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William Bader was a technical sergeant in the United States army who served in WWI After graduating from Norwood Highschool in 1941. William wanted to serve in Europe because he felt that he belonged there. William lost his brother earlier that year in the eighth airforce. And William was in Europe 6 months after enlisting. -
William took a boat ride on the USS America to England. And then took a midnight freight train ride to the eastern side of England. The next day they took a boat to omaha beach. A few miles away from omaha beach was a bivouac area where they stayed for about 3 weeks. After those 3 weeks they went to Paris. That's where he joined the Fifth division, Secondary infantry regiment and first battalion. -
William then became the captain's runner And was almost second in command as a buck private. William soon achieved a bronze star for helping eliminate 2 machine guns with a few other soldiers so that they could continue their attack. -
After about 3 attacks an OP wire broke which is used to slow down enemies when enemies are heading their way. And William went and fixed it. WIlliam was tired of using the bar because he was not a very big guy and asked if someone bigger could use the BAR. And was told the 2nd new big guy off the truck could take the BAR. -
William's first actual battle was the Ardennes battle. This is the battle that William earned a silver star. William and the other soldiers found a little dairy farm to take over. Soon after they took it over the Germans opened fire on them. They all went into this big barn so the Germans didn't get them. After about 3 hours of battling them the Americans had no progress. Later that night a shell hit them and killed the medic and seriously injured the top sergeant Tony and william saved him. -
The sun started to come up so they decided they needed to get out of there. Someone in the troop asked William if his head was okay referring to the shell that hit them. William took off his helmet and looked at it to see that he had been shot with a 50 cal that went through the back of his helmet and straight out of the front. William thought it was impossible because it happened when he had his helmet on his head. And later found that it went in between his skull and skin on his head. -
After the Germans surrendered William had to go to Bavaria and hitlers stronghold. William went home after getting promoted to the Battalion NCO from private first class and spending some time in Bavaria.