Walter Sapp was born in Jacksonville, Florida in January 1926. His mother was visiting her parents on vacation when he was born. He grew up in Mount Vernon, Ohio. He went through high school there. He had two sisters and three brothers. His brothers were in the Navy after the war. His father was in business with family in an automobile dealership. They lost the dealership partly due to the war effort. His father was the youngest of his family and served in World War 1 as an ambulance driver. His job was to get the wounded out of the trenches. He was very familiar with the infantry and they talked about it. His oldest sister was a whiz at chemistry. Sapp was studying in his room with a radio on and heard the broadcast [Annotator's Note: about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He went down and told his father. His father came, turned his radio on, and did not turn it off until World War 2 ended. [Annotator's Note: Sapp laughs.] When Sapp was a junior in high school, his friends were joining. Sapp was small and did not want to join the Navy. He had seen the newsreels of the attack on Pearl Harbor and he had decided that if somebody was shooting at him, he wanted to be able to shoot back. He enlisted at 17 but had to wait until 18 [Annotator's Note: in January 1944]. When he turned 18, he was on a train to Indiana.

Walter Sapp went to Camp Walter, Texas for basic training. He did not want to be drafted and did not want to go into the Navy. He took some tests for ASTP [Annotator's Note: generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] and did well in physics. They contacted him and were going to send him to study meteorology at Kenyon College, Ohio. Pretty soon, the casualties in the war started climbing and they decided they did not need any more meteorologists or pilots in the ASTP. The people Sapp was training with were well-educated. He enlisted as a junior in high school, but they would not take him. On his 18th birthday [Annotator's Note: in January 1944] he was put on a train for induction and then training. He did not get sent overseas as a replacement. He joined the 78th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division]. He knew the officers and was comfortable with them. The 78th was the New Jersey National Guard. They took some endurance tests and then went overseas in a convoy on a troop ship. It was a great target for the u-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarines]. They landed at Bournemouth, England with Spitfires [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] flying overhead. They went into advanced infantry training and would run for miles before breakfast. They missed the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and the fighting in the hedgerows. They caught up with them in France [Annotator's Note: on 22 November 1944]. It rained every day and they did not get ponchos. They loaded onto trucks and went to a forward area. There was no more training.

Walter Sapp's company [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division] commander weighed about 230 pounds. Sapp knew he could not run. He was relieved of his duties because he was obese. Sapp's first battle was the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. They had no company commander. Sapp could not find the executive officer or his platoon leader. His squad was in a village [Annotator's Note: likely near Kesternich, Germany] in a house with civilians, including women of different ages who were scared to death. They were getting incoming German artillery. They had one medic in the company, and he was the first casualty. The word came to move to a field toward the enemy. It was 16 December [Annotator's Note: 16 December 1944]. They dug in. Sapp was about halfway through digging his foxhole and he heard some planes coming low. He saw parachutes in the sky. There was no command structure. He had his M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] and a parachutist was coming right down. Sapp did not have time to aim and emptied his gun into him. He stayed in his foxhole. When he woke up the next morning, someone had taken his [Annotator's Note: the dead German's] gear. Sapp had no winter gear. Someone dropped k-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] the first couple of nights. Most of the German paratroopers landed in the village behind them. They would sneak up at night with burp guns [Annotator's Note: German MP-40, or Maschinenpistole 40, 9mm submachine gun]. No one slept. The skies finally cleared, and they [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces] battered their artillery and mechanized guns.

Walter Sapp had been in his foxhole for eight days. He could not stand or walk. Two men lifted him out and he woke up on a cot. He was in the Army Rehabilitation Center in Luxembourg. When he woke up, he had no boots or socks on. His feet were badly frostbitten. As soon as he could take a few steps, they sent him back to his company [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division]. The Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was over. He got a commendation, but he has no idea of what he did to earn it. They decided to send him behind enemy lines to get some prisoners. [Annotator's Note: Sapp laughs.] The sergeant made Sapp the point man with a Browning Automatic Rifle, Model 1918 [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. He had an ammo carrier. The Germans were sending up flares. Sapp was moving towards them and ran into a barbed wire enclosure. He tried to go underneath and set off a flare. He told his ammo carrier to follow him. The Germans opened fire exactly where he had been. Sapp had the advantage and knocked out their machine gun. He knew it was a concrete emplacement and he knew anyone in there was dead. The sergeant had been wounded. The patrol was aborted. Sapp was interrogated back at camp. The lieutenant did not believe him [Annotator's Note: about the concrete emplacement]. The Germans were masters at camouflage and were experienced. They were well-armed and well-trained and fighting from fixed positions. The Americans were advancing and were vulnerable.

Walter Sapp was fortunate to have excellent hearing. He could hear mortars coming down. The way a mortar explodes, if you are lying beside where it hits, you probably won't get hurt. If you are standing about ten feet away, you are likely to get shrapnel. That saved his life several times. Once he was not hit, but the man behind him was and his throat was gone. He was dead standing up. Sapp was blessed; he was small, had excellent hearing, and had good reactions. Sapp was always on the attack. The only time they were on the defensive was the opening day of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. For six months, they were advancing. It only got better in April [Annotator's Note: April 1945]. They crossed the Remagen Bridge [Annotator's Note: the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany] in March [Annotator's Note: 17 March 1945]. In April, the Germans knew they were not going to win and were surrendering. Until that time, they only surrendered when they ran out of ammunition. They were superb fighters, beautifully equipped, and dedicated believers. The Americans were green as grass. Sapp was a pretty good shot and was a sniper. He trained at a course with fixed targets at 800 yards. That is not the way it is in combat. Several men in their company [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division] were shot in the forehead, right through the helmet. Sapp got a German helmet and tested it after the war. An armor-piercing round would not go through it. The metal and the shape stopped it. The American helmets were cheap and thin. During the Bulge, Sapp had some k-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] dropped into his foxhole during the night. The chocolate would not melt in their mouths. If you do not have a sense of humor, you are not going to make it.

Walter Sapp was in a very difficult battle at the Remagen Bridge [Annotator's Note: Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany on 17 March 1945]. He was behind the communications sergeant who was fatally shot. The sergeant lived long enough to tell him how to turn on the radio. They were getting artillery and intense small arms fire from the castle on the hilltop. Sapp went lower to get radio reception. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] were good shots. A lieutenant had on a brand-new field jacket and was a perfect target. They shot him so many times he could not believe it. We have learned a lot since then about camouflage and helmets. When asked how we ever won, Sapp replies that it took all of the Americans, the British, the Canadians, the New Zealanders, the Australians, the Free French, the Free Poles, the French underground, the OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA], and the Russians, and it was not easy. In 1940, it [Annotator's Note: the German military] was the most modern and most effective military machine on the face of the earth. Only one World War 2 general ever studied the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865] battles and he was specifically interested in the tactics of the Confederate [Annotator's Note: Confederate States Army] Calvary. That officer was Erwin Rommel [Annotator's Note: German Army Generalfeldmarschall, or Field Marshal, Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel]. His strategy was used to defeat the French in four or five days. Sapp was shot at by snipers, machine guns, mortar fire, rockets, V1s [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug], Screaming Mimis [Annotator's Note: Nebelwerfer, multi-barreled rocket launcher], 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. In an artillery barrage, he would hold his arms up to protect his eyes. He was lucky and grateful.

Walter Sapp's father had been in World War 1 and knew what infantry was about. Sapp did not consult with his family about enlisting. His father was very concerned when he went into the infantry. His family was religious and prayed a lot. They did not talk about the war much afterwards. His father worked out of town during the week. There were six children and they grew up in the Great Depression. They did not suffer and were not underprivileged. Sapp went to an Army training replacement center at Camp Wolters, Texas for his basic training. The pressure was on due to the casualties suffered at D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and in the hedgerows. His unit [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division] was rushed right into the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Sapp was assigned to the 78th Infantry Division after basic training. He had passed out in the barracks and woke up in the hospital. Something had bitten him in the elbow. He was given antibiotics and then was okay. The people he had trained with were gone. Sapp went to work with the mess sergeant and was then transferred to the 78th at Camp Butner, North Carolina. In the Battle of the Bulge, he had no officers or sergeant. Around April [Annotator's Note: April 1945], they had another battle and they were pretty well shot up. Sapp was in charge then. The next day they got an officer. It was a struggle though. They had eight company commanders during the Bulge. The officers from the National Guard were disappointing. They were not getting any hot food and were always attacking. The company commander ordered the mess sergeant to the front, and he was wounded the next day in battle.

Walter Sapp was assigned to Company C, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division as a rifleman. He took over the duties of the communications sergeant, but it was not until the war ended that he got promoted. In May [Annotator's Note: May 1945] he was shipped to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. They were representing the United States. As a rifleman, Sapp carried an M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand], extra ammunition, a first aid kit, canteen of water, and one extra pair of socks. There were some interesting characters in his company. One was the third or fourth ranked heavyweight champion of the world, from Tampa, Florida. He liked Sapp. He had a canister loaded with ammunition that he carried around his neck. He was badly wounded at night in the woods by a tree burst. Sapp's outfit never attacked a pillbox. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] had the advantage and had crossfire. They were dug in and had protection. The Americans were advancing and at a disadvantage. Sapp does not remember the snow, but remembers it was a dumb thing to attack at night in the woods. There was more firepower in one German squad than Sapp had in his entire company. Every single soldier had an automatic weapon and knew how to use it. Sapp had no problem with the M1 rifle or the BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. The Germans had replacement barrels for their machine guns and did not need to let them cool off. One German soldier had a concrete emplacement with just room for his gun barrel at Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France]. He had command of the range of the beach. They had to get him from the rear.

Walter Sapp and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division] were approaching a town on a hill and they were under intense small arms fire. There was a canal and their company commander went across on a small log. Sapp jumped in and waded across. When he got across, a soldier was on his back and asking for water. Sapp did not have any but told the soldier a medic would be along. The soldier told Sapp that he was the last medic in the battalion. He told Sapp they were in a minefield. Sapp looked back to the canal and had to decide whether to go back or try to get to a road in the distance. Sapp made it through the mine field and saw his company commander inside a culvert eating a candy bar. He was in complete shock. The commander told Sapp to go into the town and pick out a command post. Sapp told him the Germans were still there and his commander put his hand on his pistol and told him he had been given a direct order. Sapp walked up the road under sniper fire. He made it into the town and a German soldier came out of a building and surrendered to Sapp. He took him back to the commander. They returned to the town. There was a huge warehouse with all kinds of clothing there. Sapp took advantage of that.

Going overseas was scary for Walter Sapp. He was three decks below seeing daylight. They were in a huge convoy and the troopship was a prime target. He had the bottom bunk. The worst ship he was on was a British ship crossing the English Channel to France. Their breakfast was cold fish and hot tea. They had no lunch and their evening meal was hot chocolate made with water. The ship was a wreck. They were on that ship for two or three days confined to quarters because of weather. He spent some time in England in advanced training. They ran for miles before breakfast. They would walk to the channel and run up the slopes. They had no contact with civilians. They were in Bournemouth [Annotator's Note: Bournemouth, England]. They did not have showers. He had a roommate who sharpened his bayonet day and night. Sapp did not see running water again for a long time. There is no way to wash your hands in the field. They were on the move. When they were not, they tried to get sleep. They had no winter supplies. They had a cowardly mess sergeant, so they were not treated very well. There were some people that were not risk takers. The Germans knew where the roads were and had all of the key points zeroed in. The mess sergeant was scared to death.

A German soldier surrendered to Walter Sapp. He turned him over to the company [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division]. He had first encountered German soldiers when a paratrooper almost landed in his foxhole. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him how it felt to take the life of that paratrooper.] Sapp felt pretty good about it. He was not bragging but he was coming down to kill Sapp and it was self-defense. When Sapp was later directing fire onto German locations, that gave him great satisfaction. He felt that particularly so after he helped liberate a German work camp [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. The prisoners in it were wearing the same clothes they had been wearing when they were taken. Sapp did not go into any structures in the camp. He was trying to fight them off from hugging and kissing him. They were filthy. Sapp did not need to see that to reaffirm why he was there, but it did reinforce his feelings. He had no sympathy for the Nazis. He met some wonderful German people after the war. Sapp had no deep friendships in his outfit. He was very fond of some of them. Sapp never saw his sergeant ever. A friend was a machine-gunner and they played basketball after the war. Sapp only met one person in his company in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. He had a strange gait. Years later, Sapp saw him and recognized him from the way he walked.

Walter Sapp never personally saw a German tank in combat. He could hear them. At the Remagen Bridge [Annotator's Note: the Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany], German jets [Annotator's Note: Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft] were shooting down our fighter planes like swatting flies. That was scary. In the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], V1s [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] were fired at him. Screaming Mimis [Annotator's Note: nebelwerfer; German multiple rocket launcher] were coming in too. They were meant to terrorize the enemy, but Sapp thought it was kind of funny. He did not see any German civilians until the war ended. Then he had a lady who did his laundry. A woman came to visit the command post and said she was there to deliver a message. She told them that they would be gone, and the Germans would be back at full strength in 20 years. Sapp and the men laughed. She was a true Nazi believer. Most of them said they were not Nazis which was hard to believe. He met some German women in the United States after the war and they told him they were in young women’s movement. He also met some people of German descent in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: East Saint Louis, Illinois] who told him they moved there to keep from sending their sons to war.

Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] was almost totally destroyed. That was Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] headquarters and they were fanatics. Walter Sapp visited the Reich Chancellery after the war ended. The Russian guards let him in. He stood on Hitler's balcony. That was a highlight of his military career. He thought to himself that in 1940 he [Annotator's Note: Hitler] was probably the most powerful man in the world, and in 1945 he was dead. That was satisfying. Sapp had been in Germany in May [Annotator's Note: May 1945] and the Germans were surrendering. He was involved in some very intense firefights in April. Sapp had the radio which is a target. They did not have an advance patrol. The machine gun opened up and Sapp got prone. The gunner was flanked and surrendered. They were shooting at Sapp because of the radio. He enjoyed calling artillery on German concentrations. The .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] is a heck of a weapon. Sapp ended up in Berlin, because their Division [Annotator's Note: 78th Infantry Division] represented the United States. Sapp was appointed First Sergeant. He did not have many points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] and did not leave the service until April 1946.

Walter Sapp was part of the occupying force [Annotator's Note: in Berlin, Germany] and they had a non-fraternization policy that he ignored. He had a German woman doing his laundry. Sapp had a private room with a large German map. He had no hatred. The Nazis were who drove him crazy and he still does not understand how they did what they did. He visited Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. Mengele [Annotator's Note: SS-Hauptsturmführer, or Captain, Dr. Josef Mengele] delighted in doing autopsies on live girls. He was fascinated with twins. Sapp was not happy about possibly going to the Pacific to fight the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. They wanted to send him to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school], but he said "hell no". If he had gone through OCS, he would have been a platoon leader in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 1950 to 1953]. Sapp welcomed the Russian capture of Berlin. He was impressed by their battle for the city. They were fearless. Sapp was nominated to be President of the NCO [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officer] Club in Berlin. Some Russians would come in. Sapp got along with them, but they liked their vodka. He welcomed them. What Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and his armies did to the Russian people was awful. The Russians got even. Having trained with the 78th Infantry Division made Sapp more comfortable going to war.

Walter Sapp returned to the United States in April 1946. He tried to go to school. He selected four or five colleges he wanted to go to. He could not qualify. He loved physics and did well. He also loved journalism. He was not in the upper ten percent of his class. He went to Otterbein [Annotator's Note: Otterbein University] in Westerville, Ohio. His older sister had graduated there and that is why they took him. [Annotator's Note: Sapp talks at length about his sister's husband.] Sapp used the G.I. Bill. He left [Annotator's Note: the Army] as a First Sergeant and had no difficulties transitioning. He did not have psychological problems, but he will never forget it. He enlisted and wanted the Army. He could not imagine being the bowels of a ship and being attacked by a Japanese kamikaze or submarine. If they were shooting at him, he wanted to shoot back and that is what happened. The war made him appreciate every day. Every day is a bonus. His most satisfying moment of the war was standing on Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] balcony. The second was liberating a concentration camp and seeing those people crying out of joy. It would tear you heart out. He finds it hard to believe how the German people could put up with it. He will never understand it; intelligent, well-educated, and when the war ended none of them claimed to be Nazis. Sapp is not obsessed with politics, but he thinks the danger is when we have a government that does not level with the citizens. He has trouble with that. He feels that the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is absolutely necessary, and he appreciates what they are doing. He would tell future kids to enjoy liberty and the Constitution of the United States. That says it all. He is flattered and proud and he has enjoyed every bit of it [Annotator's Note: this interview].