World War II Vet Al Willett Recalls Normandy Invasion
Still thinks about those who perished
In October of 1942, Wakefield’s Alfred Willett was an 18 year-old Maine farm boy. Twenty months later, he was storming Omaha Beach with the United States Army in the Invasion of Normandy.
When the draft notice arrived, young Willett was working at Commonwealth Shoe & Leather Company in Gardiner, ME in addition to his chores on the family farm where he lived with his parents and five siblings. His father told him that he could get a six-month deferment if he took a full-time job on another farm. But young Alfred wanted no part of that.
“I said, ‘Everybody else is going to go, so I’m going to go,’” Willett recalls.
Willett says that once he was drafted, he could have gone into any branch of the service. He knew that his father and uncle had been in the army in World War I. “They survived,” he recalls thinking at the time. “So I said, ‘That’s where I’m going to go.’”
Soon he was off to Portland for some testing, then on to Fort Devens for about a week before heading down to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for 12-weeks of basic training. He trained on 155 Howitzers. It took two guys to load the 100-lb. shells into the big guns, Willett says.
He ended up as a soldier in the 29th Artillery Division. Willett says that his farm background played a part in determining his eventual role in the war.
“They needed people who could dig in the big guns and ammunition,” Willett says. “Being a farm boy, I could do plenty of digging,” he adds in his still noticeable Down East twang. Back in Maine before the war, he had helped dig a 30-foot deep well on the farm from which they ran water into the house and into the barn for the cows.
“I was lucky getting into the artillery instead of the infantry,” he says. “There weren’t too many in the artillery that got killed. I knew I was going to be safer there.”
After basic training, his division shipped over to England. Al Willett had just turned 19 and spent the next eight months in England while General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the other generals prepared for the invasion. In the meantime, there was more training on the heavy artillery as well as physical training. They had to run two miles out and two miles back to the barracks first thing every morning.
The Normandy Invasion commenced on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Willett describes the atmosphere coming over from England on the big ship, climbing down the rope ladder carrying a full field pack and a gun and then making his way onto Omaha Beach with bullets flying everywhere.
“I stayed down and finally made it in,” Willett recalls. Once on the beach, he was grateful that he was a relatively small target. “I was only 140 lbs. at the time,” he says. “I’d dig down in the ground and stay there.”
Omaha Beach was known as “The Blood Beach.” In Willett’s division alone, 2,500 men lost their lives there. Willett says that the Normandy Invasion as depicted in the opening sequence of the movie Saving Private Ryan was realistic up to a point.
“Damn right I was scared,” Willett recalls. “But you get over that. You have no choice. When you are out there, you have to do your duty, whether you’re scared or not.”
On the beach, one of the division’s officers put things into perspective, Willett recalls. “The lieutenant said to me and everybody else that was still alive and walking, ‘You’re going to die on the beach or you’re going to die somewhere else, so get going.’”
Willett recalls that much of the heavy artillery they came with had been destroyed by German bombs during the invasion. So his unit ended up fighting as infantry on or near the beach for a month or more until they could finally move out.
Once they did get going, the 29th Artillery Division captured St. Lo and Brest, France from the enemy and was instrumental in liberating Paris. They were also part of the Battle of the Bulge, the single largest and bloodiest battle that American forces fought in the war.
Willett recalls one battle where he and another soldier were sharing a hole next to one of the 155 Howitzers as a barrage of German bombs rained down all around them. The frightened soldier asked Willett if he thought one of the bombs was going to land on them.
“Well if it lands here, don’t worry about it,” Willett told him. “And if it doesn’t land here, don’t worry about it.”
Willett tells of an incident toward the end of the war. German soldiers running from the Russians were floating across a river on inner-tubes to surrender to the Americans. Private Willett spotted a Luger in the holster of a German captain and decided the pistol would make a nice souvenir.
“I stuck my carbine in his gut,” Willett recalls. But the German officer shouted to his American counterpart who was standing a few feet away. The American captain ordered Willett to leave the German officer alone. He then came over and took the Luger for himself.
After serving almost four years, Willett returned home after the war. A few years later, his father gave up the farm and the family moved from Maine to the Boston area, eventually settling in Wakefield, where Willett’s father worked on the construction of Route 128 and his mother worked in the shoe factories on Water Street.
Alfred Willett and his wife of 58 years, Anne, live on Louise Avenue where they raised two children. Before retiring, Al worked in the machine and tool industry and later for the B&M Railroad. He will turn 86 on October 4. He still walks four to five miles every day and chops his own firewood.
Willett has been a strong supporter of the effort to replace the World War II Memorial on Wakefield Common, which will honor all the Americans who fought in that war.
But Willett was adamant about one thing throughout the interview for this story – that he was in no way seeking glory for himself.
“I’m doing this on account of the ones who passed away,” Willett says. “I’m not one to march down Wakefield and say, ‘I was in World War II.’ I didn’t want any of that. I think about the ones that didn’t make it. I thank the Good Lord that I’m alive and walking and got to raise a family. It breaks my heart for the ones I saw fall in front of me. They never had a chance.”
[This story originally appeared in the September 20, 2010 Wakefield Daily Item.]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: 29th Artillery Division, Al Willett, Alfred Willett, D-Day, Daily Item, Normandy, Omaha Beach, United States Army, US Army, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, World War 2, World War II
Search this site
Categories
Flickr Photos
Archives
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Recent Comments
John terravecchia on High school math John Michael Terrave… on Brave New World Mark Sardella on Brave New World John Terravecchia on Brave New World Carole Scovel on Sentimental journey Blog Stats
- 351,767 hits
LINKS
Today as I was out for a run, I met a real life hero, Mr. Alfred Willett. What a wonderful man. We spoke briefly about exercising, how he walks 5 miles a day. As we were talking I became aware that I was standing infront of greatness. Mr. Willett told me that he was a WWII vet and told me he was at Omaha Beach third wave and he was also at the Battle of the Bulge. My dad 87 is also a WWII vet, served in Patton’s Army and was at the Battle of the Buldge also. Thank you Mr. Sadella for a wonderful article on such an incredible man. I am still in awe and my 10 minute coversation with Mr. Willett will stay with me a lifetime.