The Central Pennsylvania World War II Roundtable will hold its next monthly meeting online via Zoom on Thursday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m. The guest speaker will be tank crew member and Battle of the Bulge veteran Walter Stitt.

Stitt served as a loader for a Sherman tank crew in the 3rd Armored Division. He arrived at Omaha Beach in Normandy several weeks after D-Day and was part of the effort to push through France and Belgium and into Germany, where his armored unit was among the first to penetrate the Siegfried Line.

Stitt's unit reached Germany in September 1944, where he was struck by a German tank shell that killed the tank commander and the gunner. As a loader in the tank, Stitt was sitting on the left side of the turret and experienced a leg wound. He said later that he was probably not killed because he happened to be reaching down for a shell when the tank was hit.

Stitt served on a total of three tanks that were lost to enemy action. During the Battle of the Bulge, the tank he was in was hit by an anti-tank shell, killing the commander and putting Stitt out of action with pieces of shrapnel in his head. Stitt recovered from his wound and was transferred to a non-combat unit in England, where he remained until VE Day.

Nearly 15 years after he was discharged from the military, Stitt was called to the ministry. After completing seminary, Stitt served as pastor of two Lutheran churches and for 10 years was assistant to the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He later served as pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church.

The Zoom meeting is open to the public, and no registration is required. To attend, visit http://www.centralpaww2roundtable.org.

The Central Pennsylvania World War II Roundtable is a nonprofit organization that provides a forum for World War II veterans, authors, historians, and citizens to share their knowledge and experiences related to the war.