Nine decades and counting

A week after the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Steven Kirtyan, a World War II veteran and a 50-year member and past commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Malverne Post 1073, shared with the Herald his memories of life on the front lines in Europe, and of being held captive by German forces. Kirtyan turned 90 on Dec. 15.

With his wife of 61 years, Patricia, sitting by his side, Kirtyan recalled how he was drafted into the U.S. Fifth Army, which he said was loaned out to British allies at the time, at age 18 in August 1943. At first he was a light machine gunner, but eventually he became a private first class. He earned a World War II Victory Medal, a European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbon, a W3 Bronze Star, a Good Conduct medal and the Purple Heart.

After 17 weeks of basic military training at Camp Wheeler in Georgia, Kirtyan boarded the USS General H.W. Butner and shipped off with the 45th Division to Italy, where they fought in Anzio under the command of British Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark.

Kirtyan helped liberate Rome in June 1944, but almost half of his company was lost. “I was one of the fortunate ones,” he said, and then looked at his wife. “So you see, Patsy, you’re lucky I’m here.”

Nearly three months later, while blocking one of four main roads to intercept German tanks traveling through Meximieux, France, Kirtyan recalled, another one of his company’s roadblocks nearby was attacked late one night by enemy forces, signaling to the Germans that U.S. troops were stationed in that area.

On the morning of Sept. 1, 1944, Kirtyan said, his 15-man company was overwhelmed by German forces, leaving only nine survivors and three others wounded. As he tried to escape the enemy attack, he sought refuge in a small wine barrel shop, but the Germans soon fired cannons into the store and took him prisoner.

Kirtyan was held in a series of POW camps, starting at Stalag 17, near Krems, Austria, the inspiration for the 1953 film of the same name. “Once you’re OK, once you’re in a POW camp where there’s camaraderie, it’s a good feeling,” he said. “But before we got to camp, it was rough.”