James W. Phillips was born in August 1921 in Middletown, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of four, and his father was a heavy equipment operator. He did not have a steady job during the Great Depression but did a project with the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration], which eventually got him a job in civil service. He attended school in Middletown until he got a job in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania to help support his family. He cannot recall how he heard the news when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Phillips was drafted into the Army in July 1942 at age 19. He was sent to Camp Forrest [Annotator's Note: Tullahoma, Tennessee] for training, and on the way, he got food poisoning on the train. He was sent to the hospital for a week. Once out of the hospital, he was assigned to the 313th Field Artillery Battalion, 80th Infantry Division. He was thrilled to be in the Army and met some great friends. After Phillips completed his training, he and his unit were sent overseas on the Queen Mary. Many of the guys got seasick. He slept on the deck to avoid getting sick. They landed in Scotland then went to England near the English Channel to pick up their equipment. While in England, they marched, played baseball, and waited around to leave for Europe.

After a year and a half of training, James W. Phillips rode on the Queen Mary ocean liner to Europe with his division [Annotator's Note: Phillips was a member of the 313th Field Artillery Battalion, 80th Infantry Division]. It only took seven days to get overseas. He crossed the English Channel during the night. His unit headed straight for Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. The next morning, General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] came down to the beach and gave the troops a speech before they took off into combat. His unit was first assigned to the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. Phillips recalled they were eating that morning when suddenly shells began to hit their area. After securing their position, they continued to move through France at a quick pace. Phillips was a forward observer and used a radio to communicate the location of the target and whether they needed artillery, infantry, or air support. The forward observers were divided in three teams, and Phillips replaced a guy because he was ill.

James W. Phillips thought that all of the men in his unit [Annotator's Note: 313th Field Artillery Battalion, 80th Infantry Division] were considered family. After securing their position in the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France], they continued to move through France at a quick pace. After a couple of months, they experienced a lot of combat. As a forward observer, they had an observation post and laid wire or used radios to communicate. His unit headed into the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The weather was terribly cold. They put on every article of clothing they carried with them, but the footwear was just horrible because it was difficult to keep his feet dry. He was given C-rations and K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] for food. Phillips thought that for an artillery unit, they moved often, and received a lot of enemy fire. During Christmas 1944, the Army promised their troops a turkey dinner, which they received a few days after the holiday. Phillips recalled that the guys would get packages from home which they shared with the rest of the troops. The cold weather broke after Christmas, so trucks came in with supplies and food for his unit. It was a big deal when they Army Air Forces was able to fly again.

After the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], James W. Phillips and his unit [Annotator's Note: 313th Field Artillery Battalion, 80th Infantry Division] headed towards the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s] which they were able to cross with little trouble. As his unit went through France, they marched through towns at a quick pace. Phillips received a pass to go to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. When he arrived at the hotel, he was given clean clothes, and was able to bathe for the first time in six months. He enjoyed his experience drinking and eating and enjoying all the entertainment and sightseeing.

James W. Phillips recalled that the warfare felt less heavy after the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He felt the Germans were giving up as the Allies were heading into Germany. Phillips recalls they would listen to Axis Sally [Annotator's Note: Mildred Elizabeth Gillars] on the radio and she would talk German propaganda. They headed into Austria near the end of the war. Phillips recalls that the German locals were relieved the war was coming to an end. Phillips' unit liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in April 1945. They were walking when tanks began pushing a gate down, then German guards ran off, and Phillips saw the prisoners inside. The troops wanted to give the people something to eat but were told not to because it could kill them. General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] gathered the civilians of the nearby town and made them witness the atrocities. Phillips recalls when the war officially ended in Europe in May 1945 and there was a lot of happiness. He soon returned to the United States and was discharged in 1945. He met his wife at a dance not long after he came home.

James W. Phillips went back to working at a show factory after World War 2, and then later worked in civil service. Phillips tells a story about how his captain forgot his map case at their last stop, and Phillips was ordered to go back and get it.