Charles R. Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois in June 1924. His father was a window washer. His mother was a housewife. They were both immigrants from Sweden. Smith went to a technical high school. On 7 December 1941, he went to Lincoln Park and threw a football around with friends. After the game, they went to their normal hangout at the local drugstore and found out about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They were all between the ages of 17 years and 19 years old. Smith joined the military in May 1943. He served at Camp Wolters [Annotator's Note: later Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas] for infantry basic training. He took the Air Force exam and passed. He got a week's furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and then went back to Texas somewhere around Amarillo. They spent four months there training. They did not have the accommodations to send him to preflight school because there were so many people wanting to be in the Air Force. He was sent to Jamestown, North Dakota for aviation school. They got in great shape. For three months it was fun. Then the men who trained as ground forces were sent back to the infantry. He went through a second basic training in Wisconsin. In September, he got a pass to go home. Camp McCoy [Annotator's Note: now Fort McCoy in Monroe County, Wisconsin] was about 80 miles from his hometown. Before he joined the Army, he tried out for the Chicago Cubs [Annotator's Note: American professional baseball team] as a pitcher.

Charles R. Smith [Annotator's Note: with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division] went to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] in October 1944 to board a troop transport ship. The weather was terrible. In November 1944, they landed at Plymouth [Annotator's Note: Plymouth, England] and then they marched down the southern part of England. They were going to be a cleanup operation. This changed on 16 December 1944 when Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] generals made a counteroffensive in the Ardennes [Annotator's Note: region in southeast Belgium that extends into Luxembourg, Germany, and France]. It became known as the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter-Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Prior to leaving England for France, they got a two-day pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. England was devastated. The Germans would send rockets across the channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel] and the rockets whistled [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug]. The English warned them about the rockets, and one day they heard one going over. In early January 1945, they went across the channel and went along the Seine River in France to a town called Rouen, France. The weather was cold and there was snow everywhere. They drove due north into Bastogne, Belgium. The city was devastated. They were going into the combat area and meeting the men coming out of it. Smith met one soldier who was the last man left out of his unit. They received their first Battle Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. Their job was to do cleanup work. There were bodies of GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] all over the place, and they would put up wooden stakes for later crews to deal with. Some of the men got Purple Hearts [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is an award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] for frozen feet. Smith knew an old master sergeant that told him how to not get frostbite on his feet.

Charles R. Smith [Annotator's Note: with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division] went south to Trier, Germany after the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter-Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. When they got outside of Trier the officers told them not to drink the water because the Germans probably poisoned it. Trier was a town with a lot of warehouses. The German artillery was still working. In one warehouse they found champagne and white wine. In one truck they took out some of the equipment and put bottles of wine in its place. In early March, the ground thawed. They were going to start the invasion of Germany in Luxembourg in the town of Echternach on 5 or 6 February [Annotator's Note: February 1945]. The border between Luxembourg and Germany was the Saar River. The current was swift. They had no training on how to cross a river in pontoon boats. Several of the men who tried to cross against the current were lost. It took four days to get across. On the German side there were pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] that were 20 feet by 20 feet. The machine guns faced across the Saar towards Luxembourg. Their colonel was injured and sent home at Echternach. Their lieutenant stepped on a land mine [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact] and died. In the bunk area, the Germans had left several hand grenades on a string.

The rains came while Charles R. Smith and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division] were next to the Rhine River [Annotator's Note: in Germany]. They could not pitch a tent. He had an overcoat and a poncho on trying to keep the rain off him. The next morning they continued on towards the Rhine. In March [Annotator's Note: March 1945], they crossed the river. One of their companies was bogged down by the Germans. Smith had to go be a satellite between the line companies to relay the artillery requirements for the line companies. They found an area with no trees and were able to relay the messages. This act is what led to Smith's Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for meritorious work. They crossed the Rhine, and the sights were beautiful. They were moving fast. The Germans would put up pockets of resistance every once in a while. Smith and his unit kept moving. They passed a camp [Annotator's Note: a concentration camp] that had just been liberated. They piled the bodies up in one part. The other part was living skeletons. The stench was horrible. This was a real horror of what Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had done. They moved on to another small town. They were cleaning out the houses. When they first got into combat they were in a column of trucks and a lone Messerschmitt [Annotator's Note: German aircraft] flew over. The German Air Force had been pretty much exhausted at this point. Smith was outside a town called Chemnitz [Annotator's Note: Chemnitz, Germany] on 7 May 1945. One of the German admirals came to Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] to surrender. On 8 May 1945, the Germans surrendered. Smith found a German motorcycle and took it for a joy ride. He was racing up and down the roads. When he came back, he hit some gravel and the bike slipped out from under him. Then they were sent to Greiz, Germany where they went to rest and play ball.

Charles R. Smith was a senior in high school on 8 December [Annotator's Note: 8 December 1941]. They were asked to go into the halls because President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] would be making an announcement. He gave the Great Infamy Speech [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941]. After the speech, the country came together like they never had before. When World War 1 happened, the country decided they would not get involved in a war like that again. Before the attack, President Roosevelt had a hard time getting the support he wanted. Through the lend-lease program [Annotator's Note: Lend-Lease Policy, officially An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States 1941 to 1945] the United States was able to get England the weapons and machines they needed to fight Germany. War rationing did not happen overnight. Smith graduated high school the month after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was 17 years old. He got a job at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] as a messenger. The Federal Reserve Banking system did a lot of mailings to people and businesses to buy bonds [Annotator's Note: war bonds; debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war]. When they [Annotator's Note: the United States] first joined the war, they were losing in Europe and the Pacific. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was a good propagandist. The United States did a good job with its Hollywood [Annotator's Note: Hollywood, California] movies as well. There was cohesiveness in the American people who bonded together.

The hardest part of boot camp was being told what to do. Charles R. Smith was 18 years old when he went in. He had to buy into the discipline. Playing baseball helped him figure out how to work as a team. Some men had emotional issues like depression. Smith did what he was told. He thought he was trained well. In the infantry training program, he had his first encounter with target practice. The standard rifle was the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. They had them at Camp Wolters [Annotator's Note: later Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas]. They also had the Springfield 03 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle] which was a World War 1 rifle. Smith was left-handed. He tied to fire the weapon left-handed. The commanding officer told him if he shot that way, he would take the bolt right in the mouth. He learned to smoke and to get a good meal. Smith was 20 years old when he went overseas. He was with his friends, and he was in a team [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division]. He was not afraid as they traveled across the ocean. He lived his life from one morning to the next. They had V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail] which he used to correspond with his family. He got mail, but he did not write frequently. The only time he saw a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] show was in London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. At Camp Wolters, they would get a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] into town, but they would just drink beer or eat bad food. He does not have any mementos. He was alone overseas.

Charles R. Smith went through Bastogne in Belgium [Annotator's Note: with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division]. Bastogne had been devastated and it was scary going through the middle of it. Smith was driving a jeep at the time. The roads were muddy, and the weather was awful. Some guys had terrible dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines]. One night, Smith sat on his helmet in the rain. He was miserable and did not know where the Germans were. It kept him from thinking about how serious the situation was. He only thought about how he would get through the next few hours. The whole battalion was pinned down in the woods. It was a clear day. There was a clearing between their woods and the next woods over. They dug foxholes with their little shovels. A Tiger Tank [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank; known as the Tiger] came into the clearing. It was Germany's best tank. They had an 88 mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] canon that could shoot a diamond out of the ace of diamonds from a mile away. It was accurate. The head swiveled in their direction. The tank shot a few rounds into their area. One shell hit a tree directly and split the tree. Some of the pieces of wood impaled some of the men. Luckily for them, their artillery guys got a direct hit on the Tiger Tank. When they crossed the Saar River into Echternach, Luxembourg the fighting was intense. There were land mines [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact] all over. Those were the two most significant moments. The Army used the buddy system. They had to rely on their buddy to get their share done. Some of the guys were scared and could not function properly. Those men would drift off on their own and they would distance themselves in a strange way. One day their intelligence officer went missing.

Charles R. Smith [Annotator's Note: with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 417th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division] saw wire, bodies, and living skeletons [Annotator's Note: Smith is referring to a concentration camp they came upon]. There were buildings, but he did not see that. He saw dead bodies and decaying humanity. There was barbed wire all around the camp. The sight and the stench were too much. Many of them turned away to smoke to distract themselves. He thinks the Germans were fine people. Most of them were starving and glad to see the Americans come through. They fed them. Smith stayed in an elderly lady's house. She wanted to know what they were doing in her house. She drove Smith crazy. He had no animosity toward the Germans. They captured many Germans at Echternach [Annotator's Note: Echternach, Luxembourg]. They kept them in a compound. The officer was on one side of the compound and the enlisted men were on the other side. The officer was a full-blown Nazi. The enlisted men were regular guys. The officer would keep his back to them. There was fraternizing after the war ended. He had no animosity towards the civilian population. In one town they were told all the children were part of the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS]. One guy approached Smith and wanted to be friends with him. This guy was pro-Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. They had to practice caution. When the war was over in Germany it was not over in the Pacific. A lot of them worried if they did not have enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] they would be sent to the Pacific. Things do not move fast in the Army. They had a couple of months to sit around and wait. The delay meant it would take longer for them to get home or to the work at hand. They were relieved when the war ended, but they knew it was not over. When he landed back in the United States in July 1945, he knew it was finally over. He landed in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He got on a train to go to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois]. He did not sleep the whole way home. Seeing his mother was great. He was married and had two children. He took advantage of the GI Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and got his formal education. His sons are grown and retired.

Young people do not know history. Charles R. Smith feels it is very important and should be a part of their lives. Kids should learn more about their history so they can be better citizens. He visited the World War 2 Museum in Washington [Annotator's Note: World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.]. He was disappointed because there was no feeling. The museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] in New Orleans is fantastic. [Annotator's Note: Interviewer asks Smith what he would say to a Holocaust denier – a believer in an antisemitic conspiracy theory that denies the genocide of Jews during the Holocaust in World War 2; deniers do not believe Jews were exterminated and that the numbers of Jews killed is lower than official accounts of 6 million]. Intellectually, he should walk away, but it comes down to education. He cannot comprehend how people can deny the Holocaust. The Germans documented everything they ever did. It angers him that people would deny it after he saw a camp up close. He wanted to be a baseball player as a kid. He had a tryout with the Cubs [Annotator's Note: Chicago Cubs; American professional baseball team] and then later a tryout with the New York Giants [Annotator's Note: American professional baseball team]. After the war, he realized he did not have quite enough talent to get far in that field. The main thing he got out of the war was to get educated and the government would pay for it. Learn from what they did, but do not repeat it. Find a better way to make a better world. He does not understand why we have the Iraq war [Annotator's Note: Iraq War, 2003 to 2011]. World War 2 should be a good lesson in making the world a better place. Smith was the first graduating class after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] from an all-boys school. At graduation, the school dean said they were at war and many of them would go and might not come back. On the way back from Europe he rode on a terrible ship. Guys were getting sick, and he was on the bottom. It was an awful experience. He had his first beer legally when he was in London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. His first ride on a British train was just like in the movies. He would love everyone to learn about World War 2.