Georgov, William

William (Bill) Georgov was born April 22, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were Slovak and Serbian and had emigrated to the U.S. via Canada.  Once in Newark, Bill’s father owned and operated a barber shop.  Bill attended school in Newark and did all the normal things for a teenage boy as the Great Depression yielded to World War Two. He was able to graduate high school as part of the class of 1944, and he was drafted soon after.  He first reported to Camp Dix in N.J., and he did additional training in Texas and Georgia before going overseas.  Bill had been selected for armored training, and he ended up in the 12th Armored Division.  Bill went overseas on one of the big troopships:  he was briefly in England before heading over to France, arriving when the Battle of the Bulge was underway. Bill dealt with the cold and snow, and the silent terror on the battlefield, taking solace as he recalls in the company of his buddies as they looked out for one another.  Bill was wounded during the battle and was treated at a hospital, recovering from a leg wound. He rejoined his unit and they continued their advance from France into Germany, liberating a concentration camp at Landsberg on their path.  The end of the war came in the spring of 1945; Bill stayed in Germany for another year doing occupation duty, before heading back to the US and taking advantage of the GI Bill.  He studied chemistry and went to work at Dupont, and he married Connie and raised a family, contributing his part to postwar America. Bill Georgov was interviewed by Scott Masters at his home in Delaware in July 2026.  He had been previously interviewed by the 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum in Abilene, Texas, and this webpage combines elements of both interviews.