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From D-Day to the German surrender, 99-year-old Knight of Columbus recalls his experiences during World War II

EDITOR’S NOTE: Graziano was one of several World War II veterans who shared their stories of faith and courage in the November 2021 issue of Columbia.

The night of June 5, 1944, was a tense one for Sgt. Louis Graziano and his fellow servicemen. After spending 18 months in England training for the invasion of Normandy, D-Day was now only hours away. Graziano, a faithful Catholic his entire life, prepared for the imminent invasion that June night by joining his comrades in seeking God’s protection.

“We had a prayer meeting, and that was one night everyone prayed,” he said.

Graziano survived D-Day, and continued to serve through the conclusion of World War II. Today, he is the last-known living witness to the German surrender, which occurred on May 7, 1945.

Mayor of Tent City

Luciano Graziano was born Feb. 6, 1923, to Sicilian immigrants in East Aurora, N.Y., outside of Buffalo. Money was tight for the family of seven; Graziano’s father worked as a railroad watchman and a brick mason, while his mother, sister and brother worked in a hair salon. Graziano quit school after finishing eighth grade to work with his father, and he then became a hairstylist like the other members of his family.

A constant in his life was his Catholic faith. He attended Catholic school and went to Mass weekly with his family at Immaculate Conception Church, just over a block away from their home. He leaned heavily on his faith during his service in the U.S. Army, which began Jan. 22, 1943.

“It was then that I made a promise to Uncle Sam to pick up a gun, put on a helmet, and defend our country with my life,” he writes in his autobiography A Patriot’s Memoirs of World War II — Through My Eyes, Heart and Soul (2018).

Months of arduous training took Graziano to Fort Niagara in New York, Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Camp Shanks in Orangetown, N.Y., and Fort Dix in New Jersey. He then boarded the Queen Mary for England in late spring 1943.

He spent the next 18 months participating in combat training at Camp Weston in England, where he also participated in a secret mission that he was ordered not to talk about — an order he has obeyed to this day. Additionally, he supervised the construction of a mess hall, Nissen Huts, latrines, roads, a power plant and a theater. Graziano was affably nicknamed the “Mayor of Tent City” by his men.

It was during these months that Graziano had his first brush with combat, leading several men in successfully shooting down a German plane. That experience was only a precursor to the threats to come. The Luftwaffe — Germany’s air force — firebombed England on a nearly nightly basis. More than 70 years later, Graziano still recalls dropping on a sidewalk and covering his head.

“You just didn’t know whether it was going to hit you or not,” he said. “I just would stay laying there.”

Yet amid the perils of war, Graziano didn’t lose faith that God was with him.

The Invasion

On June 6, 1944, Graziano crossed the English Channel toward Omaha Beach in a Landing Ship Tank (LST). The sea was rough and many of the soldiers around him experienced seasickness. He was not seasick, but he was anxious. The tanker he was assigned to drive onto the beach during the third wave was filled with gasoline. If he didn’t move the tanker quickly, he could be struck by German gunfire and engulfed in an inferno.

When it was time for the third wave, he successfully drove the tanker onto the beach, then jumped out in a hurry, surrounded by the bodies of soldiers who died in the previous waves. As Germans fired down on the invading Allied forces from the bluffs overlooking the beach, Graziano and another soldier crawled underneath a cliff for protection.

“When I finally got under it, we set the woods on fire and got rid of that machine gun on top,” he said. “Then I shot a flare up in the sky, knowing the Navy would know what to do: They took out another machine gun for us.”

Sadly, two of his men died during the invasion. He and his remaining 33 comrades spent nearly a day underneath the cliff as U.S. Army Rangers eliminated the German threat.

After the Allied forces took control of the cliffs, Graziano and his men fought their way to Saint-Lô, France, helping to liberate the city from Axis occupation on July 19, 1944.

In late December, the Germans launched what would become their last offensive attack in the war, surrounding Allied forces in Bastogne, Belgium.

“The captain came in that night and he said, ‘I want you to go on a mission with me.’” Graziano recalled. “I said, ‘Is that a request?’ He said, ‘I can put in an order.’ I said, ‘OK, let’s go.’”

After all, Graziano felt nothing could be worse than Omaha Beach. The mission was to find a lost company from the Third Army Division, which was meant to reinforce the troops in Bastogne. Graziano eventually found the company in between Reims and Metz and escorted them to the Allied lines, but the job took its toll, as the frigid temperatures and seemingly endless snow left his feet frozen.

“The doctor said, ‘You got it just in time; otherwise, we would have had to cut them off,’” said Graziano, who stayed in the hospital for three weeks, using hoops to keep the sheets from touching his feet. To this day, he uses a wedge pillow to do the same thing.

That mission during the Battle of the Bulge was the final combat he participated in during the war.

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Less than one year later, Graziano was stationed in Reims, France, overseeing the buildings and headquarters American soldiers occupied, including the “little red schoolhouse,” as it was known, where Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had an office.

On May 7, Graziano had no knowledge that members of the German High Command were coming to the schoolhouse. At the request of Gen. Eisenhower, he was among those who witnessed Gen. Alfred Jodl and the other German officers signing the terms of surrender there. He recalls that they had “nothing but a straight face.”

“They got up and clicked their heels together,” he said. “Then I took them into Gen. Eisenhower’s office, which was a couple of doors up the hall.”

Eisenhower asked the German officers if they were satisfied with the proceedings. “They nodded their heads and clicked their heels together,” Graziano said. “He dismissed them. And that was the end of that.”

By the time of the surrender, Graziano had met his future wife, Bobbie, a native of Alabama, who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps., and the two were married on Oct. 2 of that year. Graziano was recommended for promotion to second lieutenant but turned it down to start a new life with his wife in the United States.

The couple eventually settled in Thomson, Ga., where Graziano returned to hairstyling. It was also there, at Queen of Angels Catholic Church, that Graziano learned about the Knights of Columbus.

“One of the men who belonged to the church was a Knight of Columbus,” he recalled. “I got information from them and got it started in Thomson.”

Inspired especially by the Order’s principle of fraternity, Graziano joined the Knights and helped found Father Larry Endrizzi Council 6918 in 1977. He recruited 30 men to start the council and, since then, has served both as grand knight and treasurer.

For the 99-year-old veteran, sharing his wartime experiences is a recent venture. After publishing his memoir in 2018, he began traveling the country speaking about his life, including at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library during events commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019.

At the end of his book, Graziano describes why he decided to share his experience: “I felt it was important for others to know the sacrifices that the military men of this country made for the freedom of their loved ones and all Americans.”

Learn more about the Knights of Columbus.