George Spera was born in 1924 in Mays Landing, New Jersey. He had no siblings. His father was a bricklayer and cement finisher. During the Depression, work ran out for his father so he went to work for a local bakery as a bread deliveryman. Each morning, his father would follow a route to deliver the bread. When World War 2 began, the bakery could no longer operate their trucks because of rationing of tires and gasoline. At that point, larger stores began supplying more of the grocery products, including sliced bread. The town industry became component manufacturing for bombs. Spera's father became a worker in that industry. After the war, Spera's father went back into the bricklaying and cement finishing business. As his father's knees became a problem, he joined a security force and became a guard. He worked in that capacity for the rest of his life until he passed at the age of 62 years of age. Spera completed high school a few months before the raid on Pearl Harbor. His goal prior to the attack had been to attend pharmacy school. With the start of the war, Spera knew he would be called up for duty. Despite several delays, on his birthday in 1942, he was called up and by April he was in Florida taking basic training. His mother was not happy about him being drafted.

George Spera went through basic training and then to the ASTP, Army Specialized Training Program. With the ASTP he attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The ASTP was a good program which was to be a two year program with the trainee graduating as a warrant officer. After six months, and before he completed the ASTP, the school was closed down because of the impending D-Day invasion of France. Spera then went to Camp Swift in Texas and joined the 102nd Infantry Division in March 1944. He was learning about jungle warfare so it was anticipated that they would be assigned to the Asian theater. Instead, the train went east to Fort Dix where they learned they would be deployed to Europe. At this time, there were racial problems in the Philadelphia trolley system. Strikes were called during the war. For two or three weeks, the armed soldiers of the 102nd Infantry Division had to ride the trolley cars in order to maintain peace. The blacks were ultimately allowed to operate the trolley cars, and the troops went back to Fort Dix. The delays caused by the strike prevented the 102nd Infantry Division from operating as a backup division after the landings in Normandy on D-Day. Nevertheless, the 102nd Infantry Division would see its share of action after joining the 9th Army in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.  

George Spera first saw combat in September 1944. He was scared to death. Nobody had previous combat experience including the officers. It was all new to them. There were great officers further up the chain of command. Spera's company was badly hit during combat. There were about 220 men who passed through Spera's 180 man company as a result of the turnover for wounded and deaths. His company had 59 men killed in action. It was a terrible casualty rate. Enemy artillery caused many of the losses. Movements in October, November and December [Annotator's Note: 1944] was during one of the worst winters in history in Germany. One of the major problems involved a soldier's feet. Frozen feet were a concern. Dry socks tucked away and kept dry were very important so they could be changed occasionally. For 14 to 20 days in November, there were no baths and the food was only C rations with only limited water. Worry of German infiltration of American lines was constant. Most of the action that Spera experienced was in capturing towns and buildings. Snipers or bypassed enemy troops were always dangerous. It was a bad situation. Artillery was the most feared enemy weapon. The Germans had the screaming Mimis [Annotator's Note: the German nebelwerfer was a multi-barreled rocket launcher. Because of the unique sound it made when firing, they were referred to as Screaming Mimis]. The Germans could locate the Americans even if they were behind buildings. The nine rounds of the ammunition in the screaming Mimis were deadly and caused a lot of damage. The Germans were young soldiers but skilled and well trained. Spera became used to combat, but he never knew what would happen next. He always felt he was the lucky one with deaths occurring all around him. Spera was next to a soldier with a bazooka who was hit. He remembers how that soldier was burned to death in a terrible way. It takes a long time to get over seeing a casualty like that. Spera made friends during his service. There was a postwar association that he participated in. The association existed for 60 years prior to the last reunion he attended due to the age and deaths of attendees. Spera lost a couple of close friends in combat. There were four in his squad on bivouac who were close. The three that Spera was with on bivouac were all killed. That was sad. Spera was wounded in 1944 when he was 20 years old. The captain was the oldest man in the company and he was only 28 years old. The troops were from all over the country. They were all young men. The country was different at that time. The company was not integrated. There were two Indians [Annotator's Note: Native Americans] in the company, but other than that, there was no integration. It was a different war from today.

George Spera's first wound in combat was a small injury to his left hand in November [Annotator's Note: November 1944]. The wound resulted from Spera being hit by a small piece of artillery shrapnel. He received a stitch and bandages, put a glove over it, and returned to the front line to do his job. Spera was wounded a second time a few weeks later. After the second wound, he flew to southern England for recovery in a hospital starting on 7 December. He had three different operations to save his leg. He credits penicillin and sulfa drugs in helping him save his leg and recover. Those medicines prevented gangrene in his leg. With gangrene, Spera might have lost his leg. He was in the hospital until March [Annotator's Note: March 1945]. Spera was offered a chance to go to a rehab center and have limited duty off the lines. He was a 20 year old sergeant at the time and desired to get back to his company. While in the hospital, Spera had been communicating with his lieutenant by mail. His captain offered him a nice job as sergeant of the guard as an incentive to return. Guard duty was 24 hours a day and someone had to always be awake. Sergeant of the guard was good duty because Spera was provided a driver and a jeep to get around and perform his assignment. Spera was in Linnich, Germany when he was wounded the second time. The city had just been captured. The troops were held up there by the Roer River. The Germans had knocked out the bridges in the area so crossing was delayed. The Americans could not cross the Roer without watercraft. The Battle of the Bulge began at this point. Some of the 102nd Infantry Division troops were diverted to Bastone while others stayed in Linnich. The battle near Linnich was tough and made more difficult with the bitter cold and ice. Quite a few casualties were experienced in the battle for Linnich. It was hard to fire a gun with wool gloves. There were some cases of Section 8 discharges [Annotator's Note: discharge for being mentally unfit for duty] because they could not take it anymore. Spera witnessed troops who experienced combat fatigue or PTSD [Annotator's Note: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] as it is called today. Spera had sleepless nights after his service in recalling wartime occurrences he had witnessed. What really affected him was when he remembered individuals he knew well who were lost in the war. Spera would never see them again. From his discharge in March 1946, Spera experienced PTSD badly. When the war ended in May [Annotator's Note: May 1945], he was told he would be going to the Asian war. The 102nd Infantry Division was scheduled to return to the United States but the bombing ended the war in September. Spera respects Harry Truman as the greatest president for his decision to use the atomic bombs. It would have been a tough war against the Japanese in their home islands. America would have lost millions in the invasion. The terrain is very difficult so paratroopers would have been used and losses would have been high. The Germans developed the Siegfried Line, but the United States Air Forces, using the B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] bombers, was a really big advantage in overcoming those obstacles. 

George Spera and the troops of the 102nd Infantry Division passed through the town of Gardelegen, Germany without action, but they realized that something was wrong as they did. There was a terrible smell. The American troops discovered a big factory building with dead prisoners from various nations in Europe. The building had been set afire. The dead numbered about 1,019. The Army made the men of the town dig cemetery plots to bury the people. The town has continuously taken on the task of taking care of the plots for the dead prisoners through the years. The German soldiers had taken off before the Americans arrived. Prior to departure, the Germans had laid hay and straw in the building. As the Americans neared the area, the prisoners were locked in the building, and it was set on fire. It was a terrible way to die. The 102nd Infantry Division reached the Elbe River after this incident. They were ready to enter Berlin. 

George Spera and the 102nd Infantry Division got to the Elbe River about 24 April [Annotator's Note: 24 April 1945]. The troops could not understand why they did not move ahead. They were not harassed by the Germans so they thought they could move forward. They learned that an agreement had been made by the four major Allied powers for the Americans to hold in place at the Elbe River. The Russians ultimately would take Berlin and Hitler would commit suicide. With that, the war in Europe ended. Spera was near the Elbe River on VE-Day when the war ended in Europe. He never met the Russians, and that was fine with him. The German citizens were respectful and good to the American troops during the occupation. Germans were under a travel curfew at night. The Germans were happy to see the war end because they had lost their homes. The Americans were in occupation duty, but they were ready to go back home. They knew that the invasion of Japan loomed ahead. Discharges were being given on the basis of a point system that included how many medals were received. Troops previously not interested in citations soon began to change their opinions.

George Spera was matured as a result of his time in the Army. He realized his responsibility that he had when he was discharged at 22 years old. He was a platoon sergeant and second in command to the lieutenant. Spera was relatively small in stature, but received respect from his men. Friendships and postwar reunions with his fellow servicemen lasted for years. Spera had no regrets concerning his service. He would do it again if there was another war. He felt he was protecting the freedoms of his country. There is no better place to live than the United States throughout the world. Spera saw a lot of destruction during the war. In returning to Germany in the 1980s, he visited Cologne. He saw a modern city full of glass. That was a surprise for him after 40 years of reconstruction. The people were very appreciative of his service for the United States. The same was true when he visited France, Belgium and Holland. Those citizens expressed their appreciation for what he did during the war. Spera and his wife traveled a lot after retirement and visited many sites in Europe. He has been repeatedly thanked for his service during World War 2.