Robert Ledford was born in December 1924 in northern Missouri. His family moved to Illinois when he was about 12 years old. His family were multigenerational farmers. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945] was difficult but they did not know much better. Ledford try to join the Army in December 1942, even though he was not yet 18 years old. The Army recruiter realized he was too young and sent him home. He officially joined the Army in April 1943. Ledford looked forward to joining the service because he wanted a job. He received Army pay and two pairs of shoes. He never had two pairs of shoes before. He went to Camp Robinson near Little Rock, Arkansas for 13 weeks of basic training which was well-rounded. He was then sent to Texas for a few weeks of advanced training and then to Newport News, Virginia with a bunch of other troop. They were shipped to Casablanca, Africa [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. The American military had been present in the area for weeks by the time Ledford disembarked. He and some of his friends wanted to go into Casablanca to see the city because they heard some crazy stories. They went AWOL [Annotator's Note: absent without leave] and as they entered the city, they came across an MP [Annotator's Note: military police]. Ledford immediately recognized that it was his first cousin and struck up a conversation with him. His cousin let him pass into the city. Ledford was with the 9th Infantry Division during his deployment in Africa. When he left North Africa he was sent to Sicily, and then Italy where he was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. The unit he was assigned to was a pack mule outfit. The mules carried a lot of their supplies as they travelled through the treacherous mountain terrain. When they returned from the mountains, they would always bring back a deceased person. Ledford did not like this job very much. He was reassigned to a rifle company and stayed in the mountains for about 60 days. He was relieved the day before Thanksgiving in 1943 [Annotator's Note: 24 November 1943]. They were sent to a mountain village in Italy where there were new replacements. They received new clothing and food. His outfit was then sent to do amphibious training in Naples, Italy until about January 1944. They were soon given orders to board a ship. He found out during the journey that they were heading to Anzio [Annotator's Note: Battle of Anzio; 22 January 1944 to 5 June 1944; Anzio, Italy]. He was in the first wave and made the amphibious invasion around two o'clock in the morning. He did not receive any enemy fire until about 12 o'clock in the afternoon. The Germans responded really fast. His unit remained on the beachhead from 22 January 1944 to 23 May 1944. He heard that his division lost 4,000 men. At the time he was on Anzio, he was a platoon sergeant. They did not have any officers at that time. When they did get an officer, it was usually a second lieutenant out of OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school]. They did not last more than a week. He knows several men who are buried at Anzio, including a cousin. Ledford has contacted some of his fellow men in recent years to make return trips to Anzio. Ledford befriended an Italian civilian who worked with American graves registration after World War 2. His friend would go to farms looking for gravesites. They would open the grave and identify if it was an American and then rebury them at the National Cemetery in Anzio [Annotator's Note: Commonwealth of Nations Anzio War Cemetery]. It was sad, but it is part of warfare.

Robert Ledford wanted to join the Army because he wanted to be on the ground fighting the enemy. When he heard the first shots in Cassino [Annotator's Note: Cassino, Italy] in October 1943, he immediately changed his mind about his decision. His unit [Annotator's Note: 3rd Infantry Division] took a mountain and remained there for almost 60 days. When his unit was finally relieved, it took about eight hours to get off the mountain. Brigadier General Shepherd [Annotator's Note: assumed to be US Army Brigadier General Whitfield P. Shepard] had tears running down his face as he saw Ledford's unit exiting the mountain and walking down the road. Ledford had to cut his shoes off. His feet had turned purple from the dye on his boots. During their time on the mountain, that they were not allowed to remove their shoes without permission. Their feet would swell if they took their shoes off and they would become immobilized because they could not get their shoes back on. Quite a few men in his outfit shot themselves. When he first went into Italy, he had no idea what to expect. Ledford was wounded three times while in Anzio [Annotator's Note: Battle of Anzio; 22 January 1944 to 5 June 1944; Anzio, Italy]. The first time he was wounded was late in January 1944. Unless a soldier broke a bone, he was required to return to combat after being patched up. His division was short on men, and they needed every able body. Many of the replacements would not last more than a week because the Germans were "wicked" with their artillery. The new replacements were so green, they could not decipher what was coming in and what was going out. German artillery caused 80 percent of their wounds. He often returns to Anzio to visit the graves of his fallen fellow men. His first hit was a flesh wound in his back and his ammunition belt caught on fire. Ledford hit the ground next to a dead second lieutenant as the German headed to finish him off. A soldier from Louisiana shot and killed the German before he got to Ledford. Banks [Annotator's Note: unable to verify identity] received a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] for saving Ledford's life. The second time Ledford was wounded was from shrapnel. On 25 May 1944, he was wounded a third time and got a concussion from an artillery shell. He was sent to a field hospital for two or three days and then boarded a hospital ship to Naples [Annotator's Note: Naples, Italy]. Around August [Annotator's Note: August 1944] he was sent back to the United States. He stayed in the hospital until April [Annotator's Note: April 1945]. He remained in the military on limited duty. He was assigned to returning Russian prisoners to their home country after they initially tried to join the Germans. Ledford worked with an interpreter. The Russians were not happy to return to Russia. He sent them all back sometime in 1946. He would often go the kitchens where the prisoners were in the morning. One time, he noticed the German cook was slightly drunk. He asked the prisoner where he got the alcohol, then showed him the distillery he built behind the kitchen stove. Ledford left it alone because he never had any problems, and no one tried to escape.

When Robert Ledford was stationed in Italy [Annotator's Note: with the 3rd Infantry Division] he was issued a Thompson sub gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun]. They were not accurate but scared people, nonetheless. They started a contest to see who could kill the most Germans and called it the Kraut [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Germans] Killers. The chaplains eventually put a stop to it because it did not sound good. He was scared to take any souvenirs from dead Germans because if he got caught and taken prisoner, he would have been in a whole bunch of trouble. After his overseas deployment, he oversaw prisoners of war in the United States, but did not come across any during his time in Italy. He did capture prisoners and killed about 60 of them. He oversaw 4,000 prisoners at Camp Ellis, Illinois [Annotator's Note: in Fulton County, Illinois], where they repaired Army vehicles. While there, he met a prisoner that he captured in Italy. He remembered him because they had to sit for several hours waiting for support to come take the prisoners. They were sharing dirty stories back and forth with each other. While he served at Camp Ellis, two Germans escaped on a freight train but returned to camp because they did not have any food or warm clothes. A German prisoner escaped from another camp in Illinois and went to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] to find family members. The FBI [Annotator's Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] eventually found him in the 1950s. German officers were not allowed to work, but non-commissioned officers had a choice to work or not in the prison camps. He had an SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] prisoner who tried to give him a hard time. One day, Ledford cocked a gun in his face and the SS officer did not bother him again. There were some German prisoners who attempted suicide too. Ledford was told to shoot them first. He does not recall how many German prisoners were suicidal, but he remembers that there was a hospital with a ward for the German prisoners who lost their minds. They were put into padded cells until they returned to Germany. Ledford felt prepared for combat when he went overseas for the first time. The 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] was the weapon he feared most from the Germans. They also had a six-barrel mortar [Annotator's Note: nebelwerfer; German multiple rocket launcher] that was very destructive. Their weapons were great, including the "Anzio Annie" [Annotator's Note: nickname for one of the Krupp K5 283mm heavy railway guns used by the Germans during the Battle of Anzio, Italy]. The Germans hid them in a railway tunnel and pulled them out when they wanted to shell the Americans. Ledford remembers the destruction of their 500 pound shells as they attempted to hit ships coming into the harbor [Annotator's Note: at Anzio, Italy]. One of Ledford's men had gangrene [Annotator's Note: tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply] and needed medical attention immediately. The closest hospital was a German Red Cross. The Germans and the Americans had a one-day truce, so Ledford's man could be sent to the German hospital only under the condition that he would remain a prisoner. The soldier agreed and got the medical attention he needed. Ledford believes that the Germans and Americans got along better in Africa and Sicily, but as the war went on there were not many pleasantries. In Africa, there was one hospital that was German and American because of the ebb and flow of combat. Ledford was in the same foxhole for 19 days. The houses in Italy were built out of mortar and stone. There was an officer named "Footsie" Britt [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Maurice Lee "Footsie" Britt] who lost his arm when a shell hit the window ledge of a farmhouse. Ledford was never bombed or strafed while he was overseas in combat, but the Americans often strafed his unit by accident. One time, the American Air Force killed 40 infantry men by accidentally strafing them.

During the Anzio [Annotator's Note: Battle of Anzio; 22 January 1944 to 5 June 1944; Anzio, Italy] breakout, Robert Ledford [Annotator's Note: in the 3rd Infantry Division] saw the air support coming down on the Germans. At daylight the next morning, there was an artillery barrage on the Germans from ships offshore. During the fighting he could not hear anything because the artillery was so loud. In February 1944, he thought he was not going to make it. He was wounded. A fellow comrade saved his life by shooting an oncoming German. His outfit moved into a patch of bombed-out woods to stay covered. That night, a runner came through and told them to pull back because they could not hold the Germans back anymore. They were close to losing the beach but somehow they were able to hold onto it. The toughest moment at Anzio was when he was going up a creek toward the Germans with one of his scouts. The scout told him the Germans were coming. A split second later, the scout was killed. Ledford often wonders why the German sniper killed the scout but not Ledford. At another time, he was observing the Germans with another sergeant. As the sergeant was handing him binoculars, his arm was shot off. Another time, he was sitting in a water ditch with a fellow, when a shell exploded right over them. When Ledford came up out of the water, he saw that the guy lost his head. He has often thought about why he was not injured, but the guy sitting right next to him was killed. When his unit landed on the beachhead of Anzio, they started marching inland but then were ordered to halt. They did what they were told, dug in and waited for orders. After a while, food became an issue, so Ledford and others would raid chicken houses to get eggs and chickens. One time, the Germans and Americans raided the same chicken house. There was no shooting, they just ran in, grabbed what they wanted, and ran back out. After the breakout, Germans had blown up bridges and set minefields, but Ledford did not encounter any mine fields. The Army had a lane cleared for their infantry men. Germans had a Schu-mine [Annotator's Note: Schu-mine 42, Schutzenmine 42 or rifleman's mine model 1942] made of plastic, so it could not be detected. The Germans also had "Bouncing Betties" mines [Annotator's Note: German S-mine, Schrapnellmine, Springmine or Splittermine] that bounced in the air and exploded. One guy was the clown of the outfit and drank often. He often left the outfit but returned with something. He never got in trouble with the officers because he would always return. One time, he left the outfit and did not return until three days later. Ledford heard some singing and saw three drunk men coming toward their camp. As they got closer, Ledford realized it was his guy and two Germans. They hugged and saluted each other as they parted ways. The soldier was taken into custody by his commander and never seen again. On another occasion, a German came through unarmed. Ledford learned that he was in a bicycle outfit, and someone had stolen his, so he decided to surrender to the Americans. Anzio was made up of beautiful farmlands and villages. He did more fighting in the countryside than in the villages. When they fought in a village, it was dangerous. They focused on surrounding the villages so the Germans would be forced to evacuate. On one occasion where it was rainy and cold, they dug foxholes right outside a house where they could light a little fire to keep their feet dry and heat up rations.

During the Anzio campaign [Annotator's Note: Battle of Anzio; 22 January 1944 to 5 June 1944; Anzio, Italy], Robert Ledford was in a foxhole for many days during bad weather. He wore two sets of long-johns to keep warm. Later, he discovered that he had body lice. The DDT [Annotator's Note: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; developed as an insecticide] was not working properly. The Army had set up portable showers, so men with lice could clean themselves, and then receive new clothing. While in Southern Italy, they had the Germans outgunned. He does not recall coming up against any German tanks, only 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. They had to call in for support to take out any 88s. The planes would use the airport at the Anzio beachhead. He was in a chow line one day and saw a British Spitfire [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] coming in. The pilot bailed out because the plane was overheated. Ledford and others rescued him out of a tree. The British pilot immediately asked for a cigarette and got into the chow line. Ledford did not meet many Italian civilians. Only one time, he met a milk farmer, selling the milk to the troops.

The war affected Robert Ledford because it made him grow up fast. He went into the service at 18 years old and by 19 he was leading a platoon into battle. Seven of the eight boys in his high school served in the military. Many of his friends were killed in combat. Soon after the war, many families were bringing the sons back for reburial. He participated in the firing squad for many of the reburials. Ledford received a 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] postwar. He does not remember why he received it. The last time he was wounded he thought he would only be out for a few weeks but was sent to the United States. Some of his friends from his unit took to drinking when they returned. Being in the service affected his career choices. He had a wife and one child he returned to. He had to go to school and find a trade. He eventually found a good job and had a family with four children. He lost his youngest two sons. His wife of 64 years received a college education too. Ledford believes America did not have much choice but to get involved in World War 2. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], it was necessary to go to war. He knew several men who were POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] in the Philippines and suffered greatly or died. When he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was listening to an Orson Welles [Annotator's Note: George Orson Welles; American director, actor, screenwriter, and producer] program when the news came over the radio. Ledford did not believe the news at first and thought it was Orson Welles trying to fool the public. He believes that it is important for institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] to teach future generations. The youth does not know much about the war and should be reminded. He believes that the effects of the war brought prosperity back to the country and that many men were able to see the world and learn about other cultures. People today do not realize that there was rationing of food and gas during World War 2. He believes Americans today have too many luxuries. He heard about the end of World War 2 while he oversaw prisoners. Many of the prisoners were ready to go home.