Clifford Smith was an area called Mussolini Canal, outside of Anzio [Annotator's Note: Anzio, Italy] after he was assigned to a medic unit [Annotator's Note: with the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division]. He arrived at the camp at night and went to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he realized he was sleeping on grenades. When he made his way up on the beaches of Italy. There was no resistance. He continued up through Italy in a convoy. They passed through each town and the French resistance did most of the combat. They would take the town and then the Americans moved in.

[Annotator's Note: A dog barks in the background throughout video.] Clifford Smith was born in Jeannette, Pennsylvania [Annotator's Note: in October 1924]. He grew up with two younger brothers and one younger sister. He lived in Jeannette until just before the United States entered World War 2. Smith's father had served in the Marines between the wars and was recalled to active duty in 1941. Smith was in his mid-teens when his father was assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard [Annotator's Note: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] and moved his family there. Smith wanted to be a Marine just like his father. His father took him to the local recruiting office to enlist but he was turned down due to poor vision. He then tried to get into the Navy but was turned down there as well. Smith then went to his local draft board and volunteered to be drafted. When he was called up soon after he was told that he had his pick of which branch of the service he would go into. He felt that Navy and Marine Corps had had their chance, so he decided to go into the Army. He called his mother and told her he would not be returning home. Smith was inducted into the Army in Philadelphia then sent to an Army receiving and training center in New Cumberland [Annotator's Note: New Cumberland, Pennsylvania]. Basic training was rigorous. Smith vividly recalls crawling through the snow under barbed wire with machine guns firing. He recalled the barracks were built out of wood and tar paper with a pot belly stove. He had to return home for a short time because he contracted pneumonia. After he completed his training, he was sent to Camp Patrick Henry [Annotator's Note: Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia] to be shipped overseas. He boarded a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] in a large convoy. As they went through Gibraltar [Annotator's Note: Gibraltar, United Kingdom] they were attacked. He could hear planes flying by and machine guns going off. He slept in the hall of the ship with bunks stacked from the floor to the ceiling. He remembered the kitchen was in the middle of the ship. He would go through the chow line then eat on the deck. It was difficult to shave his face with salt water. He was on the ship for 28 days and docked in Naples, Italy. When he debarked, he got into a boxcar of a train and was given rations from 1917. He was sent to a replacement camp and stayed there until he was assigned to a medic group [Annotator's Note: with the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division]. He received no medical training prior to his assignment. He mostly performed tasks like transporting bed pans.

Clifford Smith was at home reading a comic book and listening to the radio on 7 December 1941 when the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] was announced. His father was in the Reserves and was reactivated a few days later. In May 1943, Smith entered the Army and went overseas in March 1944. He landed in Anzio [Annotator's Note: Anzio, Italy] during a major battle. He was assigned as a litter bearer. He picked up the wounded on the frontline, put them in the jeep, and bring them back to the aid station. He was waiting by the truck one day and heard a bullet zip by him. The Germans shot at him several times while he was trying to retrieve wounded. Once, he and a friend were sitting on top of a hill smoking a cigarette and saw a tank come from behind a building and fire at them. Smith and his friends immediately left the area. During all his time in combat, he never got hit once. The closest he ever came was when a piece of shrapnel pierced his boot. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video at 0:27:26.000.] While stationed at an aid station in Anzio, he would hear planes fly over and guns go off all night, but he never was close to danger. Smith was assigned to a medical detachment [Annotator's Note: with the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division]. After the Americans broke out of Anzio [Annotator's Note: 23 May 1944], they headed to Rome [Annotator's Note: Rome, Italy] in a convoy. Smith was on a hill and could see the dome of the Vatican [Annotator's Note: dome of Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Italy]. It was on the same hill that he was chased by a woman farmer because he tried to take a chicken.

During World War 2, Clifford Smith thought he was on an adventure. He does not consider himself as a hero, conqueror, or liberator. The first time he heard a jet airplane fly over him, he dove into a house because he thought it was incoming artillery. He also saw German pilots. He was standing on top of a hill and crouched down by a wall when he heard the planes. They were flying so low that he could see the pilots in the planes. Postwar, Smith flew planes with the National Guard. Since Smith was part of a medical detachment [Annotator's Note: with the 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division], he wore two medical pouches. He had to keep track of his pouches because someone kept stealing the morphine from the medics. Smith had a tooth ache one time, so he took a morphine tablet. It knocked him out cold. He received training on how to use morphine tablets, morphine syrette [Annotator's Note: device for injecting liquid through a needle; similar to a syringe], and sulfa powder [Annotator's Note: group of synthetic drugs used to treat bacterial infections]. When he gave a wounded person a morphine syrette, he would bend the needle in the collar of patient, so the doctor knew he was given a dose. To prepare for amphibious invasions, they would get on a LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] and ride around on the water. Then when they came upon the beach, they would lower the front door, so they could run out onto the beach. [Annotator's Note: Smith goes off topic from 0:44:15.000 to 0:45:38.000.]

Clifford Smith and his unit [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division] made an amphibious invasion to Southern France [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon, Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944]. They quickly advanced through towns of France and then liberated Nuremburg [Annotator's Note: Nuremburg, Germany]. By this time, Smith had been transferred to a Cannon Company [Annotator's Note: Cannon Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division] and rode in a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. The worse battle he was part of was in Rambervillers [Annotator's Note: Rambervillers, France, 30 September 1944]. His unit was trying to take the town, and when it was taking too long, General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] left Smith's unit to defend themselves. The French civilians treated the Americans greatly. They offered them food and beverages. [Annotator's Note: Smith and the interviewer talk about the HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers" from 0:49:59.000 to 0:52:12.000.] As he walked along the roads in France, Smith saw a lot of dead horses and blown-up vehicles. He also saw dead and injured Germans along the way. He captured two Germans during the war. He did not care for the Germans. His unit turned over some prisoners and as they walked away, they heard machine gun fire. The M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] was a great weapon, but the carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] was not worth anything. Smith treated any German wounded if he could. Smith did not interact with many of the civilians as he did in France. When the war was over, he had a conversation with a German citizen during occupation, who told him that even though the war was over, America needed to be cautious of Russia.

Clifford Smith and his unit [Annotator's Note: Cannon Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division] were on top of a hill near the outskirts of Rambervillers [Annotator's Note: Rambervillers, France] and he saw a house down in the valley. Smith was in the foxhole when the Germans began firing in his direction from the house. An explosion landed inches from him. As his unit went down the valley, they came upon a house and stayed there for a while. There were cattle around, so they were able to eat steaks. Smith watched the Air Force strafe the city for several days. Finally, the city surrendered, and Smith entered Rambervillers [Annotator's Note: Video break at 1:01:20.000]. His unit soon advanced towards Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany]. [Annotator's Note: Smith is interrupted at 1:03:08.000.] Smith celebrated Thanksgiving on the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s]. The cooks were making hot meals, but the troops had to walk down the road to the kitchen area to get their turkey and mash potatoes. During Christmas, he was sitting on a hill looking onto a village that was occupied by Germans. At one point, he saw that the Germans left, so Smith and others went on down to the village. While they were down there, Smith went into a house and met a family. They had a Christmas tree decorated with animal crackers. Suddenly, he realized the Germans had returned. Smith was trapped in a house. The Americans began shooting artillery which gave Smith a chance to escape back up onto the hill. His mom sent him a care package during that Christmas. Every now and then, he would receive care packages from his family. Smith's unit eventually advanced through Nuremberg and into Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. His division liberated Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany, 29 April 1945]. He was told that the Americans killed the German guards. Smith went to Dachau days later and saw the horrors of the camp. It was very difficult to take in the piles of skinny bodies. Smith got drunk for two days after witnessing the concentration camp.

The war in Europe ended for Clifford Smith, but he soon heard his division [Annotator's Note: at this time, Smith was serving as a medic in Cannon Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division] would be going to fight in the Pacific. Smith had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on several factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to be excluded, so he was transferred out of the division. Smith was disappointed that he was not selected to fight in the Pacific. Smith stayed in Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany] until World War 2 ended and then he shipped out of Antwerp, Belgium back to the United States. The trip home was very quick. He saw the Statue of Liberty as he entered the harbor in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. When he heard about the United States dropping atomic bombs on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945], it was a bit scary. He hopes that our country never has to use them again or another country get a hold of an atomic bomb to use on America. The military confiscated his souvenirs. Smith never had a doubt that he would not return to the United States. He was discharged in 1945 as a Private First Class. His father had combined his money and Smith's money from the military and opened a small grocery store. He and his father ran the store. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh [Annotator's Note: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] on the G.I. Bill. After his father fell ill, he and his family moved to Arizona. He joined the Arizona National Guard soon after he arrived and stayed with them for 30 years. Smith still gets jumpy when he hears loud noises or explosions.

Clifford Smith's most memorable experience of World War 2 was when a German horse troop surrendered to his unit [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division]. He remembered that it was like a ceremony and very unforgettable. Smith does not have any advice to the future generation because it will be a whole new world and they will have to deal with it. Smith fought in World War 2 because he thought it was his purpose in life. The war changed his life because it helped him mature and grow up. He got a better sense of life and appreciated life after he returned from war. Today he knows that the war had to happen, and he is happy that we won. He thinks World War 2 does not mean much to the future generations today. He feels like the country is lost. Smith believes it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and to continue to teach future generations. Smith enjoyed his trip to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] to see the World War II Memorial. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in background at 1:38:10.000.] He was excited to sit down for lunch with some teens in Annapolis, Maryland and discussed his war experience with them.