Clyde Howe Harrop was born in Seattle, Washington in August, 1924. He was a real outdoorsman, from a young age, and enjoyed football, ice hockey, fishing, and hunting. He attempted to volunteer for the US Army, but was turned away because of too many young men were eager to join the military after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. He waited to be drafted, and enlisted into the Army in April 1943 as a rifleman.
Clyde completed his training and was assigned to the 76th Field Artillery Battalion in the First United States Army in 1943. He departed on the William Pepperell and arrived at Southampton shortly thereafter. Clyde and his company disembarked the William Pepperell off of Utah Beach via LSTs. From there, he participated in actions in Northern France, the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe. He remembers being extremely frightened during combat. At one point, a German Tiger Tank entered his positions about fifty yards from him, firing MG-42 machine guns from the turret. He dropped to the group and played dead until the tank moved on. He recalls that it was one of the scariest moments in his life.
The end of the war was a pivotal moment for Clyde. He remembers meeting the Russians in the Sudetenland and finally knowing for sure that the Allies had won and the war was over. Clyde and his unit stayed near a village occupied by the Russians, and he remembers hearing the soldiers screaming happily, yelling, and shooting off rockets. “They weren’t always great guys,” he said. “They took whatever they wanted. But that was a happy time for all of us.”
After the war, Clyde worked as a buyer for Boeing, a flight line inspector, and an electronic component salesman. He enjoys deep-sea fishing for crab and halibut and spending time with his children.