Thomas J. Kingsley was born in July 1925 in Waterloo, Iowa and grew up there. He had an older brother and sister and a younger sister. Kingsley's father worked continuously through the tough times of the Depression for the telephone company. Kingsley enjoyed fishing with his father. He also hunted pheasant and squirrel with his cousins. Kingsley completed high school. When Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, the males in Kingsley's class knew they would be in the service. The five Sullivan brothers who went down on one Navy ship [Annotator's Note: the USS Juneau (CL-52)] were from Waterloo. Kingsley's brother-in-law knew some of those boys. The tragic loss of the five brothers on one ship made the Navy alter its policy of all siblings being assigned to the same ship. Kingsley opted to join the Army because of its training program [Annotator's Note: the Army Specialized Training Program or ASTP].

Thomas Kingsley's departure for military training was an emotional family event. He had volunteered for the Army because of its ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program] training program. He loved his country and felt there was a call to arms with the Japanese declaration of war by attacking Pearl Harbor. His classmates virtually all volunteered for the service. In retrospect, he might have joined the Navy, but he saw many things that he would not have encountered had he gone to sea. One classmate had quite a few adventures as a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] pilot in Europe. The P-51 was a very effective and speedy fighter. After enlisting, Kingsley departed for Camp Dodge in Des Moines, Iowa. He was 17 years old. With his mechanical aptitude, he was sent to Fort Knox. He went through basic training there. Following that he went to ASTP. Those not selected for ASTP went to ETO [Annotator's Note: European Theaters of Operation] as replacements. He lost some friends at that juncture when they departed. Kingsley learned to drive a tank before he learned to drive a car. His first experience with driving a tank was a failure. That was fine with him because he preferred being a gunner on the tank. He was a good marksman with the Springfield rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1903 Rifle]. After completion of the ASTP training in Columbus, Ohio, Kingsley was sent to train for actual combat with the cavalry. His outfit was sent to Massachusetts for deployment. They landed at Le Havre. The voyage was not easy because the Atlantic was rough in January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. Additionally, German submarines battled through the convoy that carried Kingsley and his outfit. He observed the depth charges dropped on the submarines. No ships were lost.

Thomas Kingsley and his battalion [Annotator's Note: Kingsley was a member of Company C, 27th Tank Battalion, 20th Armored Division] arrived in Le Havre and worked for two weeks to ready their tanks. They were sent to Belgium as tactical reserve and then routed to cross the Rhine River on pontoon bridges. Heading southeast, they reached the Danube where another floatation bridge was used to cross that river. Kingsley's tank was floated across the river and used to extract a disabled tank that was blocking the pontoon bridge. Floating on the Danube in his tank on a pontoon section, the tankers were worried that the tank's weight might sink the section. They made it and successfully removed the disabled tank off the pontoon bridge so that others could safely pass. Kingsley complimented his driver on the excellent job he did. The tank was under fire during this whole time. No one worried about being hit. Kingsley was a member of Company C, 27th Tank Battalion, 20th Armored Division. That was the last armored division assigned to the ETO [Annotator's Note: European Theater of Operations]. Kingsley was a gunner and loader in his tank. Originally assigned to take over the airport at Munich, the battalion was redirected to a prison camp that was on the way. An American infantry division needed help there. After taking out the enemy opposition, the tankers were overwhelmed by the unforgettable sights they witnessed in the camp [Annotator's Note: the Dachau concentration camp].

Thomas Kingsley experienced unforgettable sights as he participated in the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau. The cruelty used to kill the inmates was overwhelming. People died in cattle cars and were left there. Because of lack of food, instances of cannibalism were reported. The roads were lined with those who had been shot by the Nazi guards. The German camp officers had children who could see what was happening in the camp. Kingsley ponders what those young people thought. The Nazi propaganda had a pervasive affect on both the military and civilian population. Kingsley could not help but cry when he saw the inhumanity. The inmates were starved and were just skeletons. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was a terrible maniac. Kingsley felt good to be able to liberate those survivors. One survivor said the tanks must have come from heaven. Following their liberation, inmates killed any guards they could catch. After the tankers moved into the town of Dachau, they destroyed any weapons they found by running their tanks over them. Kingsley managed to get a double barrel shotgun that was in the town. His son now has it. French wine and champagne were also obtained from the townspeople. The people of Dachau claimed to know nothing about the camp. The locals were sent to the camp to see what was happening there. Today's students in Germany are required to studying what Hitler and the country did during the war. Hitler provided radios to the population, but the public was forced to listen only to German propaganda.

Thomas Kingsley and the 27th Tank Battalion, 20th Armored Division helped take the city of Munich. They fought against aggressive SS troops who were defending the city. A fort had been established with a one mile field of fire cleared in front of the German 88mm guns. They could zero in on incoming Americans. Seven tanks were lost. The American 155mm artillery shells quickly ended the German resistance. Half of the Germans were killed and the other half gave up. It was the last of the German reserve. Many were young teenagers from the Hitler Jugend [Annotator's Note: Hitler Youth]. Books by German veterans revealed to Kingsley how brutal the enemy tankers were. They had little regard for their own civilians or Wehrmacht [Annotator's Note: German military] wounded. Kingsley's tank [Annotator's Note: an M4 Sherman medium tank] never encountered a German 88mm gun. The large German tanks were too heavy to cross most bridges so the engines were in waterproof enclosures to enable fording of streams. American tanks were not heavy so they could traverse most bridges. German tanks required more frequent overhauls than the American tanks. Kingsley's tank covered 1,500 miles without a major overhaul. The crew maintained the vehicle themselves. After the war, the battalion would be sent south to cover potential problems with Tito [Annotator's Note: Josip Broz Tito was a communist leader of Yugoslavia]. When the tankers captured the Munich airport, the German pilots simply handed over their pistols. They had no fuel for their airplanes. There were many planes and even a buzz bomb and a jet at the airport that were in good condition. An American B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] flew in to pick up the rocket expert and look at the items that were captured at the airport. The German machine gun [Annotator's Note: the Maschinengewehr 42 or MG-42] was a frightening weapon for Kingsley because of the rapidity of its fire. Kingsley was in Munich when the Germans surrendered [Annotator's Note: on 8 May 1945]. His battalion was collecting prisoners and setting up a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. The German soldiers were starving and knew they were beaten. They were grateful for food. The future Pope John XXIII was educated near Munich. At the time, he was just another prisoner.

After the war in Europe ended, Thomas Kingsley and the 27th Tank Battalion, 20th Armored Division was sent south as a tactical reserve because of Marshal Tito [Annotator's Note: Josip Broz Tito was a communist leader of Yugoslavia]. After being in the mountains there for awhile, the outfit was trained on new tanks with a 90mm gun [Annotator's Note: M26 Pershing]. The gun was so loud that it may have been the reason Kingsley lost his hearing. The 75mm shells on his previous tank [Annotator's Note: the M4 Sherman medium tank] would just bounce off the German tanks. Kingsley remained in Europe until the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945. The intention prior to that was for the battalion to be one of the leading elements ashore in the invasion of Japan. Kingsley did not feel good about that because of the ineffective Sherman gun. He was glad that he pulled into New York harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty. Kingsley went on to attend college on the G.I. Bill. He attended engineering courses at Iowa State College and graduated in 1950. He wanted to live in Minnesota because of the forests there. He was employed in Minneapolis as an engineer. He spent 43 years with his company and retired at 70 years of age. He was discharged from the Army at a military camp north of Santa Barbara after he returned home from Europe. In 1946, he was discharged as a corporal. He was ready to leave the service and get back to a normal life with his elderly parents. Kingsley enjoyed vacationing with his brother in Canada during those postwar years. They loved making a camp and fishing. Kingsley put the trauma of the war behind him when he became a civilian.

Thomas Kingsley remembers his experience at Dachau as his most memorable experience of World War 2. Seeing the teeth that had been extracted from dead inmates was traumatic. Kingsley fought in the war because Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was a madman. Propaganda convinced his people of things that were not true. With the advanced nature of Germany's society, education system, beautiful terrain, and industrious people, why would they want to start a war? Kingsley managed to attend college because of veteran benefits. The veterans worked hard and made good grades while in college. Their education benefited them and the country. The infrastructure was shattered. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: President Dwight D. Eisenhower] built the highway system which increased the demand for automobiles. World War 2 happened because a dictator took over. It serves to show what should be done if that ever happens again. America leads the world in many ways and how we operate in the future will be very important.