Lester Hull was born in Hartford, Connecticut in April 1920. He remembers the Great Depression well. Hull's father was the head of a big manufacturing firm so his family was largely unaffected by the depression. He knew people who could not find work. Hull's father made a profit during the depression. He worked in a machine shop. Hull attended the University of Connecticut where he met his wife. There was a lottery and Hull's number came up [Annotator's Note: Hull is referring to the draft]. Hull remembers the government not really having an idea of how to organize people at the time. Hull was formally inducted on 8 December 1941 and sent to Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He stayed there for a few days during which 3,000 guys came into the place every day. Hull and a few other guys stayed there longer than the others. They believed that it was because they had more education than everyone else and that they were being placed into a special unit. They all wound up in the infantry. Hull thinks he was sent to South Carolina next. He went on maneuvers in Louisiana. Their post office was in Shreveport. Hull found it all very challenging. It helped him grow up and he believes it made him a better person. Hull was transferred out of the infantry and into the artillery. He was assigned to the 976th Field Artillery Battalion as a battery clerk. His rank was corporal at the time and he was placed in Battery C. They then traveled to Fort Dix, New Jersey. From there they headed across the Atlantic. They were in G hold, way below the waterline. They were only allowed on deck for two hours a day. They had five bunks in each stack so each man slept practically right on top of the one below him. They got two meals a day aboard ship. They were not told where they were headed but eventually they arrived in Oran, Algeria. They traveled in a big convoy, there were ships as far as the eye could see. Destroyers spent the entire voyage searching for enemy submarines. The voyage took 13 days because they were zig-zagging the entire time. They eventually disembarked but Hull does not remember the details. Hull does not remember any u-boat alerts during the crossing. One of the guys from Hull's unit lost it before they reached Africa. He started firing his gun and hurting himself before being restrained. Hull does not believe that people are especially brave. He thinks that some people can get over their fear in the moment and some cannot. The guy was Corporal Ryan. Ryan was transferred to a hospital ship and got stories from the wounded men returning to the States and wrote his wife a letter about his experience in combat. The wife later wrote the unit a letter thanking the unit and talking about what a hero her husband and they were. Hull took the letter to his captain but the captain decided to let them live the lie. Hull thinks this sort of thing happens in every war and there is no rhyme or reason to explain why one guy will crack and another will not.

Lester Hull and his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 976th Field Artillery Battalion] spent several months in North Africa. They were thirsty all the time. The water was brackish and they dropped hard candies into it to make it sweeter. Hull had the job of doing payroll and making morning reports. He loved that job. People looked up to him. His best friend was the first sergeant. The captain treated him well. The Germans bombed and shelled them. On Hull's first night in Oran, the Germans bombed the camp. Hull was close to some British veterans who had been there for years and he followed their lead and took the bombing in stride. Some of the other men freaked out when the bombs started falling. Some guys dove into slit trenches to avoid the bombs. Hull always thought that the bombs were aimed at him but he later came to understand that German bombing was indiscriminate. Hull does not know what division he was a part of. They were passed around to whichever unit needed fire support. Occasionally, one of the guns would be loaned out to another unit. The guns were pulled by tractors and had to be dug in before being fired. After North Africa, they stayed on the ship for about a week. They eventually launched an invasion near Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy]. Hull remembers climbing over the side of the ship and into the landing craft. He also remembers walking on the beach on the day after the landing. Shortly thereafter, Churchill called for an attack at Anzio. Before Anzio, the war was pretty low key for Hull. He knew that some people had been killed by the shelling but had not really felt like he had been exposed to a lot of danger. None of the men knew much about Anzio. They thought that they would be there for a day or two but the battle lasted six months. They landed at Anzio at a dock then went ashore. They only moved a few hundred yards from the beachhead on the first day. After the landings were completed, Hull's unit moved a few miles inland. Hull never found out for certain because he never went back to Anzio. Two of his assistants were killed. One of them was a truck driver who went into Anzio almost daily to get the mail. Even the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] spent their days below ground in their foxholes. One day, Hull and a man named Westhoven were stuck in a shallow foxhole when the shells started coming down. The next day they widened and deepened it and then covered it with timber and a tarp. They thought they could withstand a direct hit from an 88mm gun. They were never hit but they frequently would wake up and find a new hole in the ground close by.

Lester Hull does not recall when the German counterattack began. He remembers that while the battle lasted for six months, it was only near the very end that it became clear that they were winning. The Army sent the Rangers in but they were surrounded and suffered massive casualties. Hull thought that they were going to move out within a few days but felt that General Lucas [Annotator's Note: Major General John P. Lucas] waited too long before moving out because he wanted everything to be perfect. Hull thinks that the delay gave the Germans time to organize their defenses and, because of the delay, they were essentially trapped there for six months. Hull could barely eat C rations even when he was hungry. He did not mind D rations as much. Supply was difficult because there were 15 million men in the service. The mission had two parts. They were trying to take Rome but the men at Anzio were also trying to make their way south to meet up with their forces in southern Italy. They landed there [Annotator's Note: at Anzio, Italy] in January [Annotator's Note: January 1944] and they only broke free in early June. Hull does not remember what it was that caused the breakout. They were sent back to the beach several times because they were afraid that the Germans would break through their lines. Several men shot themselves in the hand in order to get out of combat. Some guys were able to get over what happened and some were never able to fully shake what haunted them. Hull thinks he would have stood and fought if the Germans pushed them into the sea. Hull remembers that, by and large, there was no problem with morale. Hull remembers another truck driver who was scared all the time. Most of them just compartmentalized it all in order to do their jobs. Hull remembers listening to Anzio Annie giving her propaganda programs on the radio trying to get the men to surrender. Hull's assistant clerk was killed by a direct hit from a shell. They could not even find his dog tags. Hull's other assistant was killed while driving his jeep. The other driver, Red, remembered that the building he used as a waypoint was gone one day. After the breakout they went to Rome. The Germans withdrew ahead of the Allied advance but there was some fighting happening around the city. Hull does not remember any difficulty getting into Rome. They spent some time in Rome before leaving to take part in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France. While in Rome, Hull got an English speaking guide to lead them around the city. He saw the Coliseum and the Vatican. Hull thinks that going around the city was the best thing he did during his time. They toured the Seven Hills of Rome.

Lester Hull does not remember much about the landings in Southern France. By the time they landed, the Germans were pretty much beaten. He assumes that all of Germany's attention was focused on the troops in Northern France. They advanced quickly into central France. Hull remembers that they entered Lyon. Once they started nearing Northern France, the Germans started fighting them in force. Hull remembers entering Alsace-Lorraine and passing into Germany. He saw many of the townsfolk as they made their way to the north and remembers that, while the townsfolk were polite, they were more concerned with carrying on with their lives. Hull saw some German POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] while there. Hull took French when he was college and he learned some French and Italian from the French and Italians. Once, while foraging for eggs, a native mistook Hull for an Algerian Frenchman. He took some pride that his French was good enough for him to get mistaken for a native speaker. They kept advancing until the Battle of the Bulge happened and they had to retreat 50 miles. They spent Christmas 1944 with a German family. Within a month they were back where they had begun. Hull was despondent at first because he thought his life would be a constant series of advances and retreats with no end in sight but that did not come to pass. Hull does not remember which town he was in during the Battle of the Bulge. During the battle, they suffered repeated shellings and bombings. The Germans put a lot of effort into the attack but Hull recalls that the Germans were basically spent after the battle. The Germans were aiming for the gun emplacements. Hull remembers seeing Munich near the end of the war. He also remembers seeing towns and cities with no building taller than ten feet high. Hull has pictures of his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 976th Field Artillery Battalion] crossing the Siegfried Line.

[Annotator's Note: Lester Hull served in the Army as the battery clerk of Battery C, 976th Field Artillery Battalion and saw action at Anzio, Rome, Southern France, the Battle of the Bulge and Germany.] The shell weighed 98 pounds and the powder weighed 30 pounds. They could also put a super charge behind the shell to extend the range a few miles. The Germans never hit any of Hull's artillery pieces. The weather was terrible everywhere they went. In North Africa, it was extremely hot and the water was frequently disgusting. In Italy, it rained constantly. Hull contracted trench foot while there and the doctors had difficulty figuring out what he had at first. Hull had no clean socks to put on his feet. They had plenty of supplies for their weapons. They had a field mess hall. They heard one morning that the cook had received some flour and that he was going to make pancakes. Hull woke up early and went to the mess hall. The whole battery had gotten up before him. The British frequently had more meat in their meals than the Americans. Hull remembers the infantry being forced to march around in the mornings. Hull had plenty of clothes including some winter gear that he received in Germany. Hull had to man a checkpoint during the battle [Annotator's Note: the Battle of the Bulge]. The Germans would frequently try to infiltrate American lines by using American cars and equipment to pass as Americans. Many of the Germans spoke flawless English so Hull's job was to quiz them on various things Americans would know to make sure they were not German. Anyone who failed the test was taken away. No one ever challenged anything. They always had guns on them during the questioning. Hull only saw a few vehicles filled with Germans. There might have been hundreds for all he knew. Hull's unit was bivouacked near the checkpoint. Hull remembers the questions being fairly simple. Hull acknowledges that many people other than Americans could answer the questions but he could tell in the way they answered if they were American or not. This only lasted a few days before the battle was over. Once the weather cleared up, the air force came out in force and pummeled the German positions. Hull had to sleep on the ground during the Battle of the Bulge and would wake up covered in snow. They had to be mentally tough to survive the war. It was less about how physically strong they were.

Lester Hull saw Munich near the end of the war. The war ended when they were a little bit east of the city. Hull saw towns and cities with no building taller than ten feet high. The cities were rubble for miles around. Hull has pictures of his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 976th Field Artillery Battalion] crossing the Siegfried Line. The Germans thought the line was impenetrable but they punched a hole in the wall and made their way through it. The artillery brought up the rear. Most of the fighting was done before they arrived at the front. Hull saw bunkers and dragon's teeth [Annotator's Note: dragon's teeth were pyramidal fortifications of reinforced concrete use to impede the progress of both tanks and mechanized infantry vehicles] as they got to the Siegfried Line. He saw graves registration people picking through battlefields. Hull believes he ended the war in the town of Fussen, Austria. While there, they had to pick up the guns, cameras and knives [Annotator's Note: from the German civilians they encountered] and carry them all into a room. They did not encounter much resistance there. Many of the people there wanted to give up but were afraid to. Hull saw some German soldiers who were trying to surrender. They were enticed to come out in the open then were shot by some American soldiers. On the day Germany surrendered, Hull heard some of the natives singing Deutschland uber alles, or Germany Over All, the national anthem of Germany. Hull thought that those people had a lot of guts to sing that song that day. Hull remained in Germany until around October. His unit was sent to Ammersee, a lake in Bavaria. It was a beautiful place. They stayed in a house there. They would occasionally trade their rations with the French in exchange for rabbit stew. Hull did not see many young kids or old men during the last days of the war. He thought that they were still the cream of the crop even during the Battle of the Bulge. Hull never saw any German soldiers up close outside of POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camps but he was impressed with how they had fought because they had taken on much of the world and fought well. Hull saw a concentration camp but he does not remember which one. They did not go through the camp but they saw rescued POWs at the edge of the camp. The POWs were primarily Russians with a lot of Mongolians mixed in. They were very gaunt looking with blank looks on their faces. Hull was shocked by what he saw. Everyone was shocked but no one wanted to talk about it. Hull had a lot of points so he was exempt from having to take part in the invasion of Japan. Before he left Germany, Japan surrendered. Hull had a lot of replacements in his unit. He did not volunteer to help out with the invasion because he had his future wife waiting for him.

Lester Hull used the GI Bill after he was discharged and returned to the University of Connecticut. He and his wife had started there in 1940. She finished in 1944. Hull went all year long and finished in January 1948. He majored in insurance. They were married in June 1948. Hull tied for the highest IQ in his entrance class. When he returned, the man he tied with was his teacher. Hull believes that the war changed him greatly. He was always more immature than others in his age group. He lacked self confidence. While he was away, his girlfriend described him to her friends as being very quiet and reserved. When he returned he was no longer like that. He was angry at everything and occasionally aggressive. He did not match his wife's description of him. Hull thinks that war is terrible but the result changed America for the better. He thinks that the war helped to pull America out of the Great Depression. His wife worked in a factory during her summers building bomb parts. Hull remembers a motorcycle messenger in Anzio named Alexander that used to stop by and pay Hull a visit from time to time. Hull spoke to him once about politics and was surprised to learn that Alexander hated Churchill. Churchill was voted out almost immediately after the war ended in Europe. Hull thinks that almost everywhere on Earth was changed irrevocably by the war. Hull likes the fact that The National WWII Museum exists because he felt that there was not enough emphasis put on World War 2 for a long time. Hull remembers that everyone was behind the soldiers during the war but he saw no cheering crowds when he returned home. He got a handshake from his family and he was home. Hull likes the museum and would like to learn more about the parts that he did not see.