Edward J. Leonard was born in August 1919. He started working in the stables at age seven. There were horses all over. [Annotator’s Note: Leonard discusses his work in the stables.] He would go to school in the mornings. He would help drive the wagon. He loved the horses and going to the market. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s], he would give the money to his mother. His parents made sure they had food to eat and clothes on their backs.

Edward J. Leonard was in a National Guard unit that was federalized. They put out a call for volunteers. Leonard had a job as a clerk. He went to Montana to be in the CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps]. He was looking to travel. He was put in charge of the men. He was in the Army part of the CCC and drove a truck. When he came home from the CCC, jobs were still scarce. He heard about the cavalry looking for men. They had horse exercises in the Army. They did a lot of training before they went to Fort Jackson [Annotator’s Note: Fort Jackson, South Carolina]. This was before the Army was mechanized. He was 21 years old. One of the other soldiers accidentally shot his horse in the neck during training. When their year was up in the cavalry, the war started and their service was extended. The original service was supposed to be one year and he ended up being in for five years.

Edward J. Leonard remembers they lost the horses and got armored cars and tanks in their place. They were shipped out to England. One of the engines failed on their ship. The rest of the convoy left them with an escort. The submarines were busy off the coast. They got the engine fixed before daylight and managed to catch up to the convoy. Leonard was a corporal. They did a lot of marches in southern England. There were hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] and cows. They were the first ones to go into combat. They were shipped to Africa in December 1942. They landed in Algiers [Annotator’s Note: Algiers, North Africa]. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was in headquarters at the time. Eventually, they were security for Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945]. One day when he was writing a letter, he saw a monkey. It was a baby monkey and she came and sat on his shoulder. He had the monkey for about two weeks. The Arab troops helped with a roadblock. They groomed the horses in the running river. All the horses were stallions.

Edward J. Leonard was shipped to Italy in May 1943. The first day they were in combat. Leonard had a map of the area he had to cover. He had to find out where the Germans were. They knocked out the gun that hit them. Their captain was a John Wayne type [Annotator’s Note: was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially through his starring roles in Western and war movies]. When they were in France, they had the high ground. Leonard was lying on a cliff and could see the Germans moving on trains. The captain had them shoot at the next train that came by. Leonard was a forward observer. Leonard was a second sergeant and was in charge of 16 men. [Annotator’s Note: Leonard talks about his platoon sergeant.] Leonard was told to take his men up the mountain on the side with no concealment. The machine guns started shooting over their heads. Another battle took place while they were in a house. Leonard could see the Germans as he peeked out of the house. They were hit by a gun, and they had to find the gun that hit them. A German armored car went up the hill next to them and then started to back up. Leonard had to go up on foot to see if the armored car was gone.

Edward J. Leonard remembers going into Rome [Annotator’s Note: Rome, Italy]. They had not had any sleep for a few days. The Germans were dropping bombs. Leonard was so exhausted that he could not write. They were hoping when they got to Rome that they would get some rest. When he started, he wanted to kill Germans. Somewhere along the line, he realized the Germans were just like him with families. Leonard sent an armored car into a city and they brought out five prisoners. One of them was an 18-year-old kid. One guy was holding his intestines in. Some guys had no problem shooting the prisoners. Leonard did not want to shoot them himself. He asked the captain to help him. The captain held them until the rear guys could come to get them so that Leonard did not have to shoot them. Sometimes they could not take prisoners with them.

Edward J. Leonard always had at least one Frenchmen who kept him informed of what the underground would be doing. They were a small force. They were up against a Panzer [Annotator's Note: panzer is the German term for armored and typically refers to tanks] division that had six thousand. They had to cut the road they were on to stop them from continuing north. They held the town for 11 hours. They had captured about 80 prisoners. They took the time to give one German officer a military funeral. There was one gunner in the armored car that stayed out in the street. Leonard was watching for the Germans. He saw a light German tank coming down the other side of the road. They managed to knock the tank out. When the tank got out and they could see the track, they shot at the track. One guy got all the credit for knocking the two tanks out.

Edward J. Leonard was in a German half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] on the way to Germany. American planes were strafing. One of their men was killed by an American P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightening fighter aircraft]. The Germans were not friendly at all. They were put on a train. The guard was aiming a rifle at them. The P-38 was aiming at the engine. Some of the men were forced to work. If they were an officer, they did not have to work. There were thousands of men in the camp. They would put the dead on a wagon and put them in a shed. The Russians were starved and treated very badly. Leonard lost a pound a day for 26 days. They were starving. The English compound was close by. They had a radio and heard the news. He was out on a farm and they had all the potatoes they could eat. He started gaining weight back. They would commit small acts of sabotage. There were straw mattresses and fleas. One guard could speak a little English. The Germans would count everyone at night. One guy escaped from the farm. The Russians started to overrun the original prison camp he was in. A group of German soldiers picked them up and put them into another prison camp. They were in the second camp for about a month when the Russians came to that camp. They wanted to head for the American line. They had a wire cutter to cut the fence. The Russians had guys out there. They cut a hole in the fence and walked 26 miles to the American line. They ran into an armored car and they sent them to the back. They put him on a plane to Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France]. They asked if he wanted to go to Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] or go home. He wanted to go home.

Edward J. Leonard asked about submarines getting the Queen Mary because the war was still going on when he was sent home. The POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] were put in a big hotel and were fed. He was able to write a letter through the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] to let his parents know he was alive. His girlfriend came to visit him at the hotel. He was there for a while. He had 26 cavities in his teeth, and he could not hear too well. They did not have to do any kind of duty. His parents lived in Jersey City [Annotator’s Note: Jersey City, New Jersey]. He stayed with his parents for a while before he got married. It was a good homecoming.