a short time, before heading to the front lines on 13 December 1944 where they were first attacked by the enemy. His duty during combat was to sweep for mines [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact]. He used a mine detector that he moved from side-side. [Annotator's Note: Porter breaks from interview to look at notes at 0:22:46.000.] On 15 December [Annotator's Note: 15 December 1944], his unit was at the northern edge of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Porter witnessed the Allies attack a village. One plane came down and strafed but was hit. Porter had gone to use an outhouse, and while in there, the Germans shot at him with an 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. He flew out of the outhouse as fast as he could not worrying about pulling his pants up. The shell explosion was so loud that he lost hearing in one ear and suffers from hearing loss today. During Christmas 1944 [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944], the Germans dropped propaganda to get his division to surrender. He thought it was strange. At one point, Porter stayed in a German town where the Germans shelled regularly. He stayed in a house that was more protected. Someone in his unit found a piano in another house, and a bunch of guys hauled it in his house, soon realizing no one knew how to play.

Allen Porter [Annotator's Note: with Company B, 303rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division] began most of his fighting after the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. In early February [Annotator's Note: February 1945], his unit attacked a town called Schmitt [Annotator's Note: Schmitt, Germany] and captured the dam the next day. He helped the tanks by sweeping for mines [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact] in an open field. The mines had just been laid out on the ground and covered with snow. The Germans had been observing them and began sending in 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] and mortars [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles]. It became harder to deactivate the mines when he was under enemy fire. He almost killed himself pulling a mine instead of using safety precautions. They began to tie ropes around the mine and pull them, instead of using their hands. Porter was awarded the bronze star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for working that minefield [Annotator's Note: areas where mines, stationary explosive devices triggered by physical contact are buried or under the water]. After the war, Porter did occupation duty in Germany while he waited to go back to the United States. He did not interact with the local population. He returned to the United States and was discharged [Annotator's Note: in 1946 as a Private 1st Class]. After leaving the service he used his GI Bill benefits [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] and got his degree in engineering at the University of Wisconsin [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which campus].

Allen Porter's most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he almost was killed by a landmine [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact], but a shell came in and he ducked for cover. Being in service made him think about life more. He is proud to be part of a select group that lived through a big adventure. Americans think a great deal of World War 2. There should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because there are important lessons to be learned.

Allen Porter [Annotator's Note: with Company B, 303rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division] had a seven-day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in England while serving in Europe. He was just decorated with a bronze star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] after his unit captured a dam from the Germans. The Germans had blown out the dam. He was then assigned to ferry across infantry men to get German prisoners. After Porter safely ferried his men across, they had left, but the men soon returned and asked him to come look at a minefield [Annotator's Note: areas where mines, stationary explosive devices triggered by physical contact are buried or under the water]. As they walked a on a railroad track, they saw some German patrol men. Porter and two infantry men hid and then popped up as they came close by. As they all stood around waiting on who was going to make the first move, a German sniper shot at Porter and the infantry men. Luckily, he missed. Then Porter's BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR] man began to fire and cut the German down. After a bunch of shelling, Porter and the infantry men made their way back to the raft. They would have to try again the next night to capture prisoners. He learned that he won a trip to London, England, but he would need to return to his unit. On his way back, his raft flipped, and he had to swim to the shore. While he was on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], he visited Edinburgh [Annotator's Note: Edinburgh, Scotland] and Loch Ness [Annotator's Note: Loch Ness is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands]. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 1:07:29.000.] He befriended a man name Herb Faulk [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] while he was in the service. He lost contact with him after the war but reunited with him later in life. Faulk was injured trying the clear mines at the end of a road. His leg was broken, and he had to be hauled back to the aid station.