The Valiant Virgin, the Lady in Red, and the Richest Man in Town
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
The most recent episode of War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It was about Bob Levine, who recently passed away at the age of 97. It was Bob who said to me, "If you want stories, you've got to interview prisoners of war," and that's what got me started doing just that. Today I'd like you to meet Hal Mapes, one of those POWs. If you like what you hear, I have a modest request. Since I launched my first web site, tankbooks.com, 25 years ago, I've posted hundreds of pages of stories, interviews, whole books and audio clips available for free. Lately the costs of hosting and producing and...
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episode 103 bob levine
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
Bob Levine was among the first replacements in the 90th Infantry Division in Normandy. He was wounded and captured in the battle for Hill 122, and had a leg amputated by a German doctor. Decades later, with the help of historian Henri Levaufre of Perier, Bob was able to meet the family of the German physician. Bob's interview is included in my collection of , and his story is in my book , about Lieutenant Jim Flowers and Hill 122, which also is the subject of several earlier episodes of the podcast. Thank you for listening to War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It. I hope you will consider...
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The Kassel Mission: George Noorigian
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
George Noorigian is one of the fliers featured in my new book, "Up Above the Clouds to Die," about the most spectacular air battle you've probably never heard of. Read an excerpt from the book at aaronelson.com or check out the "Look Inside the Book" feature at amazon. This episode is my full interview with Noorigian, which is excerpted in the book.
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Episode 101 Jack Prior
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It is a podcast about the 712th Tank Battalion in particular and World War II in general. I'm Aaron Elson. In 2005 I recorded this interview with Dr. Jack Prior, a battalion surgeon in the 10th Armored Division. If you've seen Band of Brothers, and who hasn't, you'll likely remember the young Belgian nurse who has a romance with an American soldier, and is killed in the shelling. The real-life nurse on whom the character is based was Renee Lemaire, the "Angel of Bastogne," who was killed on Christmas Eve when Dr. Prior's makeshift hospital was bombed, and...
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A Marine on Tinian: Part 2
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
Thank you for sticking with War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It for the past three months while I was rewriting and expanding my first book, Tanks for the Memories, now available at aaronelson.com, ebay and amazon. War As My Father's Tank Battalion is about the 712th Tank Battalion in particular and World War II in particular. Bob Hamant was a Marine who spent a year on the island of Tinian.
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A Marine on Tinian Part 1
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
First off, I want to thank all of the listeners who stuck with Myfatherstankbattalion through a three month hiatus while I worked on the greatly expanded third edition of Tanks for the Memories, which is now available at Amazon in paperback, hardcover and for Kindle and will soon be available on my web site. As War As My Father’s Tank Battalion approaches its 100th episode, there will be some changes in the format, where I will be interviewing historians and authors about their work.
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World War II Enemies Meet Again
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
In this episode, Aaron interviews Ed Hays, a B17 tail gunner who in 1998 traveled to Germany to meet the German fighter pilot who shot his plane down over Denmark and who, in turn, was shot down by Ed's crew.
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A 'Guest' of the Emperor: Karnig Thomasian Part 2
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
War has a way a producing iconic sayings, from "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" at Bunker Hill to "I've not yet begun to fight" in the War of 1812, to "Retreat Hell! We just got here" at Belleau WoodI, to "By the grace of god and a few Marines MacArthur returned to the Philippines" in World War II. Part 2 of my 2000 interview with Karnig Thomasian features another iconic phrase from World War II: Extract Digit, the meaning of which I'll let Karnig explain during the interview.
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A 'guest' of the emperor
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
Where I used to live in New Jersey there was a remarkable group of ex-prisoners of war. There was Ed Hays, who traveled with his family to Berlin to meet the German fighter pilot who shot down his B-17. There was Tim Dyas, who parachuted into the middle of the Herman Goering Panzer Division. And Hal Mapes, the only survivor of the crew of his B-17. And there was Karnig Thomasian, who was a prisoner of the Japanese.
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Uphill Both Ways: The Great Depression
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
At the Naval Air Station Wildwood Wings & Things, a visitor to my display asked me if I'd done an episode about the Great Depression. I said no, but I'll do one next. So here it is.
info_outlineWhen I launched War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It, I intended it to be mostly about tanks. But the title is misleading, and I'm the person who came up with it. About half of my work comprises interviews and conversations with veterans and families of my father's 712th Tank Battalion. , and I thought, well, there are a lot of people who are interested in tanks. But there are also people who are interested in D-Day, and prisoners of war, and Marines, and air battles, and Gold Star families, and World War II in general, and those interviews comprise the other half of my work.
This and the next couple of episodes are about a B-26 Marauder named Hitch Hiker, and its tail gunner, John Sweren. In 2010 Bob Levine called and invited me to breakfast. Bob, incidentally, is the subject of the episode "Good News, Bad News." He and his wife, Edith, both had covid-19 and both survived. (Edith has since passed away.) The French historian Christian Levaufre was visiting Bob on his way to the 90th Infantry Division reunion, besides which, Edith was a cook right out of Bon Appetit, so how could I refuse?
During the breakfast, Christian remarked that he had some pieces of an airplane in his suitcase.
I was like what?
Pieces of a B-26 that crashed in France during World War II, Christian explained, and during his visit he was going to deliver them to family members of some of the crew.
John Sweren of Mesa, Arizona, was the tail gunner on that crew. On July 28, 1944, the plane took a direct hit from flak and the tail section broke off with John in it. It was his 58th mission. Three of the six crew members were killed and three survived. Christian had a copy of an interview with John done by Brett Schomacher, who sat beside John on a plane and was fascinated by his story. When I read Schomacher's interview, I wanted to interview John as well. I planned a trip to Mesa, Arizona, in conjunction with a visit to my mother's cousin Janice Lahr in Tucson. Janice's late husband was Herb Lahr, whose father was Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, but that's another story.
I interviewed John over two days, and eventually published the interview with the title "Merry Christmas in July" for Kindle and, thanks to the miracle of print-on-demand, in book form available at Amazon.
There is a lot more to come from my interviews with the 712th Tank Battalion, but I've decided to include more of my general work as well. I hope you'll subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform, and subscribe to my email newsletter at myfatherstankbattalion.com. I'm Aaron Elson. Thank you for listening. And reading!
War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It
World War II Oral History Audiobooks