Growing up on a small farm in rural Alabama, B.B. Darnell had never traveled far from home. Entering the Army in 1942, World War II changed everything for the soft-spoken, humble young man. By the time World War II was over, he had journeyed thousands of miles and had become a decorated combat veteran with the singular purpose of making it home to marry the woman he loved. “A Hero’s Walk” is the story of his journey.
Lt. Darnell served in the 328th Field Artillery Battalion, 85th Infantry Division. In the fall of 1944, he was an artillery forward observer moving with the infantry in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy during the bloody battle to break the Nazi’s Gothic Line. After a brutal series of assaults and counter-attacks, his commanding officer wrote the following:
“When Lt. Darnell was relieved and returned to the battery he was staggering from sheer fatigue and illness. He had been in the assault with the infantry for twenty-one days. Two different forward observer parties had been with him and were completely exhausted. He had always been with the spearhead of the attack, never faltering, never asking for relief and even refusing it when he was told to take it. Upon return to his organization he was placed under immediate medical care, but refused evacuation to a hospital, remaining with his battery which was moving in the attack in support of the infantry. Lt. Darnell’s devotion to duty, his extreme courage in the face of withering enemy fire, severe illness and extreme fatigue as well as his superior leadership at the most critical moments were an inspiration to his men and are in the finest tradition of the service.”
Two years earlier, B.B. Darnell had just turned 21 years old and graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). Along with his degree in Agriculture, he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
His overseas journey began on Christmas Eve, 1943, as the 328th loaded onto a ship in Hampton Roads, VA, bound for North Africa. They joined the war in Italy in March of 1944. From Naples to Trieste, Lt. Darnell slogged northward in that bloody conflict, enduring physical, emotional, and mental ordeals he never could have imagined.
The crucible of battle exposed the young man’s fear as well as his courage. It also strengthened his faith in God and galvanized his desire to marry the woman he loved. He finally returned home to Alabama in November, 1945, determined to build a life with his beloved Mildred.
B.B. Darnell’s story is similar to thousands of other young men in an era of heroes who came from the farms, small towns, and cities in the United States to confront evil in another part of the world. And when the enemy was defeated, the survivors returned home, forever changed.
Follow this young soldier’s journey through war overseas as author Mike Darnell tells his father’s remarkable story.
