Vernon F. Anderson
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Vernon F. Anderson entered the Army on Oct. 18, 1943. An infantry training injury prevented him from participating in D-Day landings at Normandy but he landed on Omaha Beach on July 11, 1944. He joined the 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, on July 20 in time for the Battle of St. Lo where the regiment received a Presidential Unit Citation. He witnessed a 2,000-plane raid by theAmericans on July 26. During the last two weeks of July, the 134th suffered 574 casualties, including 86 killed in action. He was captured on Sept. 28 by a German patrol after being bayoneted in the hand and stomach. The German captors took him to their medics and turned him over to the German SS troops who hit him with rifle butts and kicked him. He was sent to Stalag (prison camp) 12A at Limburg, Germany, where he was ordered to carry out American soldiers who had died of dysentery. He was moved to Stalag 7A in Mooseburg, Germany after one month.In his words: "They would take us into Munich on work detail. We were ordered to fill shell craters and dig bodies out of bombed-out buildings. While digging out one building, a steel beam fell on me and pinned me under it. I hurt my back and both legs at that time. I was put on a stretcher and brought back to a hospital. I weighed 240 pounds when I went overseas. I got out of prison camp at 125 pounds. After being liberated by the 45th Division, we were flown back to Camp Lucky Strike in France. I was put on the same troop ship I went over in, the U.S.S. Lajune. During my seven months of captivity, I had only two baths. We had quarter-inch-long lice." He was discharged on Dec. 5, 1945.
