Introduction

Drafted

Operation Torch

Conversation Part 1

Sicily

Conversation Part 2

Anzio

Breakout

France

Germany

Austria

Howard B. Nickelson

Livingston, Montana

Cpl. (T5) Howard B. "Nick" Nickelson, born 1917, was drafted into the Army during the peacetime draft in early 1941 from Livingston, Montana while studying at the Montana School of Mines. Nickelson landed with the 10th Engineers at Fedala in November 1942 and participated in the landings in Sicily and at Salerno in 1943 and at Anzio in 1944. Nickelson along with Jack Cole were the first two photographers assembled for a special unit of 3rd Division photographers on the Anzio beachhead and later landed in southern France in August 1944. Nickelson was able to muster out just days before VE Day on "points" from Salzburg, Austria. He was married in December 1945. After the war, Nickelson finished his studies at the Montana School of Mines and became a geological engineer working for several mines in Montana. He worked for 25 years for the United States Geological Survey, retiring in 1978. In 1988 he authored "100 Years of Coal Mining in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico", for The New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources.

Howard's memoirs are reproduced here with his permission.