Edward S. was born in the US but his mother took him back to Austria when he was just 2 months old. When WW2 broke out, he was inducted into the Wehrmacht serving in several countries including 2 years on the Russian Front; he was assigned to Panzerjäger Abteilung 85 (anti-tank unit) under the 5th Mountain division where his job was to knock out tanks. Wounded by machine gun fire in Italy, he recuperated in Switzerland until the end of the war. He returned to Austria and tried to get a passport to come back to the US which took a few years to get. Finally, on Thanksgiving Day in 1953, he was allowed to return here aboard the new, ill-fated Andrea Doria which collided 3 years later with another passenger ship and sank off of Nantucket.
His 2-part story was published in a local newspaper and is quite interesting! In March 2007, I met him at a Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge luncheon to which he had been invited as a guest. So I spoke to him. He was gracious enough to show me his scrapbook from his war years which contains these excerpts and more that I didn't photograph. Very nice guy and mentally still very sharp! He remembers exact places and dates of different events that occurred over 60 years ago.
With his permission, I share these photos with you here. Enjoy!
Hello, I am a television producer for RT television in Washington DC. We are working on a special project dedicated to WW2 and we are interviewing veterans of that war. Is there any chance you could help us to contact Edward? We would like to ask him about an interview for us. I'd really appreciate it if you could provide me with Edward's contacts.
Thanks in advance!
Guest
07-Mar-2009 21:25
gIVE ME HIS EMAIL ACCOUNT PLEASE...MINE IS raul_samaniego_badilla@hotmail.com