D-Day Commemoration of an Eastern North Carolina Hero: John Epps Teel in World War II
75 years ago today, on June 6, 1944, over 156,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in the offensive to repel the German forces from France. Codenamed Operation Neptune, this assault is referred to as D-Day. Often we are presented with the big picture of D-Day – pictures of tens of thousands of troops fighting to survive on beaches littered with anti-tank Czech hedgehogs, barbed wire, land mines, and the looming Atlantic Wall. To bring us closer to home, libraries and archives can provide us a more intimate detail of our own sons and daughters of war through personal collections, such as that of Corporeal John Epps Teel of Wilson County, NC.
Corporeal John Epps Teel, 1944 John Epps Teel Collection, 1943-2006, Manuscript Collection #1073
John Epps Teel (November 5, 1920 – May 12, 2002) was a Corporeal in the 359th Infantry Regiment of the 90th Infantry Division of the United States Army during World War II. While serving overseas, he was involved in campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe. According to his enlistment record found in the collection in Joyner Special Collections, Teel was awarded the Bronze Star, the Good Conduct Medal, the Victory Medal, and the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one Silver Star.
Born November 5, 1920, Teel was just 18 when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 and the war began. In an interview found in Joyner Library Special Collections, as well as online through the Library of Congress’s Veteran’s History Project, Teel recounts learning about Hitler and the Nazis from his German Jewish history teacher earlier that year, and her prediction that the United States – and the young men in the class – would be off to fight in a few years’ time. Teel enlisted in the United States Army on October 6, 1943 at Fort Bragg, and was part of the D-Day invasion less than a year later. Transcripts and audio cassette interview records in the John Epps Teel Collection, 1943-2006 here in Special Collections give an in-depth look into Teel’s first knowledge of the war, basic training experiences, crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Utah Beach landing. Specific battles and maneuvers are also discussed and include:
· the Battle of Normandy (June 6-July 27, 1944)
· the Break Through (August 1-10, 1944)
· Falaise Gap (August 10-22, 1944)
· the Reims (August 23-31, 1944)
· Reims to Thionville to Metz (September-November 1944)
· Drive to the Saar/ Saar Crossing/Bronze Star Event (September 24-December 1944)
· The Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944-January 25, 1945)
· Siegfried Line (February-March 1945)
· from Moselle to Rhine (March 12-23, 1945)
· from Rhine River to Main River (March 23-31, 1945)
· Split of Germany (April 1-18, 1945)
· Advance to Bavaria (April 20-May 6, 1945)
· The end of the war and John Epps Teel’s return home.
Also included in the collection are enlistment, discharge, and service records and citations; a photograph of Teel dated 1944; 2 audiotape cassettes and accompanying transcripts of an oral history interview conducted by his son, John R. Teel on October 5, 2001; and copies of several submission forms for material sent to the Library of Congress to include in their American Folklife Center’s Veterans Historic Project.
