He watched aerial combat dogfights and counted parachutes from burning U.S. superfortress bombers. This photo shows Alderman during his war years. You never knew when a German plane was going to come down and drop bombs. You saw a lot of action that is hard to talk about. You are under a constant strain and the pressure is always there.
War is no fun.
It's a miserable situation. His most dangerous time may have been at the Salerno, Italy, beachhead where German Tiger tanks nearly split the beachhead using the road Alderman's division was guarding. Alderman said things looked so critical that everyone, even office staffers, were thrown into the battle. Alderman was at Anzio in January 1944. He said a general's decision to dig in instead of pushing forward when the Germans were caught by surprise led to a lengthy stalemate that lasted into June.