Roy Armold, b. 1923
Roy Armold was born on 18 July 1923 in Maytown, PA, one of two
children. He attended local schools, graduating from East Donegal High School
in 1941. Roy worked during 1942 at an Army depot in nearby Marietta, then in
January 1943 entered the U.S. Army.
Following
basic training Roy moved through a number of training programs before being
assigned in early 1944 as a rifleman to Company F, 422nd Regiment,
106th Infantry Division, then stationed at Camp Atterbury, IN. The
division shipped to Europe in Fall 1944, and took up positions on the
Belgian-German border in early December. The German Ardennes Offensive,
launched in mid-December, encircled Roy’s unit, and on 19 December 1944 he was
taken as a POW.
Along with
many other captured Americans, Roy was transported by rail to Stalag IV-B, at
Mühlberg, located between Leipzig and Dresden. Having suffered frozen feet, Roy
was placed in the camp’s Lazarett (hospital). The Red Army’s western
advance in early 1945 forced the Germans to evacuate POWs, and the Lazarett
was moved several times, first to Leipzig, then to the city of Halle. Roy was
at a location in Halle when advancing American troops arrived in April. After
liberation he spent time at the central American POW repatriation facility in Le
Havre, France before returning to the USA. Roy was at Camp Buckner General
Hospital, NC, and a second medical facility in Valley Forge, PA, before being
discharged in October 1945 with the rank of PFC.
Again a
civilian, Roy used GI Bill benefits to obtain a degree from Elizabethtown
College; he then taught in the Donegal School District, in Lancaster County, PA,
for thirty years, retiring in 1985. Roy was married in 1948 (wife Mary), and
helped to raise a family of three boys. At the time of this interview (July
2003) Roy and Mary Armold lived in Mt Joy, PA.
Bronze Star recipient, 1944 (medal awarded December
2003)
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