Lawrence Angst was born in July 1923 in Barberton, Ohio. His mother and father were young and struggled through the Great Depression. His father was working at Firestone [Annotator's Note: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company] as work was available. He was not affluent, but he was not poor. They tried to live as close to family as they could due to his grandmother who was the matriarch. She kept the history and held reunions. He had one older brother who was a Marine. Angst was more of a student and was smaller and had to try harder than his brother. He loved school and liked his teachers. He gives them a lot of credit for making him want to learn. He was half-German, so they kept up with the war. The Scotch-Irish side of his family emigrated during the potato famine in the 1850s. Some went as far back as the Civil War. The German side migrated less. He admired Germans growing up. He did not particularly like their politics after Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. He could see why they felt downtrodden because they took a superior air over other Europeans. There were many Germans that were popular that made him happy to be part German. The German politics after World War 1 were bad news. Once he was in Germany, the military would use the German homes a lot. The ones who stayed there were good people and they liked each other. They got to know a lot of the families. He was part of the first Americans in Berlin.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Lawrence Angst where he was when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He answers unintelligibly and is asked again]. Lawrence Angst heard about the attack over the radio. He hoped he did not have to go over there. He saw kids who were devoted to Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and he did not want to be part of that at all. There was some hatred involved. In combat, he did go out of his way to care for soldiers he would not have as a civilian. He wanted to be a doctor. His grandmother had been like a midwife and he admired doctors. He thought he could help. His father was a Catholic who had converted to Protestantism. Angst got to know religion and had a good upbringing. He was a freshman in pre-med when Pearl Harbor happened. He cleaned coffee roasters after school in Cleveland [Annotator's Note: Cleveland, Ohio]. His family could not afford to put him through college. He wanted to extend his education as long as he could to be closer to being a doctor. In 1942, he joined the Army Reserve [Annotator's Note: Enlisted Reserve Corps]. They paid for part of his education. A year later, they sent him to Ohio State University for induction and six weeks of testing. He went to basic training and then went to Fitzsimons [Annotator's Note: Fitzsimons Army Hospital, now Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, Denver, Colorado] in Denver to learn to be a laboratory technician. He graduated and could smell D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] coming. He then went into a medical replacement battalion in England for a short time.

Lawrence Angst became a combat medic [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division]. He was put in charge of a half-track [Annotator’s Note: vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and got to see a lot of combat and save a lot of people. He only had two doctors in his unit. His job was to get them [Annotator's Note: wounded soldiers] back to the doctors. He would follow as closely as he could. There were four medics in each half-track. The half-track helped protect them from small arms fire. They were usually about four miles behind the main line. Angst would get them to the aid station where they would get further care and then possibly moved to a field hospital by ambulance. He saw a lot of that during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The Germans overran a lot of the hospitals. They would find Germans dressed as Americans. They had taken some doctors and nurses as prisoners. Sometimes you would kill your own people.

[Annotator's Note: Lawrence Angst landed in Normandy, France one week after the 6 June 1944 D-Day invasion]. The heavy armor had been held back since most of the fighting happened right at the beach. Mainly the airborne went ahead of the heavy armor units. It was six weeks before they really made ground. Angst landed in a landing craft and walked up the beach. The beach had been taken and they climbed around a bombed out bunker and up to the top of the cliff. They had gas units on. [Annotator's Note: Angst does not finish and then tells of the French following them around. It is very hard to follow the story.] They could tell the Germans were backing off due to our superior air coverage. There was only intermittent shelling on the beach then. That gave them the time for Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] to get in there. Until then they were just moving hedgerow to hedgerow.

Lawrence Angst's first experience with combat was seeing the dead bodies piled up to be registered. They left and then had to watch for minefields. The Germans had flooded the beach areas with mines. It was about six weeks before they really broke through. Patton's Army [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] was fresh and gung-ho. His unit would follow them. Once they got close to Paris, [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] they started to integrate. His first experience coming under fire was receiving artillery fire the first night. They were in a field and dug foxholes. They went into the woods at almost dark. They were next to an antiaircraft battery and all hell broke loose. He crossed back and forth through half of France and Belgium going from unit to unit until he finally caught up with 2nd Armored Division. He was a replacement for a casualty. From then on, he was on a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks].

Lawrence Angst was promoted to the battalion aid station [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division]. He was more than just a medic now. His captain asked him why anyone his age would enlist in the Army. Angst told him he thought he could get a good deal for medical school. He became commander of the half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. He would direct them where to go to get the wounded. When they filled the half-track, they would take the men back to the battalion aid station. He had a musette bag [Annotator's Note: bag carried over the shoulder] of regular first aid equipment. Later on, he was out of the half-tracks except in dire circumstances. They did not wear arm bands because the Germans would pick them off. They were not supposed to be armed, but they carried sidearms that they were not issued. They had heard stories. This was especially going on as they got to the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The Germans were wearing American uniforms and spoke perfect English. The military was changing passwords constantly. You did not trust anybody unless you knew them. Angst never shot anyone, but he was prepared. He got his sidearm from a German prisoner. Almost all combat medics got rid of the armband. If he got wounded, he could not help anybody. They learned early on that they were going to get shot at, so why risk it.

Lawrence Angst remembers one close call very well. He was in basic training with another man. They were both first in the German lines and he was a medic behind Angst's half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. Angst invited him and another soldier into the half-track. Artillery shells started coming in. The shells got close and they had to get out and dig foxholes. More shells came down and they crawled under the vehicle. Angst had just left the soldier's side when a shell came through the fender and killed the man. Angst had a hell of a time getting over that. This was a happy-go-lucky guy and Angst kind of blamed himself. Angst was shot at a lot. He was wounded, but would always come back to his outfit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division]. He met a lot of brave guys. The bravest were the paratroopers and the guys who would ride the tanks into the towns. Big brothers. When picking the wounded up, he would say a silent prayer. He was lucky. He did get laid up a few times. During the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], they were overrun in Germany. They went 125 miles through unknown territory to head off the Germans. It got icy and they were not winter-ready. The half-tracks would run off the roads. Most of the time when Angst got hurt, the regiment took care of him. He would be assigned to clerical duties until he recovered enough to return [Annotator's Note: to return to combat].

Lawrence Angst was promoted from PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] through to Sergeant. Each level bringing a new level of responsibility. He became Sergeant in Charge of his Battalion Aid Station [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division]. They froze his rank then because he was earning enough points to go home. He had been in five battles. There were men who had been in Africa and Sicily for two or three years and were in their 30s. Combat exhaustion is what they called it. It was really was not fair. If it had been a short battle, everyone was shaken. Some guys just could not come back from it. Some were sent back to field hospitals for a time and then would come back. Angst says they were giving them pain pills. Some came back but some were kept in the rear and given jobs like barbers. They would try to hold onto some of the older guys. It got really bad when they got to the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s] and the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. It was dicey. [Annotator's Note: Angst discusses German infiltration of American units. His story is a little hard to follow.] He discusses the Malmedy Massacre [Annotator's Note: Malmedy, Belgium, 17 December 1944]. They got brutal when we got into Germany. They had no compunction. Angst was very cautious. If he was in a foxhole and he did not know the guy, he got the hell out of that foxhole.

The first thing Lawrence Angst did when being shelled was jump in a foxhole. They learned how to protect themselves. He learned how to get into a basement of a house. Not bravery, survival smarts. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks how many injuries he treated that he still remembers. He whispers, "a lot of them."] A tank will go through one body and another. Sometimes there would be half a body. He did not waste time there. There would be someone on fire and he could not put the fire out. The ones that were breathing and had bad wounds they would treat. Stop the bleeding and do not waste time on the last breath. He had to make choices. After a while, he became pretty good at judging how long people could stand it. Some would fool you. They would look like they were bleeding bad and they would make it. Burns would blind people, but maybe three months later someone would come back and tell him he saved their eyes. That made him feel great. Every one of them that got better and came back, would run to greet them [Annotator's Note: the medics] and make them feel important. There are no atheists in foxholes. They had their own chaplains. You would be surprised at how many guys would go to church. [Annotator's Note: Angst talks of unconnected events that are hard to follow.]

The first thing that Lawrence Angst would do if he came to a soldier missing a limb was try to stop the bleeding. He saw amputations in the battalion aid station [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division]. The surgeon and his aides would stop the bleeding and send them back to the hospital. He helped stopped bleeders while the surgeon was closing up the wound. Later on, he wondered how the heck the person even lived. In armor, the wounds were bad. They did have some self-inflicted wounds. He could tell by the type of wound, usually a flesh wound, or the person was suspicious all along, shying away from combat. Some of those people turned out to be brave as hell. Some were ashamed of themselves. The military tried hard to ferret these men out in basic training and put them into non-combat roles. Some guys fear nothing and are nuts. There were some suicides, usually using a pistol or sometimes volunteering excessively. It was not normal. Angst would be laid up sometimes and would go back to the rear. He would ask if they could find a job for him like being a clerk or something on easy duty. He did not want to be in the half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] all the time. Sometimes being in the half-track was not bad at all. They were either going to or from the front. Sometimes they would stay all night with them when they were cut off, in a haystack or a basement. He did not think anything at all about the self-inflicted wounds and suicides.

Lawrence Angst never became a doctor because he could not. He came back and recovered from his injuries, but he could not walk or stand very long. He could not be a surgeon. He was accepted to medical school, but the Dean said he could not become a doctor. He became a chemist instead. He was very successful. He moved up the ladder. He injured his back in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The roads were very icy. A flare would drop, and the driver would go over an embankment. Once, when that happened, he was the half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] commander and his back hit the stanchion where the machine gun would have been. When he got up, he thought it good he was still alive. He asked to stay with the outfit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] and do light duty. He was devoted to his captain. They were going to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] to be the honor guard for the Potsdam Conference [Annotator's Note: Potsdam, Germany, 17 July to 2 August 1945]. They got to the Elbe River in light fighting. The German Youth [Annotator's Note: Hitler Jugend or Hitler Youth] fanatics were the worst they met. They were going so fast they were only 50 miles from the outskirts of Berlin when they were pulled back to wait for the Russians to take Berlin. They had it relatively easy then. They shined everything up. He fell into a group where he got to travel. [Annotator's Note: ANgst talks about treating some beautiful women and needing to have military police with him, but it is not clear as to what job or outfit he is referring to.] Penicillin was in short supply, so the hierarchy was taking it for their girlfriends. They would have to talk with the German doctors who were running the VD [Annotator's Note: venereal disease] clinics. The women were so thankful, but they were trying to live. It was not his best experience, but he was more like a doctor. As soon as he left Berlin, he was on his way home.

Lawrence Angst said that the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: youth organization of the Nazi Party] were radical and a problem for him. They thought that they were invincible. They were dangerous. A fresh kid that could speak some English, they thought it could be one of the good ones. The next thing you know, they had a burp gun [Annotator's Note: Maschinenpistole 40, or MP 40, German 9mm submachine gun]. Angst saw some experimental camps where people had tubes in their brains. Medical camps that were testing things. Emaciated people. He just had to get away from it, and not dwell on it. He and the men did not talk much about what they saw. Especially as they got into Germany. They treated some prisoners nice but not ethnic groups. They did not bother our prisoners of war except in certain circumstances. Angst gave the German people the benefit of the doubt. They were doing what they were told. But overrunning a camp, and seeing the emaciated people. Hell. He wonders why he made it. He keeps wondering why he is still here. He was not that religious, but he was brought up [Annotator's Note: he does not finish the sentence]. He wanted to be a doctor so he must have some compassion in him.

Lawrence Angst was very anxious to get back to school after the war. He got his degree on the G.I. Bill. He became a chemist and joined Firestone [Annotator's Note: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company]. His father was an old-timer there and Angst thinks it helped him with promotions. He ran a factory at a fairly young age. It was easy to adjust to civilian life because he was so busy. He worked in Arkansas and was put on committees. He got to know Sam Walton [Annotator's Note: Samuel Moore Walton, American businessman] really well through one committee. Rockefeller [Annotator's Note: Winthrop Rockefeller] from New England ran for Governor to make a name for himself. Angst spoke of his war experiences very little. Not to his family at all. [Annotator's Note: Angst points out memorabilia to the interviewer that he has not seen in a very long time. The interviewer asks about his brother who also served.] He was a barrage ballooner. He would B.S. [Annotator's Note: tell lies to] Angst. He was a joker. They did not talk about the war together. He knew Angst was in combat all the time. He was very faithful.

Being picked up by his dad at the train station after the war is the most memorable experience of World War 2 for Lawrence Angst. He was all in one piece with only a slight limp. It was relief. He lost his girlfriend during the war. He was so sure he was not coming home that he would not even write to her. She gave up on him. He purposively avoided her when he came back. He thinks it is pitiful. It was his fault. He has dreamt of things he had seen. Once in a while it is almost a black out. It is usually a small episode. Somebody becomes very real to him. He sees them. Somebody will say something you remember, and you do not know why. You are better off to forget it. He kept busy in life as an escape. Now that he has time, he sees people he has not seen in years. That is why people do not want to talk about it. He remembers things that almost happened. Things that saved your life. You sleep in a tent with another guy and you have a hole you jump in together if planes come over. Next thing you know, you go one way and he goes another and you never see him again. The people you come back to are people you knew before that made it. They can remember the old times. They kid each other a lot.

As a medic, Lawrence Angst saw a lot. Grave Registration used to get to him. They would come along with trucks and fill them with bodies to take back. When they came by him, it was hard. He did become hardened to it, but he can still see it. Usually infantry. The trucks would come to the aid stations to get them [Annotator's Note: the bodies of the dead] out of the way of the troops seeing them. You did forget it. Until you saw the next group. Angst thought World War 2 would be a good way for a poor boy who was a good student, who was average [Annotator's Note: Angst does not finish his thought]. The war made him more circumspect, more tolerant, and more believing in the Golden Rule. He would go out of his way, to see if he could make friends from people who did not like him. He felt fortunate. America is pretty patriotic now. Angst hated the Vietnam War. He felt sorry for the men who reenlisted from World War 2 and were killed in the Korean War. If there was ever a war that should not have existed it was the Vietnam War. Purely political war. People care more and ask more questions now. He feels that The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] should exist, and the war should be taught. You thought you were doing some good. There were times when you thought you were not. He sees those graveyards. We should not forget World War 2 because when he landed in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France], he saw them digging the graves that are monuments now. [Annotator's Note: Angst compliments the interviewer because he never thought he would be talking about this.]

Lawrence Angst thinks that people are changing now. The First and Second World Wars were fought for principles. The ones that were drafted and treated so badly, how could that be? [Annotator's Note: ANgst is referring the Vietnam War.] Somebody made you go, you did not have a choice. That was a bad war. The Germans were in it for domination of the world. It does not mean all Germans were that way. A good portion of them were decent people. He imagines the Russians were the same way. Could not explain how you treat someone a different way just because they were a different ethnic group or different skin color. He had the freedom to run around and see the sights [Annotator's Note: in Europe]. He saw Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] bunker. He came out of the Chancellery [Annotator's Note: Reich Chancellery] to where the bunker was. It was like a pillbox, a bomb bunker. There was a ditch there where Hitler's body was put and burned. The bunker was well-protected. Angst took souvenirs but did not take pictures. He was nosy. Being there does not mean lot. It was a piece of history. Hitler was nuts, but he evidently had a mystic personality. It is hard for him to believe that he was there. He was only there as an honor guard for the Potsdam Conference [Annotator's Note: The Potsdam Conference, Potsdam, Germany, 17 July to 2 August 1945]. He could not have planned that, but he took advantage of it. The Germans flooded the tunnels were their own people were hiding. East Berlin was beat much worse than West Berlin. The Bundestag [Annotator's Note: German federal parliament] was sitting there burned. It had never been rebuilt. Angst had a kid in Berlin who could speak perfect English who took to Americans. He followed him around. Angst moved to Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and the kid showed up. Angst tried to get him to the United States but lost him. He has always wondered about him.