From the November 14, 2002 Archives - Princeton Vet featured on History Channel » Pieces from Princeton's Past

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November 10, 2012

From the November 14, 2002 Archives - Princeton Vet featured on History Channel

by Ginger Boyles Princeton Times The Zope Gazette Sat Nov 10, 2012, 05:00 AM EST

PRINCETON — From D-Day to V-E Day, the U. S. Army's Third Armored Division took part in all five campaigns of the Allied liberation ow Western Europe. Among those soldiers was Princeton native William T. "Bill" Allen who, in the course of the campaigns achieved the rank of sergeant and was mistakenly thought KIA (killed in action) several times.

Allen, along with other members of the Third Armored Division, was commemorated in a History Cannel documentary titled, "Rolling Thunder" which aired late November 2002.

Allen said, "We had a division reunion in Peoria, Ill. in 2001 and a crew from Greystone Productions were conducting interviews with division members and they intervewed me in a room at the hotel."

Allen was a part of the Battle of Normandy (D-Day), Bastogne (The Battle of the Bulge), Aachen, the cracking of the Siegfreid Line, and Kornelmunster. He served as an infantryman until he got enough points to rotate as a part of the tank maintenance crew.

"Our tanks, the Shermans, were inferior to the German "Tiger" tanks. Our shells could hit them head-on and bounce off, but a direct hit from their shells could go through the tank front to back...We lost an awful lot of men. This special will give us the chance to remember the sacrifices of those who fought."

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