Robert Clifford Pryor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1920. Growing up during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], he would collect trash that he found on the ground and bring it to a man to barter for a nickel because he wanted to go to the movie theater. His father worked for the government during the Great Depression and traveled a lot. Sometimes, his parents rented out their house and Pryor, his mom, and siblings would have to go live somewhere else, until his dad returned from his trips. After Pryor graduated high school, he went to Chicago, Illinois to apply to college. He attended only for a few months because he did not enjoy the classes. For fun, he raced cars. He found a job working in oil fields for seven dollars a day. The job was very dangerous, and he lived on the property. He also took a job sawing trees down. Around 1940, his father persuaded him to join the military because he knew that war would break out at any time. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video at 0:07:38.000.] When he was down in Mississippi with his father, he decided to join the Mississippi National Guard the day before they would become federalized. The doctor told him to come back in a couple of hours to be examined. When Pryor returned, his cousin told him that the doctor had already left. Pryor was upset that he would not be joining the regiment. Later he learned that the regiment was wiped out in Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. Pryor went to a recruiting center and enlisted with the Army because he wanted to drive a tank. His mother had to give permission because he was under the legal adult age. He was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for training camp. He was given summer uniform even though it was in the middle of winter. About three weeks later, he was given proper clothing. One day, he took a test and qualified for the field artillery. The artillery equipment and firearms he trained on were all from World War 1. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in the background at 0:14:37.000.] He then went to Fort Knox [Annotator's Note: Fort Knox, Kentucky] and took a Morse Code [Annotator's Note: Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs] training. He returned to Fort Benning and then went on three maneuvers in Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. He wanted to volunteer for the paratroopers, but when he saw he climbed up a tower, he decided he did not want to do that. There was a lieutenant that recommended him for OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school], but he decided not to go.

In 1942, Robert Clifford Pryor was sent overseas to Africa [Annotator's Note: with the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Armored Division]. His regiment stayed there for two years. He thought the area was miserable. His regiment's duties were to keep the Germans out and from going into Spain. He was then sent to Sicily, and then on to England. When he reached Salisbury Plain, England, his unit received new equipment and began training for the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He was trained by some of the British forces. On 6 June, the battalion received orders to march to Southampton for embarkation aboard LCTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Tank], but its crossing of the English Channel was delayed due to the fierce German resistance at Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: one of the two American landing beaches in Normandy, France; the other was Utah Beach]. Pryor arrived off Vierville-sur-Mer [Annotator's Note: Vierville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France] at dusk on 10 June and landed on Omaha Beach in the afternoon of 11 June. The resistance of the Germans was very heavy. Pryor's friend was wounded during the landing. The beach was a mess because there was dead everywhere. He then fought through the hedgerow [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation]. They were pinned down until they were able to get bulldozers to cut through the hedgerows. When Pryor's regiment made it to Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France], he described the massive bombing of the city. He recalled that the city was almost destroyed. Many of Americans were bombed by friendly fire. There were so much bombing German tanks were turned upside down. Pryor's regiment did not stay in Saint-Lo and continued forward. He was assigned to drive a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. There was a time during combat where his regiment fired for three days straight without sleeping. The early Germans soldiers were very good, and Americans could not let up. His regiment reached the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s] which was very difficult to break through because the Germans were hiding behind pill boxes. When Pryor reached the Ruhr River, the Germans had bombed the damns and flooded the area so he and his unit could not cross. They had to wait weeks for the water to go down. Pryor was a staff sergeant and was assigned to run fire missions on the 105mm artillery [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer; standard light field howitzer]. Being two years into service, he had to help guide the young-new guys in the unit. His six-gun team was so well trained that each gun shot three shells per minute.

Robert Clifford Pryor [Annotator's Note: with the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Armored Division] participated 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]. On Christmas Eve [Annotator’s Note: 24 December 1944] his unit has a little skirmish. The next day, his unit went up to a road and lined up on both sides, when the Germans came through, they opened fired on them. It was a slaughter; the noise of mortars and screams were unbearable for Pryor. The shooting finally stopped and there were dead bodies everywhere. Pryor fought the Bulge for three more weeks before crossing the Rhine River. As they were cross the pontoon bridges, the Germans exploded the bridges. Luckly he made it over, and when he reached the Elbe River, he learned that Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] instructed Americans to stand down so the Russians could take Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. He remarked on a captain that he drove around in a jeep to forward observe. Pryor recalled that it was cold as he stood out for a watch. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video at 0:54:28.000.] All of a sudden the Germans arrived, and Pryor and the captain, told the artillery to fire. German soldiers began to fall. Pryor and the captain then gave orders to fire phosphorus [Annotator's Note: white phosphorus rounds]. He had a solid relationship with his captain, and when one furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] came up, the captain gave it to Pryor. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video at 0:59:10.000.] During the Bulge, the weather was so cold that his feet started to freeze. They also ran out of gas twice and had limited supply of food.

Robert Clifford Pryor [Annotator's Note: with the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Armored Division] participated in training exercises to prepare for combat. He had a friend that went a little cray during combat. His friend was taken away and he never saw him again. After his unit finished 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], they were sent back to the Ruhr River. Some of the Germans blew damns to prevent the Americans advancement. One month before the end of the war, Pryor and his unit were still pushing the Germans back. One day, as Pryor came across a German soldier, he handed Pryor a pistol. The German civilians were not fond of the American coming in. Pryor met a German girl when he went to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. The girl stole his identification, but he was able to contact the authorities to make sure she did not use it to immigrate to America. While in Europe, Pryor sold Russian watches. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in background at 1:15:17.000.] Pryor had a friend who was Jewish who talked to many of the Russian officers and sold watches. At one point, after they left the officer quarters, Pryor and his friend were shot at by a tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun]. On another occasion he attended a dance with Russian soldiers and one soldier kissed an American who in turn, knocked the guy out. [Annotator's Note: A telehone rings at 1:19:28.000.] When the war in Europe ended, Pryor's unit was scheduled to leave for Japan in about a month's time.

Robert Clifford Pryor [Annotator's Note: with the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Armored Division] saw Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States], Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945], and Stalin [Annotator's Note: Joseph Stalin; General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union] from afar. He also played gambling games with Mickey Rooney [Annotator's Note: born Joseph Yule, Jr.; American actor]. He later put on a show for soldiers. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video at 1:24:12.000 and then again at 1:25:14.000.] In September 1942, he was sent to Mont Lake in Africa. He was trained in amphibious invasions. Three weeks later, his unit heard that there was an amphibious invasion in Italy, but because the military did not have enough ships, his unit could not take part in the invasion. Three weeks later, his unit was sent into combat. The equipment that they had were terrible and was not good enough to face the Tiger tanks [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank; known as the Tiger] that they Germans had. Pryor was in Africa for two years. His unit eventually gave most of their equipment to the French in Africa. When the war ended, Pryor was in Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. He was eventually sent home. His parents had moved to Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan]. He attended school for G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] for three years to finish his high school degree and received a degree in electronics. He found a job in the electronics field. He moved to Houston [Annotator's Note: Houston, Texas] to continue his career in electronics. He eventually went into television repair business with a friend.

Robert Clifford Pryor believes that World War 2 was the greatest thing that happened to him. He holds no animosity to anyone and that is due to his experience in war. Pryor believes that the war changed the rest of the world and American became more global that prior to the war. Americans are better off today that in the 1930s. Pryor was familiar with the uprising hostilities in Europe and Asia before war broke out because he read the newspaper a lot. He believes there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because high schools do not teach history.