Charles H. Horton Collection, 1944-1945
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
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Arrangement
Abstract
Administrative/Biographical History
Charles Henry Horton was born on August 23, 1917, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to Charles H. Horton and Bessie Ranlett. Horton attended St. Johnsbury Academy, and later attended Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.
Horton applied to become an ambulance driver with the American Field Service in December 1942, and departed for Bombay, India, in April 1943 with unit IB 1. He was transferred from India to Italy in August 1944 and served with the C Platoon of the 485 Company (Coy). He also served with D Platoon of the 567 Coy from March to June 1945 in Germany. He was repatriated to the United States in June 1945. Horton was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, Burma Star, Italy Star, and France-Germany Star for his service during the war. He was also awarded a British “Mention in Despatches” in November 1945 for his distinguished service with AFS.
Subjects (links to similar collections)American Field Service (American Ambulance Field Service)
American Field Service--Central Mediterranean Units (CM)
American Field Service--CM 89-T
American Field Service--IB 1
American Field Service--India-Burma Units (IB)
Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Horton, Charles H. (Charles Henry), b. 1917
Shethar, Norman (1925-2008)
World War, 1939-1945
Administrative Information
The Charles H. Horton Collection contains thirteen photographs of American Field Service ambulance drivers in Italy, including pictures of a monastery north of Forli used as a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS), and Horton with fellow drivers at the Regimental Aid Post (RAP) in Monte Grande. The photographs are 3 ½” x 5” black and white prints, and most were captioned (verso) by Horton.
The collection also includes two 8mm films taken by Horton during the war. The first includes scenes taken while in Italy and France in 1944 and 1945. The original 8 mm film is in color and contains around 5 ½ minutes of footage, including scenes of the Regimental Aid Post in Monte Grande, Casualty Clearing Stations, landscape views (of the mountain ridge in Italy held by the British, and of the white cliffs of Dover, England), ambulance drivers (including Horton and Norman Shethar), and the 567 Company transfer to Marseilles on the LSTs (tank landing ships.) The film was reformatted into a VHS and miniDV by the AFS Archives staff, and the reformatted versions are included in the collection. The second film depicts the American Field Service drivers at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they helped British forces assist camp prisoners after the liberation on April 15, 1945. The original 8 mm film is in color and contains about 6 ½ minutes of footage, which includes scenes of the entrance gate to the camp, Hungarian stretcher bearers loading prisoners into AFS ambulances, the line of German SS officers (who were transported out of the camp in AFS ambulances), and the final burning of the camp after the evacuation of the prisoners was complete. The film was reformed into a VHS, DVD, and miniDV by the AFS Archives staff, and the reformatted versions are included in the collection.