“They needed soldiers.”įrom Pittsburgh, Lorenzi went to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for basic training, then to Camp Crowder, Missouri, where he was assigned to the Signal Corps. “Everything broke out in Europe,” he said. “Bring your clothes with you,” the voice on the line instructed, “because you’re not going home.” After his physical, Lorenzi and all the other recruits were put into the U.S. The recruiter stamped NAVY on his card and told him, “We’ll call you in a couple of weeks.” Sure enough, the phone soon rang, and he was invited back to Pittsburgh for another physical. A recruiter asked him what branch he wanted, and he picked the Navy, like his brother. Lorenzi reported to Pittsburgh for his physical. Young soldier Armand Lorenzi poses with his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), an automatic weapon that gave American troops more firepower at the squad level. Although only a high school student, he worked as a projectionist at the Hilltop Drive-in Theater until he was drafted in July 1944, five months after he turned 18. He was only 15 when he read about the attack on Pearl Harbor in the morning paper. Sometimes German shells, likely manufactured by slave labor, impacted near him without exploding.Ī native of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Lorenzi grew up with his parents, an older brother, and four younger sisters. “Then they send you to that room where you never go home,” he said.
He marched through minefields marked with white tape, constantly worrying about tripping a mine. In the following weeks, Lorenzi would fight toe to toe with the enemy, battling through forests and towns filled with destroyed German tanks and dead horses. Lorenzi and his fellow soldiers were trying to wrestle Germany’s Campholz Woods from the stubborn enemy. It was during the last months of the war, February 1945, and Lorenzi had just joined Company C of the 302nd Infantry Regiment, part of the 94th Infantry Division in Lt. “That’s what scares the life out of you.” The Germans fired Nebelwerfers, rockets that made a high-pitched scream as they roared to target, earning them the name “Screaming Mimis.” One rocket exploded in the trees. He started scraping a shallow foxhole until he heard German mortars and artillery exploding and rockets screaming in.
Private Armand Lorenzi and his fellow soldiers were advancing through a snowy German forest when enemy machine guns opened fire.