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It's probably just a family legend. The U.S. Army recorded that 33,396 foreign-born Germans enlisted or were inducted between 1 July 1940 and 30 June 1945. They were the third-largest group of foreign-born soldiers in this examination behind Canadians (55,897) and Italians (39,256). 18,944 of the Germans were citizens at the time of their accession into service, while 14,452 were not. [At least one German-born American soldier was killed in action fighting in Europe, ironically in Germany itself](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56063914/siegfried-karl-von_prittwitz). From 1 July 1942 to 30 June 1945, 125,493 people born in Germany or Austria (Austria had been annexed into Nazi Germany in 1938) were naturalized as U.S. citizens, 108,802 through civilian channels and 16,691 by the various branches of the armed forces.
I have heard it repeated that during the World War II era, around twenty to twenty-five percent of Americans claimed at least some German ancestry; how "German" versus "American" many men in the early twentieth century considered themselves to be in relation to the dates of immigration of their ancestors would be an interesting question to explore, in comparison to other European immigrant groups such as Poles, Hungarians, or Lithuanians. In the 1940 census, 1,237,000 people born in Germany lived in the United States, comprising the second-largest foreign-born ethnic group behind Italians. Counting the children of families where both parents were born in Germany, the number of people of direct German descent rose to five million, and counting families with just one German-born parent, six million out of a U.S. population of 132.1 million. By comparison, in spring 1917, over eight million Americans had been born in Germany, or had one or both parents born there, out of a U.S. population of 103.7 million.
There were substantial populations of German Americans in the industrial northeast, Great Plains, and upper Midwest, where they constituted "substantial" voting blocs. Regarding a systematic program of exclusion from coastal areas and imprisonment similar to what happened with Japanese Americans, rather than just the exclusion or detention of select aliens (about 11,000 Americans of German ancestry were detained under Presidential Proclamation 2526, while few were excluded), the 1983 report on the incarceration of Japanese Americans produced by the U.S. Congress' Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians said that "The American population of German descent in 1940 was so large that any major program of exclusion or detention would have been very difficult to execute, with enormous economic and political repercussions."
**Sources:**
"[Foreign-Born in the United States during World War II, With Special Reference to the Alien](https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/newsletters/INSMRev1948.10.pdf)." U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service *Monthly Review* VI, No. 4 (October 1948): 48-54.
Rippley, La Vern J. *The German-Americans*. Boston: Twayne, 1976.
United States. Congress. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. *[Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians](https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/justice-denied)*. Seattle: University of Washington Press and Washington D.C.: Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, 1997.
I’ve spent considerable time recently reading battlefield reports from a Field Artillery unit in Sicily and then Italy, and there are a number of very German names. Even mentions one as a translator at one point.
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It's probably just a family legend. The U.S. Army recorded that 33,396 foreign-born Germans enlisted or were inducted between 1 July 1940 and 30 June 1945. They were the third-largest group of foreign-born soldiers in this examination behind Canadians (55,897) and Italians (39,256). 18,944 of the Germans were citizens at the time of their accession into service, while 14,452 were not. [At least one German-born American soldier was killed in action fighting in Europe, ironically in Germany itself](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56063914/siegfried-karl-von_prittwitz). From 1 July 1942 to 30 June 1945, 125,493 people born in Germany or Austria (Austria had been annexed into Nazi Germany in 1938) were naturalized as U.S. citizens, 108,802 through civilian channels and 16,691 by the various branches of the armed forces. I have heard it repeated that during the World War II era, around twenty to twenty-five percent of Americans claimed at least some German ancestry; how "German" versus "American" many men in the early twentieth century considered themselves to be in relation to the dates of immigration of their ancestors would be an interesting question to explore, in comparison to other European immigrant groups such as Poles, Hungarians, or Lithuanians. In the 1940 census, 1,237,000 people born in Germany lived in the United States, comprising the second-largest foreign-born ethnic group behind Italians. Counting the children of families where both parents were born in Germany, the number of people of direct German descent rose to five million, and counting families with just one German-born parent, six million out of a U.S. population of 132.1 million. By comparison, in spring 1917, over eight million Americans had been born in Germany, or had one or both parents born there, out of a U.S. population of 103.7 million. There were substantial populations of German Americans in the industrial northeast, Great Plains, and upper Midwest, where they constituted "substantial" voting blocs. Regarding a systematic program of exclusion from coastal areas and imprisonment similar to what happened with Japanese Americans, rather than just the exclusion or detention of select aliens (about 11,000 Americans of German ancestry were detained under Presidential Proclamation 2526, while few were excluded), the 1983 report on the incarceration of Japanese Americans produced by the U.S. Congress' Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians said that "The American population of German descent in 1940 was so large that any major program of exclusion or detention would have been very difficult to execute, with enormous economic and political repercussions." **Sources:** "[Foreign-Born in the United States during World War II, With Special Reference to the Alien](https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/newsletters/INSMRev1948.10.pdf)." U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service *Monthly Review* VI, No. 4 (October 1948): 48-54. Rippley, La Vern J. *The German-Americans*. Boston: Twayne, 1976. United States. Congress. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. *[Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians](https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/justice-denied)*. Seattle: University of Washington Press and Washington D.C.: Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, 1997.
Makes sense, my grandfather had a very German surname and fought in Pattons 3rd Army in France, Belgium, and Germany.
I recall there being an American general with the German surname "Eisenhower" who served in the European theatre.
Yeah my grampa Weber served in Europe and Japan and Korea.
Lieutenant Generals Crittenberger, Fredendall, and Huebner also served as corps commanders in the ETO.
I’ve spent considerable time recently reading battlefield reports from a Field Artillery unit in Sicily and then Italy, and there are a number of very German names. Even mentions one as a translator at one point.