Don Tallon was born in Trenton, New Jersey in August 1924. His family was quite poor. The neighborhood was segmented into the Irish, Poles, and Jews who were increasing in numbers as they fled Nazi Germany. There were Germans and other immigrants too. His grandparents were from Ireland and Denmark. Tallon went to high school. All of the male graduates knew they were destined for the service. Due to their economic circumstances, they knew there was no chance for deferments [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service]. He was drafted and went off to war. Tallon was in an automobile returning from a CYO [Annotator's Note: Catholic Youth Organization] convention and heard the news of the attack on the radio [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They knew damn well they were going to be involved. He knew Hawaii was a huge fleet area. They had realized war was imminent anyway. He was drafted into the Army and inducted at Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey]. He went to Mississippi for basic training in the summer. He was introduced to that heat, and it was quite different from New Jersey. He had a brief furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and then went to Virginia and got on a ship to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. He had trained with the 69th Infantry Division but went overseas as a replacement.

After basic training, Don Tallon left Virginia for Africa. The journey took 21 days in a convoy. They had rough weather and the destroyer escorts would go up and down and disappear in the wall of water. He wondered how those poor sailors could take that kind of a beating. They landed in Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. On the dock, the Arabs were in cloaks with bare feet and were breaking the ice on the dock. It was November [Annotator's Note: November 1943]. They took a train to Oran [Annotator's Note: Oran, Algeria] and then sailed across to Italy. They docked in Salerno where the invasion had taken place [Annotator's Note: Operation Avalanche, 9 to 16 September 1943, Salerno, Italy]. They got sorted out and a group went by truck to a forward area where they could hear artillery fire. It was dark and scary. He was then assigned to the 36th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Company E, 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division]. He remained with them throughout his service. They had some bitter mountain fighting up through Italy. The Germans were experienced and fierce at that time in the war. The weather was bitter cold. They did not have the best equipment. It took a while to get winter clothing. They were to keep as many German divisions occupied as possible. Cassino [Annotator's Note: Cassino, Italy] was the target and then Rome [Annotator's Note: Rome, Italy]. Tallon fought at Cassino [Annotator's Note: Battle of Monte Cassino, also called Battle for Rome, 19 January to 18 May 1944, Monte Cassino, Italy]. They got on ships and went to Anzio [Annotator's Note: Battle of Anzio, 22 January 1944 to 5 June 1944, Anzio, Italy]. At Cassino, two-thirds of the division got wiped out on the Rapido River [Annotator's Note: Battle of Rapido River, also called the Battle of Gari River, 20-22 January 1944; actually fought on Gari River, Frosinone Province, Italy]. They never forgave Mark Clark [Annotator's Note: US Army General Mark Wayne Clark] for that. Tallon was hit by machine gun fire there. The day he got back from the MASH unit [Annotator's Note: mobile Army surgical hospital], was the same day the abbey at Cassino was bombed [Annotator's Note: 15 February 1944]. From there, the Germans could see everything on the plain where the Americans were. That is why that beautiful cathedral got bombed. They took Rome two days before D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. It was exciting to go into Rome. They went in in the early morning hours. The windows in the city were shuttered and there was a curfew. As dawn broke, there was some noise, and the shutters were opened. The first thing he knew it was whoopie time. Everyone was gleeful and happy to see the Yanks [Annotator's Note: nickname for American soldiers] coming in.

After liberating Rome, Italy, Don Tallon and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] continued to fight up through Genoa [Annotator's Note: Genoa, Italy]. It was fierce fighting. At Cassino [Annotator's Note: Battle of Monte Cassino, also called Battle for Rome, 19 January to 18 May 1944, Monte Cassino, Italy] they fought the Herman Göring [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command] parachute division [Annotator's Note: 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division Hermann Göring, German Luftwaffe armored division] which were the cream of the crop and would rarely surrender. Kesselring [Annotator's Note: German Luftwaffe General Field Marshall Albert "Smiling Albert" Kesselring] held them back. The Germans had the advantage of the high ground every time. They were pushed back but at a horrific cost. Tallon lost so many friends. They were sent back to Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy] for invasion training. Axis Sally [Annotator's Note: Rita Luisa Zucca] knew all about it. They sailed to Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France] and made the invasion of Southern France on 15 August [Annotator's Note: Operation Dragoon in Provence, Southern France, 15 August 1944]. They hit inexperienced troops in those areas. It was pretty easy until they got to the Brenner Pass [Annotator's Note: a mountain pass through the Alps mountains that forms the border between Italy and Austria]. They encountered Alpine troops [Annotator's Note: specialized mountain infantry] there. His company got surrounded and cut up. The ones still alive surrendered and were taken prisoner. They were headed towards Strasbourg [Annotator's Note: Strasbourg, France] when this happened. They were forced aboard 40-and-eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses]. Most of them were wounded. The medics had all been killed when they were surrounded. From then on, he lost touch with his people. There was no order to surrender, they had just hollered back and forth about how impossible it was. They did not know until later that they had been surrounded. The boxcars had about 70 to 80 men in each car. They were locked in. They traveled six days through Germany to the coast of the Baltic Sea near Danzig, Poland. They were never allowed out of the cars. You cannot imagine the conditions. They could not lie down or sit down without lying on top of each other. They defecated in their clothing. It was unreal and bitter cold as well. They were bombed by Allied planes in the railroad yards. The train was hit, and they lost a lot of men in the forward cars. It was at night and the guards had run off and gotten shelter. The noise of the bombs was terrifying. Two of the men with him went mad and had to be physically restrained. It was unbelievable ordeal. [Annotator's Note: Tallon asks the interviewer if they can move onto something else.]

Don Tallon was taken to Stalag II-B, near Hammerstein [Annotator's Note: Stalag II-B in Hammerstein, Pomerania, now Poland, in October 1944]. From there, work parties went out to repair wrecked railroad tracks, stations, roads, and bridges. They also worked in the fields and mines in the area. Tallon went with about 45 men to work the fields. He was a Private First Class. Anyone who was not a non-commissioned officer or officer, had to do to physical labor. They were tending crops. There was a huge farmhouse and there were stern, strict Germans running it. Most of the guards were recovering fighters from Stalingrad [Annotator's Note: Battle of Stalingrad, Stalingrad, Russia; now Volgograd, Russia; 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943]. When you could get them to talk about it, they would turn white and actually tremble. The cold was bitter. This was near the time of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Tallon was even farther north than that. It was the coldest winter in Europe in many years and they did not have clothing for it. The Germans treated them badly. You could not be sick and had no medical attention regardless. They all had lice. They wore the same clothes to sleep and work. They were fed inadequately. The advantage to being on a farm was that they had more of an opportunity to get food than staying in camp. Their area was for potatoes. There was a factory there that processed potatoes to make alcohol for airplanes. It was not as good as the Allies' gas. They only knew progress of the war from what they could glean from the guards. The battle in Europe was going back and forth. When the Germans were on the move, the Germans were happy as hell. During the Bulge, it seemed like total victory for the Germans. When that halted, things got rough. During Christmas [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944], three of his men took off. They had started hearing the guns of the Russians who were advancing. He never heard what happened to them. Another work group had three men who took off, were captured, and then shot in the yard. On the farm, they were in a caged area. Those men were left to lay there for three days in the snow. Tallon was housed in a shelter with bunks. Their shoes were taken away and they were given wooden shoes as further restrictions. Their food was also cut back on. They heard from the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] only once. They tried to tell the representative how bad things were, but he did not really want to know. Tallon has read since then, that the Red Cross was only shown the good camps. He got intermittent supplies and food parcels but never any from home. No mail from home either. Tallon was "missing in action" from September [Annotator's Note: September 1944] until April [Annotator's Note: April 1945] when he was returned to Allied control.

Don Tallon [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war in Stalag II-B in Hammerstein, Pomerania, now Czarne, Poland, in October 1944]. and his fellow prisoners of war had to have hope. If you did not, you were not going to make it. They kept waiting for the tanks to come, but they never did. The Germans became more taciturn and unresponsive as opposed to when things were going well for them militarily. They got many potatoes because they were so available, and they were a main part of their diet. Due to that much starch, they began to have boils [Annotator's Note: term for a furuncle, a painful infection that forms around a hair follicle], some of which were huge. They all had lice. They had one day off a week until after the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] when it became one day off every two weeks. They performed hard, physical labor under armed guard. Their entertainment was picking the boils off of friends. They also picked lice off each other. The potatoes also caused a lot of flatulence and some of the guys would "perform" music that way. They also would light the gas being expelled and actually had competitions to see who could shoot the longest flame. They got hold of some of the alcohol being made from the potatoes. During the Fall, they would bury the seed potatoes and put straw over them to keep until the spring. The prisoners tried to bury them in a way that they would freeze. They left before knowing if the sabotage worked. A Polish area was at the farm, and it seemed as if an entire town of Polish people had been moved there. It was men and women both performing slave labor. Women were birthing children in the fields. These were the "unbelievable, goddamn conditions" that were forced upon these people.

Don Tallon [[Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war in Stalag II-B in Hammerstein, Pomerania, now Czarne, Poland] and his fellow prisoners were evacuated as the guns were getting closer [Annotator's Note: 28 January 1945]. They joined a company of 500. This was duplicated all over Germany. They all started to march West away from the Russians. This was in the dead of winter and is now called The Death March. For some of them it was 500 miles of forced marching with practically non-existent food. There were also refugees along the roads. It was below zero temperatures. They were told if they dropped out, they would be shot. They lost men from his group. Sometimes they had to sleep outside in the snow. You would say you would never sleep in those conditions, but you did. They often slept on the waste of previous people who often had dysentery. They put columns of POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] in the Stalags. There was no heat, no light, and very little water. Tallon did not go into any other camps and just kept marching. It turns out that that was lucky for him. They were headed towards the Elbe River at Magdeburg [Annotator's Note: Magdeburg, Germany] which was known for its marmalade. There was a castle there and they wound up there. There were 500 of them. 5th Armored [Annotator's Note: 5th Armored Division] was on a spearhead coming across Germany and wanted the bridge there. Tallon knew this via a clandestine radio they had made themselves. They passed the radio around as whoever would get caught with it, would get shot. They sent two guys over the wall of the castle by using blankets. They communicated with the forward element of the armored column. The next day, they were getting their bread ration in town. The commander of the German guards had been a prisoner of the British in World War 1. The British had given him humane treatment and he never forgot that. That day, a party of SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] came and wanted to slaughter the 500 prisoners. That commander outranked them, some discipline held, and they turned away. They did stay and defend the town though. Tallon was getting bread rations and a Yank [Annotator's Note: nickname for American soldiers] came down the street in a fresh uniform. The soldier wanted the town to surrender but the SS refused. Tallon and the prisoners left the castle and escaped the city. He cannot remember how they got across the river because the Germans had bombed the bridge. The guards at the castle had let them go. These guards were all old guys. When they got out, they had to cross the German firing zone. Two of the men were killed. They got into the tankers [Annotator's Note: name for members of a military tank crew] from the 5th Armored. The 5th Armored men kind of went into shock at seeing how emaciated they were. They then said they were not going to take any more German prisoners. They asked the prisoners who could do so, to take up positions with them. They got good food and got some cast-off clothing. They later got into the German houses and got civilian clothing.

Don Tallon [Annotator's Note: a liberated former prisoner of war in Magdeburg, Germany] and his fellow freed prisoners got into some Nazi homes. Adolf's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] picture was all over the place. They would give the owners of the houses 15 minutes to get out. He had buddies he bunked with. They could accomplish more when scavenging in groups. They made a deal with the people who were halfway nice. Some would cook for them. There was a misunderstanding in grammar. The Americans had picked up some German. They accidentally made the Germans think they wanted their dog for supper. The Germans served it to them, although they did not realize at the time that they were eating it. The war had not touched these people though. Tallon and the other prisoners had gotten with the tankers on 12 April [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. They told the tankers that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] had died because they heard it on their little radio [Annotator's Note: they had made their own clandestine radio receiver when they were prisoners of war]. Most felt it was too bad he could not see the end [Annotator's Note: of the war]. [Annotator's Note: Previous to Tallon and the prisoners escaping to the Allies], the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] detachment knocked out a couple of tanks and stopped the column [Annotator's Note: of the 5th Armored Division]. There were no white sheets out and the tanks started bombarding the town. The 105mm artillery pieces [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer; standard light field howitzer] then laid into the town. At night, he could see the shells landing. Then the Long Tom 155s [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm towed howitzer, nicknamed Long Tom] came in. That town really got it and paid for the SS not letting them surrender. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Tallon what the response was when they learned that Hitler had committed suicide.] Hitler had not done so yet and knew Roosevelt had died. That was later on when he was out of there. Things got stabilized and there was no fear of attacks by stray Germans. The Germans were surrendering by the thousands and telling the Americans they would be fighting the Russians. Little did they know then that the Russians would cause similar despair and starvation by using the troops they overran as barter. Some of them never returned and it is a sad chapter in our [Annotator's Note: American] history.

Don Tallon [Annotator's Note: a liberated former prisoner of war in Magdeburg, Germany] saw of couple of his former guards being forced to run in front of a moving jeep. The jeep was really pushing them. They were flown to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] and were fed six times a day. They got deloused. He had skin scabs and more that he does not want to talk about. They had regular Army doctors and nurses. They had coffee and donuts at night with the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] girls. Some guys overate and died. They had no empathy for them. A lot of the men ate, then threw it up, and then ate again. When a prisoner, they thought of food and then warmth. Sex was never thought about. They would come up with wacky recipes for what they had. He was at Lucky Strike about a week and got on a ship. They were mid-ocean when the war officially ended. Forty submarines surfaced. They had been hearing depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] before that. He came into New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York]. That morning, he was at the rail and saw the Statue of Liberty. There was a not a dry eye on board. He was a Jersey boy [Annotator's Note: nickname for people from New Jersey], so it was dear to him. They were not let off the ship for one day because a passenger could not be accounted for. He was the guy who had won all the money from gambling. The guy was never found. Tallon went to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer in Piscataway Township, New Jersey and Edison Township, New Jersey] and then to Camp Croft [Annotator's Note: in Spartanburg, South Carolina; now Croft State Park]. He was put on MP [Annotator's Note: military police] duty. The post was right next to the city jail. He came to realize the Deep South [Annotator's Note: cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States, first used to describe the states dependent upon slavery] was still the Deep South and it was not happy for him to see that inequality. Everybody wanted to fatten him up. He was discharged around November [Annotator's Note: November 1945]. He went to college. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Tallon why he thinks some men endured the harsh, prisoner of war conditions and others did not.] It is a combination of the values instilled as child and fostered in the home and schooling, and it becomes what one decides. If you want to be happy, you can be happy. It is up to you to kick depression around. It is a love of family, country, and self. Tallon thought at times he was not going to make it and was scared all the time. He had gun butts in his back, and they left lasting impressions that you can see when he walks. It was nasty.