Nicholas A. Anarow was born on January 21, 1911 in the town of Limni on the island of Evia in Greece. After his obligatory service in the Greek navy in the early 1930's, Nick entered the Greek merchant marine serving as a ship's engineer and travelled the seven seas. On September 1st 1939 his ship was docked in the Polish port of Gdynia where Nick experienced the German aerial bombardment in the opening attack that began World War II. Since the Greek ship was from a noncombatant nation at that time it was permitted by the German frigates to leave the port and proceed to a neutral country.

Two years later Nick found himself in Brooklyn, New York and was eventuially drafted in late 1942. He initially joined the Greek Battalion which was disbanded after its basic training, and he ended up in the 35th Infantry Division. He served as a BAR man with Company L, 3rd Battalion, of the 134th Infantry Regiment from the time they landed in Normandy and fought at St. Lo, until the end of the war on the Elbe River. Nick was wounded in the Foret de Gremecy but was not hospitalized. He fought throughout the complete trajectory of his company in Europe. Thus, he heard the opening guns of the war in Poland and the last of them in Germany. Nick passed away on December 20, 2001, one month and one day shy of his 91st birthday. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather, a modest man who rarely spoke about the war, who carried his service with the 35th with dignity and reverence for his comrades.

If anyone out there remembers Nick please drop us a line.
Peter H. Doukas, Ph.D./Irene (Anarow) Doukas
peter.doukas@temple.edu