Louis Liberato was born in May 1925 in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania. He had two sisters and one brother and was the oldest. His mother was a housekeeper and his dad worked as a maintenance machinist. He worked steadily. Things in those days were hard. Liberato worked at a farm to help out. His family was really close. [Annotator’s Note: The interviewer talks about family life in the 1930s.] Liberato was listening to football on the radio when the news broke that Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The draft started immediately. He turned 18 in high school in 1943 and registered. He was in uniform on 2 July 1943. His uncle was stationed at Camp Polk [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk, Vernon Parish, Louisiana] as a paratrooper. He was home on leave and accompanied Liberato to the train. [Annotator's Note: Liberato gets emotional.] He had never been more than 20 miles from home. His mother took his leaving hard. Later on, when she found he was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war], she ended up in bed and stayed there for the rest of the war.

Louis Liberato was sent to New Cumberland, Pennsylvania after being drafted. He was then sent from there to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for basic training. He kind of liked it. He had to get used to getting up early in the morning. He might have made a career of it if it had not been for his POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] experience. He will never forget his first overnight hike. It was a disaster. They marched about 20 miles and they had to pitch camp in a thunderstorm. He and another guy shared a pup tent. They had to change clothes and as soon as they got the tent up, they were told to pack up and head back. He went home on a seven day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] around Thanksgiving [Annotator's Note: 1943]. He went to Fort Meade [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in in Anne Arundel County, Maryland], Maryland for three or four weeks of training. They were issued clothing. If you got light clothing, you knew you were going to the Pacific, heavy to Europe. He got heavy. He went to Camp Shanks [Annotator's Note: in Orangetown, New York], New York and he had a chance to go into New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Liberato what his mom thought seeing him in uniform. He gets emotional.] After a couple of days, he was awakened in the night and put on the SS Santa Barbara [Annotator's Note: possibly MS Santa Barbara].

[Annotator’s Note: Louis Liberato went to Europe in January 1944.] They went over in a big convoy with the troops in the center. They changed course about every ten minutes in the North Atlantic [Annotator's Note: North Atlantic Ocean] in January. The water gets very rough. Many of them got seasick. That was a problem at breakfast. It took about 19 days to go across. They could go on deck during the day but stayed below at night. They had a submarine scare. Depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] were going off. Liberato picked up a bad habit then. He was scared and sitting on his hands. A staff sergeant across from him was smoking a cigarette and put a cigarette in Liberator's mouth. He quit smoking 20 years later. They ended up in Liverpool, England and were sent to Cardiff, Wales. He was a replacement troop. In Cardiff, he got pneumonia and was hospitalized. His group had been dispersed when he got out. He was sent to Headquarters Artillery, 28th Infantry Division [Annotator’s Note: Headquarters Battery, or HHB Division Artillery, 28th Infantry Division]. He was put into the communications end of it and worked in the telephone field. He was sent up to Tenby, Wales for training. He was also sent to school to learn a decoding machine. His job was to run lines from the artillery to the infantry for forward observers to use. They had the 108th [Annotator’s Note: 108th Field Artillery Battalion, 28th Infantry Division], 107th [Annotator’s Note: 107th Field Artillery Battalion, 28th Infantry Division], 110th [Annotator’s Note: 109th Field Artillery Battalion, 28th Infantry Division], and 229th Artillery [Annotator’s Note: 229th Field Artillery Battalion, 28th Infantry Division]. He was part of a crew of five stringing the wires and installing them on poles. In France, they had cement poles and they could not use spikes so they would tie it up. The artillery would be a half-mile or a mile from the infantry. He was on a wooden pole and did not know another outfit was there with 240s [Annotator’s Note: M1 240mm howitzer]. When they fired, his spikes came out of the pole and he slid down.

Louis Liberato arrived in Europe around 18 July 1943 [Annotator's Note: 1944]. The LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] brought them up and he saw his first casualty, a soldier laying on the side of the road. [Annotator's Note: Liberato gets emotional.] It was when he realized it could be him. The Battle of Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France] was a lot of artillery fire. When they got done with that town, you could not walk down the streets due to the rubble. It was terrible. They went from Normandy through northern France and liberated Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He was in the parade there [Annotator's Note: 29 August 1944]. He did not see much of the city, but it was in good shape. They liberated Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Bastogne, Belgium], and it was beautiful. After the Battle of Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], Bastogne was rubble. They went to Wiltz, Luxembourg, which was supposed to be quiet and a rest area [Annotator's Note: December 1944]. They had taken a beating in the Hurtgen Forest [Annotator's Note: Battle of Hürtgen Forest, 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945]. It was a beautiful place. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] were using artillery that exploded above the trees. Liberato and the men dug holes, not foxholes, but squares for protection. They chopped down small trees and put them across, then branches, and then earth on that. It was usually four men to a hole. Just sitting and waiting like that got to a lot of the men. There were a lot of injuries. The noise was terrible. The phosphorous would come down and start fires. During the day it was quiet, the shelling was at night. They did not get much sleep and it was cold and muddy.

Louis Liberato went into Wiltz [Annotator's Note: Wiltz, Luxembourg] to rest and recuperate. On 16 December [Annotator's Note: 16 December 1944], the breakthrough started [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], and they [Annotator's Note: the Germans] dropped paratroopers. There was a field hospital outside of town. Tiger tanks [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI heavy tank, known as the Tiger] would come to the edge of town and fire on the hospital. One afternoon, they were told to pack up and move out. Liberato was in the third truck starting out of Wiltz after they had been surrounded. They came to a crossroad where all hell broke loose. There was a farmhouse with a machine gunner on the second floor. Their lead jeep got hit, went off the road, and caught on fire. The second truck did too. His truck had a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] on it and Tommy Plover [Annotator’s Note: Thomas J. Plover] swung that gun around and opened up on that window. They made it by but hit a land mine shortly afterwards. Machine gun fire started. Liberato started crawling away, got about 100 yards, and felt something poke him in the back. It was a German paratrooper. [Annotator's Note: Liberato gets emotional.] The German ordered him up and marched him to a farmhouse. Inside, he saw an officer with the keystone patch [Annotator's Note: shoulder sleeve insignia of the 28th Infantry Division, nicknamed the "Keystone" Division], who was bloody. He had knifed a German. The officer was taken in for questioning, then another, and then Liberato. They were stripped. Liberato had a set of hand-carved, wooden rosaries [Annotator's Note: Roman Catholic prayer device] and a Saint Christopher medal [Annotator's Note: Roman Catholic patron saint of travelers]. They took his rosaries. He did know what to expect next. When the truck went over, Liberato had a hard time getting off it. All of his crew had survived. The prison camp was a hellhole. He was put on a boxcar. They were marched through towns and the civilians would spit at them and throw things at them. Liberato had some galoshes on. He was in a cellar and a German guard offered him two loaves of bread for them. He was sorry he did not take him up on it, as a German officer took them from him later. What bothered him more than anything was thinking about the hell of a Christmas present his mother was going to get. [Annotator's Note: Liberato gets emotional. The interviewer talks at length about another interview.]

Louis Liberato had never experienced death before he went to Europe. He was loaded into a boxcar [Annotator's Note: after being captured]. The boxcars were 40 and eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] and they really could not move. The body heat was the only thing good about it. They would pull over to let supply trains go by, sometimes for two or three hours. He ended up in a hellhole called Limburg, Germany in Stalag XII-A. It took about four days by train. He was there at Christmas [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944] and part of the camp got bombed by the RAF [Annotator's Note: British Royal Air Force]. The RAF bombed at night and the Americans during the day. He got no news about the war and had no idea about what was going on. He went later to Neubrandenburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag II-A, Camp Fünfeichen, Neubrandenburg, Germany] and then to a farm with two guards. They then got information from the guards. Both had been wounded in the war. They were pretty decent to them. The younger man had been in the Olympics in the United States and knew a lot about it. Liberato had not heard from home. He wrote ten letters to his mother. [Annotator's Note: Liberato reads a letter the Army sent to his mother about him being a prisoner of war.] His parents had gotten a telegram that he was missing in action sometime in late January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. He was moved from Stalag XII-A to Stalag II-A. He had bunks there to lay on. Limburg did not have bunks and they slept on the floor. They were marched between camps at night. They slept in farmhouses or barns. A lot of times it was in snowstorms. In a barn once, there were cattle down below. Liberato knew how to milk cows. He got a tin can and milked a cow. There were five of them and they all shared whatever they had. He went down again and there was a guard there. He got into a dark room going around the guard. There was sauerkraut in there. They were all very sick the next morning.

[Annotator's Note: In March 1945, Louis Liberato was moved from the Stalag XII-A prisoner of war camp in Limburg, Germany to the Stalag II-A prisoner of war camp in Neubrandenburg, Germany with four of his crew who had also been captured.] Liberato got separated from them later. He thinks the ones who buddied up did better than others. They got separated went sent to a farm to work. He only saw any of them once after the war. He was working and a Canada Dry [Annotator’s Note: soft drink] truck came in. It was Corporal Plover [Annotator's Note: Army Corporal Thomas J. Plover]. He is the only one he had seen. It was a good feeling to bump into him. Another friend that Liberato went through basic training with was in the 28th [Annotator's Note: 28th Infantry Division] but not with him. He did see him for a while after the war. Not being able to change clothes or take a shower really bothered Liberato. It was a loss of dignity. You were not even considered a human being. They were supposed to get a package for each man from the Red Cross. Often, they had to share though. Cigarettes were like gold. They would trade with the guards and other prisoners. They would be lucky to get back in the camp with some food they snuck in when they worked on the farm. There was Polish slave labor there, but they were separated. Liberato never had meat as a prisoner. On Easter Sunday [Annotator's Note: 1 April 1945], they all got one fried egg. They had a pot belly stove in their barracks, and they slept in their clothes. The only had a bucket to use for a latrine. They were separated by rank. There was always somebody who became the leader.

Louis Liberato was at the Elbe River and aircraft were flying over them. The war was officially over, but they did not know it. They crossed the river with the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] in one bunch and Germans in another. He had never seen so many weapons piled up. Americans came and got them on trucks and took them to get cleaned up. They were moved to Nancy, France and they got deloused and took physicals. They then went 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]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer says that most people do not know what it is like to be hungry.] It is a gnawing feeling. Even a bite of an apple does not take it away. You ache all over. He did not know of anyone who cracked under the pressure. They stuck together because they were Americans. Regardless of their backgrounds, they helped each other. If you could not keep up, they would shoot you. He got a chance to write home from Camp Lucky Strike.

Louis Liberato came home to Norfolk, Virginia on the USNS General Simon B. Buckner. He stayed a couple of days there and was sent home for a month. He went back to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The war with Japan was still going on and he did not have enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to get out. He was sent to Camp Cook, California and thought he was going to Japan. After a week, he was sent back. He had a met a guy on the boat and he rode with him to his house. The next day, Liberato's dad and uncle picked him up. His mother was in bad shape and in bed. Liberato has no regrets. He had to go. He would not want to go through it again. The memories still stick with him. He thinks less about it as he ages. Right after he got home, if an airplane flew over, he would jump out of bed. A door slam would bother him. He feels fortunate. He came back to his old job. He went to a printing company and learned the trade on the G.I. Bill. He worked there for 44 years. He only had an 11th grade education and he worked his way to supervisor. He ended up an executive of that company and was rubbing elbows with guys with college educations.