Anthony Stefanelli was the son of Italian immigrants. He was born and raised in Belleville, New Jersey, where his father worked as a foreman in a local factory and his mother was a homemaker. He was the oldest of eight children, four boys and four girls. He graduated high school in 1932 and became the first in his family to attend college. He attended the University of Newark, which was later absorbed into Rutgers University. He only attended night school, so it took him six and a half years to graduate. He had taken business courses to better prepare him for work with the Prudential Company in Newark, which was one of the few companies still hiring since it was the Great Depression. Before he could begin work, he was drafted into the Army.

Anthony Stefanelli was drafted into the Army. He was first sent to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, which was an engineering school. He discusses how many of the recruits had difficulty with the physical demands of the Army. He was then sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he was stationed from April 1942 to September 1942. He recounts that while at Fort Bragg everyone was called to a general assembly during which the group was addressed by General George S. Patton. Following that, he went to Blackstone, Virginia for what he describes as, "landing engineers training." Upon completing this training, he went to Norfolk, Virginia to embark a transport which he describes as, "half cargo, half troops." After getting over some initial seasickness, the voyage was very pleasant. Their destination was Casablanca, Morocco. Stefanelli recounts being loaded down with some 60 pounds of equipment, making it very difficult to climb down the rope ladders into the waiting Higgins boats for final transportation to the beach. The 3rd Division [Annotator's Note: U.S. 3rd Infantry Division] landed first and the landing encountered little resistance. The port facility could only handle one ship at a time, but within three days the town was cleared. Stefanelli describes life in Casablanca as dirty; they subsisted largely on k-rations because the field kitchens didn't arrive until months after the landing. Stefanelli's unit [Annotator's Note: 36th Engineer Combat Regiment] was in Casablanca until after the conference between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles DeGaulle took place. They remained until Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery] was in Tunisia, at which point his unit joined the British. He discusses that they were bloodied by the Germans in Tunisia since they hadn't had any battle experience. After this time, his unit went back to Algeria to train for their next operation.

In Algeria, Anthony Stefanelli and his unit [Annotator's Note: 36th Engineer Combat Regiment] trained on new amphibious assault equipment including LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and and LCIs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry. This training was to prepare for an eventual amphibious landing on Sicily. The day before the planned landing a big storm hit the fleet and most of the soldiers were seasick as a result, but the storm abated by the day of the landing. He remembers landing so close to the beach that he barely got wet. Once on the beach, they began to receive enemy artillery fire. They eventually made their way up a nearby hill after which it became quiet. The assault forces, led by General George S. Patton, moved on and Stefanelli's unit remained behind to offload LSTs and establish supply dumps. They took over a small Sicilian town. Stefanelli had been exposed to the Sicilian language as a child, so he could converse with some of the locals which proved useful since the Army employed local civilians as workers for a variety of tasks. The soldiers were told not to eat any local produce due to the fact that the local farmers used human waste as fertilizer. The local Italian populace did not resist the Americans. The unit's next assignment was to participate in actions on the Italian mainland.

After the assault on Salerno, Sicily, Anthony Stefanelli and his unit [Annotator's Note: 36th Engineer Combat Regiment] then participated in the assault on mainland Italy. Stefanelli makes it clear that he does not think highly of General Mark Clark, the Commanding General. In terms of overall leadership of his unit, he describes that some were competent, some were not. He comments that each time they embarked a ship, they thought they were going to be going home, but that was obviously not the case. Once they landed on the Italian mainland at Naples, they pushed their way north until they reached Monte Cassino in December 1943 at which point German resistance kept them from going any further. He describes the fact that the Germans held the high ground, which gave them a significant tactical advantage. He mentions that the thing that bothered him the most was enemy artillery. Air attacks were relatively short in duration compared to artillery barrages. One attractive part of the campaign, which began in September 1943, was that all of the local agriculture was in season and they enjoyed as much of it as they could. He reflects on the fact that his father had come from outside of Naples and it occasionally gave him chills to think about it. His unit suffered very few casualties since they traveled behind the infantry. He eventually got used to artillery fire, both friendly and enemy. The weather was also a factor; it rained consistently from October through November, followed by snow in December. When the snows came, things slowed due in part to the fact that the unit did not have suitable winter clothing. They ate reasonably well, their field kitchens having been established. Stefanelli states that, having pushed up to Monte Cassino, German General Kesselring [Annotator's Note: German Field Marshall Albert Kesselring], "had us bottled down, all the time." The unit headed back to Naples, where they then outflanked the Germans by landing behind them. He describes being assigned to the left flank of a British division for 45 days, during which they took a lot of casualties. He comments that there was only one division with more combat time than them, and it was an infantry division. They were engineers. They spent a lot of time in foxholes during this time. The Navy offshore protected them in part by providing gunfire support, but he describes this period as "real warfare." He comments that at the time, they all figured they wouldn't survive the war, enemy artillery again being the most significant threat. Friendly artillery was also used to great effect as the two sides traded bombardments.

In January 1944, Anthony Stefanelli and his unit [Annotator's Note: 36th Engineer Combat Regiment] participated in the assault at Anzio, which was unopposed. German General Kesselring [Annotator's Note: German Field Marshall Albert Kesselring] is mentioned in light of the fact that the Germans often pressed people from the occupied countries into service. In many cases, enemy prisoners of war who were captured were of nationalities other than German. While the landings were not opposed, after the landings took place, the Germans shelled the area. Within two days, enemy reinforcements had arrived. Stefanelli describes being north of the Germans initially and then being able to link up with advanced elements of Allied units coming from the south. He discusses some decisions made by General Mark Clark in the context of those decisions not being tactically sound. As he describes it, the Germans were able to effect a very effective retreat, which prolonged the war. He iterates that he spent 42 months overseas, much of it in combat, and repeats his assertion that he and many of his fellow soldiers felt they were not going to survive the war. He comments that the Germans were a tough enemy, smart and skilled. He mentions that the unit's experiences in North Africa taught them a lot about war. As part of his experience overseas, he discusses the mail, both to and from him, and that it oftentimes lagged behind. He shares an interesting anecdote about a merchant sailor he ran across who was in school with one of his brothers. He was able to send far more detailed information home than would have ever been allowed by the censors. After Italy, his unit was resupplied in Naples and set out for southern France.

Once Anthony Stefanelli's unit [Annotator's Note: 36th Engineer Combat Regiment] had resupplied, they set out for Southern France. They landed near Toulon and went into the town of Cavalaire-sur-Mer. He discusses that there were Germans in the area and that the unit had received artillery fire. There were also French personnel, who Stefanelli refers to as "FFE," who had been supplied by the Allies and that they were especially brutal towards the Germans. He speaks that there weren't so many German military as administrators. He mentions that they, "ran the whole port." The unit went to Marseilles, where they put the Germans to work removing the mines that had been seeded in port. His unit also found billeting in a local hotel for the next two weeks, prior to moving north through the Rhone Valley. They encountered no opposition along the route as the Germans retreated. Eventually, they reached the Alsace-Lorraine region, where they joined up with other American divisions. It was a bitter winter but they were largely unopposed by the enemy. They at least had some winter clothing, and they slept on hay that they placed in their foxholes. After they occupied the region, they began to billet themselves in local barns. The French treated them well, but thievery was common. Anything that was of use was stolen. They finally crossed the Rhine River about the time they heard that President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin D. Roosevelt] had died. Once in Germany, they began billeting in local houses and took over any public buildings. His unit ended up in southern Germany near the town of Garmisch, where they played softball for recreation.