ASFFelix & World War II45
Additional Information and Related Links

The Cunard Liner Ship HMS Aquitania on which Felix sailed to Europe
Boarding
1940: In Wellington, New Zealand, loading troops
Felix would have experienced a similar scene boarding in New York City in 1944.

Cut away drawing of the Aquitania

Dachau Links

Felix Sparks' (commander of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Regiment, 45th Division) report on the liberation of Dachau.

The Liberator Alex Kershaw, The Liberator.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: The true story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War: the battlefield odyssey of a maverick U.S. Army officer (Felix Sparks) and his infantry unit as they fought for over five hundred days to liberate Europe - from the invasion of Italy to the gates of Dachau.

In the dying days of the Third Reich, Sparks and his men crossed the last great barrier in the West, the Rhine, only to experience some of the most intense street fighting and close combat suffered by Americans in WWII.  When they finally arrived at the gates of Dachau, Hitler’s first and most notorious concentration camp, the Thunderbirds confronted scenes that robbed the mind of reason.  With victory within grasp, Sparks confronted the ultimate test of his humanity: after all he had faced, could he resist the urge to wreak vengeance on the men who had caused untold suffering and misery?

Written with the narrative drive and vivid immediacy of Kershaw’s previous bestselling books about American infantrymen in WWII, The Liberator is a story for the ages, an intensely human and dramatic account of one of history’s greatest warriors and his unheralded role in America’s finest achievement – the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Remembrances of Dachau by men transferred in June, 1945 to the 45th Signal Company from the 103d Signal Company, 103d Infantry Division.

Dachau today: virtual tour

Dachau site with extensive links
SS Camp Gate

Site of SS gate now

Gate into SS compound at Dachau during occupation


Decision in Normandy
Carlo D'Este Decision in Normandy

FROM THE PUBLISHER: The battle for Normandy was the most complex and daring military operation in the history of modern Warfare. Two years of intense, detailed planning reached its successful conclusion when the Allied forces took the beaches on D-Day. But the seventy-six-day campaign that followed, the Allies' crucial bid for a toehold in western Europe, was one of the bloodiest of the war, and its true story has been concealed in myth.

Step-by-step the reader is taken through the Normandy campaign from the earliest days after Dunkirk when Churchill first considered the idea of a cross-Channel invasion of France, to the Key battles that determined that outcome, with maps explaining clearly the strategy and logistics of each battle.

This is military history at its most dramatic, with a cast of characters that includes Montgomery, Rommel, Patton, Bradley, and Eisenhower. Decision in Normandy is destined to become the definitive account of a campaign Rommel described as "a terrible blood-letting" and whose outcome became the decisive turning point for the Allied victory.

Focke-Wulf Fw190D-9 JV44 Würgerstaffel “Red 1,”
ME262 ME 262 from München-Riem, April, 1945 (in German).

45th Infantry Division
"The 45th: The Story of the 45th Infantry Division." Paris, 1945.  "One of a series of G.I. Stories of the Ground, Air and Service Forces in the European Theater of Operations issues by the Stars and Stripes, a publication of the Information and Education Division, Special and Information Services ETOUSA."

This is from Felix's collection and covers the period immediately prior to Felix's transfer to the 45th, from July, 1943 to December, 1944.

In HTML format.

In Adobe PDF format.

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                  Adobe Reader
Army Center for Military History

Combat Chronicle

Order of Battle

Bill Mauldin's "Willy and Joe"
Before Felix was transferred to the 45th Infantry Division, Bill Mauldin was reassigned to cover the campaigns in northwest Europe in which Felix served. Bill Mauldin illustrated what Felix saw and experienced.
Mauldin
Bill Mauldin article from June, 1945 edition of  Stars and Stripes. From the collection of Felix A. Cizewski.
Purple Heart "Just give me the aspirin. I already got a Purple Heart."

A selection of Bill Mauldin's World War II cartoons from "Stars and Stripes".

A selection of "Willy and Joe" cartoons from the 5th Armored Division Association.

From "Bill Mauldin beyond Willy and Joe: An online tribute drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress: Mauldin at War, 1943-1945"

A selection of "Willy & Joe" cartoons from PBS "American Experience: War Letters."


INDEX: Cizewski, Lovetere, Musbach, & Robinson Family History

© 2006 -2012 Leonard H. Cizewski

Last Updated: January 7, 2013
Posted:
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INDEX: Felix & WWII

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