Johnny Allegrezza was born in Mississippi in January 1923. He went to school through the ninth grade. His parents immigrated from Italy. They were poor during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. They worked on a farm. His parents had eight children. They farmed cotton. Allegrezza joined the Army in November 1940. He was at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. At Fort Benning, he joined the 4th Infantry Division. Next, he went to Fort Jackson [Annotator's Note: Fort Jackson, Louisiana] where they got new clothes. At Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey], they trained for a couple of months before going to Florida to prepare for the invasion of France [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. In 1943, he left the United States. On the trip over, they ate prunes. They could buy items at the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange]. Two-hundred men had to sleep in one room. They could not have any lights on at night. He watched the radar during the day. They arrived in Liverpool, England. They were not allowed to talk with the civilians. They were shown a map of where they would land in France. They were isolated until they crossed the Channel [Annotator’s Note: the English Channel separating England from France].

Johnny Allegrezza remembers they [Annotator’s Note: members of his unit, the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division] had to study a map on the ground to know where they would land. He does not think he slept that night because he did not know what was going to happen. He went to church before the landing. The 82nd Airborne Division was supposed to be on their right. Allegrezza landed on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: one of the landing beaches of D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They did not have artillery at first and had to use mortars [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles]. They had to regroup at the next town. An artillery shell killed his captain, and Allegrezza was wounded by an 88 shell [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] on 12 June 1944. He had to go back to the beach to get on a boat to go to the hospital. He rejoined his outfit at the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. His unit was in Germany. They had two weeks of liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in France. They got to take a bath, shave, and were given new clothing and equipment. The SS troops [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] were the only ones that put up a real fight. The others would give up. The Germans had machine guns. They could tell the German guns from their guns. They would have to dig foxholes and get down in them to survive. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The German officers spoke English. They would talk back and forth with them at night. The German people were proud of them. They went to church with them. They were nice people. He was wounded again near Munich, Germany. They were heading to Austria when a sniper got him. He was sent back to England.

Johnny Allegrezza went back to France in 1980. He went to see some of his buddies who were buried in the cemetery there. The barbed wire fence the Germans put up is still there. The pillbox [Annotator’s Note: a concrete dug-in guard post from which defenders can fire weapons] is now a restroom for tourists. At the end of the war, he was in the hospital in England. He came back to the United States by ship. He arrived in New York and was sent to a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. He was released in February 1946. He spent a month in Florida recovering before he was discharged. He got married and had kids. He thinks it is important for children to learn about the war. He is glad he is alive. He lost his whole squad to the war. His squad died one at a time. He was the only one that survived, but he was wounded. They had paratroopers who dropped over them in Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. During the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] they had to push the Germans back. He was in the hospital when he heard the war was over. He was really proud.