Cosmo Uttero was born in December 1923 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. After high school, he worked as a lathe operator in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He was drafted into the Army [Annotator's Note: in June 1943]. Wellesley was sort of rural. They went barefoot all summer long. They got one pair of shoes before school started. They were poor. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], his father only found work occasionally with the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration] and by doing work on the side. They did not have much at home. They only had one light bulb in the kitchen. When it got dark, you went to bed. He has two younger sisters. They would go fishing. They lived near apple and pear orchards and would eat them. They went swimming at Wellesley College. He would follow horses all day long to watch them cut the hay. Almost everything was horse-drawn. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Uttero what recalls about hearing about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He did not know anything about history. When heard they bombed Pearl Harbor, he thought it was a girl. He was supposed to go to church that day with two or three fellas, but they did not go. He did not think of going to war then. Everyone was signing up. After he turned 17, he had to register for the draft. He went to work after high school and got his draft notice but got a deferment [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service] for three months. His boss was going to put him in for another, but Uttero got his notice first. He was drafted into the Army as were a lot of his friends. He only knows of two fellows that did not go into the service.

Cosmo Uttero was drafted [Annotator's Note: in June 1943] and went to Fort Devens, Massachusetts [Annotator's Note: in Ayer and Shirley, Massachusetts] for about a week. He said he wanted to go into anything except the infantry. About two days later, he got on open freight cars for two days and it was bad in there. They pulled into South Carolina into the infantry training center [Annotator's Note: Camp Croft, now Croft State Park in Spartanburg County, South Carolina]. Sergeants started barking orders. They went into the barracks and the first thing that caught his eye was a machine gun. He knew enough by then to know that the life of a machine gunner was about half a minute. He was never more homesick. He did alright in 17 weeks of basic training with no time off. At the end of 16 weeks, they were allowed to call home. They paid two or three dollars per call. It took about 25 minutes to make a connection and then they had one minute to talk. He got orders to the port of embarkation in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He told his mother he might be able to get off the train in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He did and got home to see his mother and sisters for a day. He would not see them again for almost three years.

Cosmo Uttero loaded onto a ship and in three days he was in Glasgow, Scotland [Annotator's Note: in November 1943]. After a half a day or so they were on their own because their ship, the Queen Elizabeth [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Elizabeth], was fast. There were 14,000 soldiers on board. He was at the bottom of the ship. They had bunks made of canvas that were stacked six high. He got violently seasick. Whenever they had drills for submarines, he did not bother to leave his bunk. He really did not care if they got hit because he was so sick. He would get up once a day to go to the bathroom. He ate a chocolate bar before he left. He did not see or eat a chocolate bar for years after that. When they landed, they were met by the Red Cross. They were put on trains and sent to a replacement center. He was assigned to the 29th Division [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division]. He was told they had been picked to be the spearhead of the invasion into Europe. This was November 1943. He figured they were just saying that, but it turned out to be true. He was sent to Cornwall County to a town called Helston [Annotator's Note: Helston, Cornwall, England]. He was housed in what was originally a hotel. They trained there and moved close to the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel]. St. Michael's Mount [Annotator's Note: island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England] is where they trained the last few months. They would be woken up early in the morning. They slept on slats like in a morgue with only a blanket. They might ride in a truck for two or three hours and come back. They were trying to confuse any German spies. They did a lot of amphibious landing training. They were always told it was the real thing and they were so realistic that he thought it was true. Sometimes they were on British ships and sometimes American ships. What stood out was that the sailors got good food and they just got rations. Even on days off, they had to go on hikes. Sometimes they would drive them somewhere at night, give them a compass, and tell them to find their way home. The British people liked them very much. They did not associate with them in the bars. He did not drink. They did not go where the British soldiers were. The Americans made more money than the British did, so the girls liked them more. They called the British "Limeys" which they [Annotator's Note: the British] did not like.

Time went by fast for Cosmo Uttero [Annotator's Note: while training in England]. They wanted to get the invasion over with. They wanted to go home. The married men were really homesick. He was 18 or 19 but there were men [Annotator's Note: in Company H, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] there as old as 36. When you are young, you just want to get the fighting over with and are not as homesick. They were near an RAF [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force] fighter base. They would take off, fly over the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel], fire a few bursts and fly off. At night when they returned, everything was dark. The lights would come on briefly for them to land. In England, everything was dark. You were not supposed to light a match. They were right on the coast. They had Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] thinking the coast was fortified. They had a cement bunker that was not even manned during the day. At night there was a warden that was only looking to see if paratroopers were landing so he could send a signal. Uttero and his outfit were not looking for Germans and were just training. One time they could see smoke for about 24 hours and found out later the Germans had snuck into the harbor and torpedoed some ships. He also heard about 400 men who were drowned in a training accident. They heard little bits of news. Little casualties went on but were not publicized. They trained in the moors [Annotator's Note: low-lying wetlands in England] of England. It was desolate. That was colder than Europe was in winter. They slept two men to a tent and with two or three blankets under you and some over you, you could not warm up. Sometimes they would find somebody frozen in the morning. He has not thought about these things for years.

Somewhere around May [Annotator's Note: May 1944], the training became more intense, and Cosmo Uttero knew something was going to happen soon. They started bringing in ammunitions by the truckload. They were piling up supplies along the road near the coast [Annotator's Note: in Helston, England]. One day they said to get ready to go. They [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] left their things behind in the barracks and marched to the coast to a tent. They were not to leave that area and could not have contact with anyone. Small groups were taken into large tents with a big layout on a table with the outline of the coast of France, showing the cliffs, the barriers, and the gun emplacements. Reality set in. From that point on, if they wanted to go to the latrine, they were escorted. They did not pull any guard duty. The men were told that if Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] knew what they know, the war would be a different thing. That secret was well-kept. This was probably a week before the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They were given new equipment. The last day or two they were given new types of gas masks, a tube to go around their waist as a lifebelt [Annotator's Note: M1926 inflatable life belt, flotation device], and impregnated clothing. It was treated in case of gas attack. They were told if they were captured, they only gave out their name, rank, and serial number. They got three days rations and French money. He knew then this was the real thing. He saw a lot of activity. He only did not know when they were going. Once he got on the ship, he knew it would be the next day.

The weather was terrible [Annotator's Note: in England]. Cosmo Uttero cannot recall if he went down into the ship or stayed on the deck [Annotator's Note: on 5 June 1944 in preparation for D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. There was an announcement by Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] broadcast over the ship. He said they were not going to fail. They were told the planes would be painted with white lines, the glider, paratroopers, and everything that was going to happen. They left the harbor and he fell asleep. When he woke up, the ship was at its dock again. It was rough out there and the weather was bad. There was not much communication but there were hundreds of rumors. One guy on deck was strumming a guitar and a couple guys were playing cards, but everything was somber. Back when they were told they were going in, they were told the 29th [Annotator's Note: 29th Infantry Division] would be the assault division, then the 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] and then the gliders. Not much was said about what was happening to the left or right. After they waited, they were told the 116th [Annotator's Note: 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] would be the assault and the 115th [Annotator's Note: 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] and the 175th [Annotator's Note: Uttero was in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] were in reserve. That made him feel pretty good. The 116th really took a beating. The 175th was not due to land, but his platoon leader said they needed all the help they could get on the beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France], so they went in earlier. The seas were terribly rough, and it was gray like it was going to rain any minute. He had to climb down the rope nets to get in the landing craft. He saw an LCI, Landing Craft, Infantry on fire. He had to fight his way in. There are machine guns on the landing craft and maybe 40 men cramped in there. He got violently seasick and threw up. An officer got angry with him for that and told him to throw up over the side. It was higher than he was tall. He did not care anyway. The first thing he saw was a body floating by. Ships were firing and there was return fire. He wondered what it was like to die. He did not see how they would get out of it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer stops to wait for some outside noise to cease.] Everyone was anxious because they were a sitting target. The engineers had cleared some of the area and did a good job. There were craters everywhere. Landing craft do not like to go right up on the sand and get stuck, so they open the ramp, and you just go out. Uttero was carrying 75 pounds of equipment. He went down and was not going everywhere. He let everything [Annotator's Note: his equipment] go and by the time he reached the sand, he had nothing. He was soaked and cold. He picked up a rifle from someone that was hit. He just wanted to get onshore and see what he could do.

Cosmo Uttero was in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France] a few weeks ago [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview] and thinks he was right at the spot where he landed 70 years ago [Annotator's Note: with Company H, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, as part of D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. After the landing, things changed right then. There was no formation anymore. Hoppy [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was right behind him and went down. Uttero turned and said he would help him, but then did not look back. He does not know what happened to him. Nothing worked the way it should have. He went up towards the cliffs so he would not get hit. There was a lot of fire coming in from the ocean that did a good job knocking out a lot of the guns. He was separated at that point. From there, he knew the only way inland was to his right. When he returned [Annotator's Note: after the war], there is a restaurant where he went up. There was a truck on fire and a dead paratrooper hanging in a tree. He wanted to get away from that beach. There were dead all over the beach. He got up around the cliff and up top. After 70 years, his mind goes blank, but he knows he was on his own for hours before running into men from his platoon and was able to get ammunition and supplies. They then were organized into the platoon for the next six weeks before getting to Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France]. Even though there was fierce fighting during the day, most of the nights would be still with hardly any movement. They had a password every night that consisted of one word, and then a second word as an answer. That was very important. Most of the information on orders were passed down person to person. As night fell, they wanted to know that password if they needed to do any movement at night. He had six men in his squad, and he had to divide them into guard duty. Everybody dug their own foxhole. In combat, nobody had to tell you to. They usually had one watch between them. If you were on guard, you stood awake in your hole. You did not wait a second if you did not get the answer you wanted for the password. About half of the month, it is light there at night even when the moon is not shining. The other half, you could not see your hand in front of you. Sometimes there would be artillery shelling at night. There were days when they did not go anywhere. There were days they might advance one hedgerow [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] or more. There was a lot of fire exchanged such as mortars, so there were casualties. Tanks were no help because they could not go through the hedgerows. Later on, tanks with prongs on them would try to make holes in so they could advance. That only drew more artillery fire, so they did not like to see tanks. They feared artillery fire more than small arms fire, especially howitzer fire. They were contained there for six weeks until the breakthrough at Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Operation Cobra, 25 to 31 July 1944, Saint-Lô, France]. They had lost a lot of men. Replacements came in. For rest, they would sometimes get pulled back a few hundred yards and sometimes quite a way. Sometimes as soon as they got back there, they would get called back up.

Cosmo Uttero spent 14 days without a rest [Annotator's Note: while serving with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division during the campaign in Normandy, France in June 1944]. He then got a chance to wash his face. Sometimes he got a new pair of socks. While out there, they had no cover. If it rained, you got wet. Once in a while, somebody would say there was a hot meal. They would go back one at a time and then get back in position. Most of the time it was cold rations. It was that way for six weeks. After Saint Lo [Annotator's Note: the Allied breakout from Saint-Lô, France], things spread out a little more. The 175th was sent to the port of Brest [Annotator's Note: Brest, France, 25 August 1944] to take it. He thinks it took about a week before the Germans surrendered [Annotator's Note: on 18 September 1944]. The Germans turned their coastal guns around and turned them on Uttero and his men. It was just like a battleship salvo. You could hear them coming in as they sounded like a freight train. Even the concussion could kill you. Fear was there constantly. Even after all these years, when he thinks about it, he remembers thinking that in another second no one would be able to find him. Shells would come near, and he would feel his legs and arms to see if he still had them. If they blew off, you would not feel it right away. It sounds foolish but that is what you did. After they [Annotator's Note: the Germans] surrendered in Brest, things were moving fast. He was trucked through Belgium and Holland and into Germany [Annotator's Note: 30 September 1944]. In Liege, Belgium was where they had their next resistance. Things moved fast the next few months. When it came to the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], they were to hold the left flank but were not issued anymore ammunition. It was getting near Christmas [Annotator's Note: December 1944], and it was cold. They slept outside. One night near Alsdorf, Germany they were allowed to go in a building and sleep. That was his first time since 6 June that he slept under a roof. The fighting was to their right. They could sometimes hear it. After that, the Germans were on the run until the end of the war. There were days they would cover miles. The days got easier, and the casualties were fewer.

Cosmo Uttero and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] just kept going [Annotator's Note: after Operation Cobra, 25 to 31 July 1944, Saint-Lô, France]. They were going so fast at one point that they were put on a train and bypassed Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He could see the Eifel Tower in the distance. They went slowly because the tracks and bridges had been bombed. They got off and bypassed Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] in the springtime. Compared to Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], this was a cakewalk. They advanced to the Elbe River near Magdeburg [Annotator's Note: Magdeburg, Germany]. The German civilians were crossing the river trying to escape the Russians. They were told they could not advance and stay there. Some fellows said they did not like the Russians. The officers told them the Russians were Allies and they could be court-martialed for that talk. Uttero was assigned to drive a jeep for the last month or so. There was a stream of refugees and German units to surrender. They put them in fields. There were hundreds and hundreds of Germans. They guarded them, but they were not going to go anywhere. Uttero and a couple of guys crossed the river to meet the Russians [Annotator's Note: 2 May 1945]. That was not allowed. They got into a German vehicle and went inland which was not smart. They were firing their rifles in the air because they were crazy 18 and 19 year old guys. They went into a house and tried to tell some Germans they were Americans. While in there, some Russians came in. Uttero tried to tell them they were Americans and tried to shake hands. One Russian smacked him with his rifle. They were not friendly even though they knew they were American. The Russians were coming with horse-drawn carts with kitchens. He saw Russian women soldiers. He thought they were very crude, but they were friendly. Uttero said they should get the hell out of there. They stayed across the bank until they were ordered to move back. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] and Stalin [Annotator's Note: Joseph Stalin; General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union] had already made a pact that that would be the Russians occupation. That is why they bypassed Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. From there on, things got cold with the Russians. On the day the war ended, Uttero saw a woman lying there dead. They were out in the country. A lot of things happen in war that you do not talk about, like atrocities. He knew they were getting the southern part of Germany for occupation. The Americans wanted a port, so they made a small enclave in Bremerhaven [Annotator's Note: Bremerhaven, Germany]. The 29th Division was going to Bremerhaven. A lot of the fellows with Uttero were sent to get ready to go to Japan. One fellow that he still sees [Annotator's Note: at the time of his interview], was going through the Panama Canal when the war in Japan in ended. Most of those guys were replacements that did not have much combat time. When the war ended, they had a point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] and Uttero could go home.

Cosmo Uttero was in H Company [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] as an infantryman and mortar man. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Uttero what it was like to go overseas to go into war.] Uttero does not know how to answer. He when to Fort Devens [Annotator's Note: in Ayer and Shirley, Massachusetts]. Even though he did not have much to eat at home, they would put everything the middle of table and eat. At Fort Devens, he got a little bit of food and thought they were just being given something to taste and not a meal. Being an Italian who ate spaghetti, he ate until he got full. He got two pairs of shoes. He had never owned two pairs of shoes. He did not give much thought going overseas. He just did what he was told. He did not have a girlfriend to worry about. He was scared. When he got on the ship, if they had asked if anyone did not want to go overseas, the ship would have gone over empty. He worried about getting torpedoed, but he just accepted it. If asked 20 years ago, he would give a different answer. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Uttero what was going through his mind crossing the English Channel for D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] He was just wondering. He saw all the planes. After 70 years of just forgetting about it, he does not know. They could not see much. In combat, he would see bombers coming over for hours. They could hear the roar. He would see them coming back and could see some with holes or formations that made them know they lost some. Sometimes their own artillery were shooting at them. Sometimes the aircraft came in close to them. They were given plaques that were bright red that they were supposed to open up, so the pilots knew not to bomb there. At night they would hear the British. He knew the sounds of the P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft], the Black Widow [Annotator's Note: Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter aircraft], the P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft], and the German burp guns [Annotator's Note: German MP-40, or Maschinenpistole 40, 9mm submachine gun]. He could tell the difference in artillery.

When Cosmo Uttero got home, he joined the VFW [Annotator's Note: Veterans of Foreign Wars]. There were hundreds of fellows, and no one talked about the war. Even years later, he had relatives that died, and he did not know what service they were in until he went to the funeral. A neighbor of his died and he found out he had been a submariner. He does not know why it was that way. After the war, everything was so peaceful. You could buy a car, buy a house, get married. It was a time of celebration. Forget the war. He never heard anybody talk about it. Now it is all coming out in the open. It was something that was never going to happen again. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Uttero what it felt like when he heard that the next day he would be part of D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.] They [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] just went. If they said they were going to take a hill, you did not question it. People today question everything. He was scared and he thought he was going to be killed and he hoped the war would end. He had been seasick going ashore. He did not look around. You hid down to not be hit. He went ashore around noon. He was being fired at from the cliffs and not from the beach. The battleships and bombers had cleared that. The paratroopers had landed and were already taking prisoners. He saw some guys who looked Chinese but found out later they were Russian prisoners that had started fighting for the Germans. They were from Mongolia [Annotator's Note: region of China] or someplace and figured they had it better with the Germans. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer describes how Uttero had to shed his gear after stepping into water over his head and asks what it was like to see the dead soldier that he got a rifle off of.] He did not look to see if he knew him. He had already seen floating ones [Annotator's Note: dead soldiers]. As time goes no, you just get used to seeing it. You see it every day. He had a job to do, and they had a job to do. It is not like in the movies where they stop, it is survival when shells are flying. He did not have ammo until he got up on the beach. He was scared because he did not have a gas mask anymore. After about a week, most people discarded their gas masks. As the nights drew to a close, there is a smoke that just hangs in the air from the artillery fire and smells like gas. One night a gas alarm went off and Uttero was alone with no gas mask. He thought he was going to die. He crawled to some corner, cried, and hoped it was not painful. There were many times he knew that it was it, and you do a lot of praying. Guys become religious. A lot of that, he does not want to talk about. Once he got off the beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, 6 June 1944], he encountered German prisoners right away. He just kept going. After a day or two, they got more prisoners. He did get into combat on 6 June. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Uttero what that was like.] It was either them or him. That is it. That is unfortunate. Sometimes prisoners were shot because nobody wanted to take them back. He does not like that feeling. He saved some because he would not let that happen. He stepped in between, but it was done a lot and he does not want to talk about it.

Cosmo Uttero returned to Normandy, France for the 70th anniversary of D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944. Everybody he spoke to, even a neighbor said it was going to be terrible. He did not find that. He does not know how to describe it. There were thousands of eyes looking at him and he did not want to make it seem like he was putting on a show. He kept his thoughts to himself. [Annotator's Note: Uttero asks for the tape to be stopped for a minute.] Saint-Lo was destroyed [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Saint-Lô, 7 to 19 July 1944, Saint-Lô, France]. Major Howie [Annotator's Note: US Army Major Thomas Dry Howie] wanted to take it and was killed. Some of his buddies took him into the cathedral there. Uttero walked through there [Annotator's Note: as part of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] and figured that should have been D-plus-two [Annotator's Note: D-Day plus two days] and it was D-plus-16 weeks. What a cost it was. He just had to keep going. He would have liked to have gone there and seen what it looks like today. The war ended. That was it. He was not in a city where there were big celebrations like in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He did not keep up with anyone after the war. He came home and that was it. He got involved with the association [Annotator's Note: 29th Division Association] about ten years ago [Annotator's Note: from the time of this interview]. His brother-in-law met someone from the 29th. The guy told him they met once a month and told him where they met. He went to meet them and found out he was eligible for another medal. Walter Clayton [Annotator's Note: US Army Second Lieutenant Walter Clayton], who had been Uttero's platoon leader, was part of it. Now they meet for five or six months, but there are only three or four of them left. He left as a kid for the war [Annotator's Note: in November 1943]. He went back to Germany to meet the woman he had fallen in love with. They married and raised a large family. He went to work. The war did not change him. He did not meet his wife during the war. When the war ended, he would patrol [Annotator's Note: on occupation duty] and secretly made a point to go see her. When they were going to send him home, he had them discharge him in Germany. He reenlisted in the Regular Army to stay there and see her. He got transferred to Trieste, Yugoslavia [Annotator's Note: Free Territory of Trieste, between northern Italy and Yugoslavia] so he asked to go home. They corresponded. He could not get the papers to get married, just like the bureaucracy that is going on with his Legion of Merit [Annotator's Note: award given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements]. So he decided to go back as a civilian, which was not allowed. He was adventurous and made it back. She finalized her paperwork, and they came back. They have been married 50 years. He had a luncheon in a tent at Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, Beach] and a mayor was there. His wife said she had direct contact with someone in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. When Uttero got home, he had his discharge papers sent to her. He still has not heard anything [Annotator's Note: about a Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, from France for his service]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Uttero if he ever had trouble with nightmares after the war.] He did. He told his mother to never come in and shake him. He could have done her harm. For about a year, and even after he got married, he would say not to surprise him.