Real Stories of Real Heroes from World War II

Sergeant Eugene Deibler was one of the troops who parachuted behind enemy lines into Normandy on D-Day. On his 90th birthday, at the request of the President of France, he was Knighted into the French Legion of Honor for the part he played in liberating France during WWII. Read more about this brave American hero and find out what happened to his parachute following the war.

John Beauford served with the U.S. Army during World War II. He was one of the 156,000 troops to storm Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. But how he got to Utah Beach was an accident! Read the story of this true American hero.

With more than 600 holes in the plane, engines out and 500 miles from England, Charles Richardson and his crew literally found themselves "coming in on a wing and a prayer." This B-17 gunner recounts what he dubs as his "worst mission ever" in Munich, Germany 1944.

He survived two typhoons while serving in the Pacific during World War II. Leroy Worcester worked in the engine room of an amphibious landing craft that participated in the landings in New Guinea and Okinawa.

James J. Alexander was 17 years old when Japanese forces launched a devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. Just under a year later, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on his 18th birthday and soon found himself testing war planes in the bitter cold of Alaska.

Serving in the 1142nd Engineer Combat Group during World War II, Jack Frank landed in Normandy a few months after D-Day. His unit advanced through the Netherlands and Belgium and he was a part of the campaigns in Ardennes, Rhineland, and central Europe.

James Knight enlisted in the United States Army at 17 to serve his country during World War II.