William Jucksch was born in October 1925 in McAllen, Texas. His parents separated when he was just a toddler, and his mother took him with her to live in Neosho, Missouri. Once his mother remarried, he lived with his stepfather, who was a stockbroker, and his mother, wherever they resided, depending on employment during those volatile financial times. He eventually had to return to his grandmother's small farm in Neosho, and went through high school there. He lettered in sports, and turned 18 during his senior year. He was drafted and called immediately, so right after Christmas 1943 he headed for Jefferson Barracks, Missouri for induction and testing. Jucksch showed aptitude in Morse code which he had learned in the Boy Scouts, and he became a radioman. He completed basic training at Camp Roberts, California, and went on to advanced artillery and radio school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. By then, the German offensive had escalated, and he was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for assignment to the 71st Infantry Division as a radioman, and subsequent deployment to Europe.

The radio William Jucksch carried weighed 60 pounds. He also carried a ten pound extra battery, spare parts, and his personal equipment. He was healthy then, and his athletic training in high school had prepared him for the physical demands of the job. His radio was powerful enough to operate between headquarters and the forward observers liaison section, which Jucksch said accounted for his many adventures. At Fort Benning, Georgia, Jucksch said people were coming from all over the United States to fully man the 71st Infantry Division. He recalled that for a while the 571st Black Tank Battalion was attached to his division for w while. While there, the division went on maneuvers to learn to work as a cohesive unit, but the exercise was cut short and Jucksch was sent overseas in January [Annotator's Note: January 1945] from New Jersey. He sailed out on the Liberty Ship SS Cristobal, in a convoy zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across the Atlantic for about ten days. After a short stop in Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] harbor, Jucksch landed at Le Havre, France and proceeded to the cigarette camp Old Gold [Annotator's Note: temporary staging areas named after currently popular cigarette brands], where the troops were outfitted and readied for the front.

Close to Nancy, France, William Jucksch first engaged in combat. His division [Annotator's Note: Jucksch served in the Army as a radio operator in Headquarters Battery, 607th Field Artillery Battalion, 71st Infantry Division] had been rushed overland to support troops engaged in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], but arrived after the area was secured. Nevertheless, Jucksch believed the 71st Infantry Division played a significant role from then on. They went a long way under a General Willard Wyman, including breaching a section of the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications built by Germany in the 1930s]. The division liberated many areas along their way to the Rhine River, some easy and some tough. In this clip Jucksch, a Private First Class at the time, talked about his perspective of combat against the Germans in fields and towns. His mission was always to protect the advancing infantry. There are towns that stand out in his memory, some for silly reasons. In Kohlberg, where there was a huge operational candle factory, the care package he received from his mother contained a small box of candles that he had requested earlier in the war. Jucksch remembered mail call was an important event to a soldier. He declared that bad weather could be a soldier's worst enemy; it was important to keep dry and warm. One of his scariest memories involved crossing the Danube [Annotator's Note: Danube River], carrying his big radio, in a little rowboat. Word came at the end of a day's work that the 5th Infantry Regiment was moving out, and the river was a 25-mile forced march away. The advance was cold, dark and eerily silent; the destination uncertain. But the infantry had to establish a beachhead so the engineers could rebuild the bridge the Germans had destroyed in their retreat. The enemy was surprised but soon regrouped, and "all hell broke loose," before the regiment could make the way solid and safe for supplies and reinforcements to follow.

The forward observers were doing their "usual thing" looking for a high point when William Jucksch said they came upon a trail off of a blacktop road. His captain was following a topographic map when, hardly into the woods, the unit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Battery, 607th Field Artillery Battalion, 71st Infantry Division] came upon two guards at an unlocked gate with skeletal bodies, some of them crawling around, just inside. Jucksch called it "an unbelievable sight." The prisoners were emaciated and sickly; most couldn't stand up. [Annotator's Note: Jucksch chokes with emotion.] They began encircling and kissing the feet of the GIs [Annotator’s Note: slang term for an American soldier], and grabbing their hands. He said one man stood, looked into his eyes, and mumbled "some damn thing." Jucksch worked his way to the first building and opened the door; prisoners crawled over dead men to get out, yelling something that indicated they recognized him as an American. Jucksch described his brief view of the hastily constructed, crowded building, one of hundreds on the site that reeked of death and defecation. He didn't go any further, but returned to the gates, where the prisoners were beating one of the guards to a pulp. Jucksch said it was a terrible thing to see, and never knew what happened to the second guard. After about 45 minutes to an hour, during which time they gave the prisoners food, a mistake they learned, Jucksch radioed headquarters and the unit moved on, leaving the relief effort to more capable personnel. It has taken him years to be able to talk about the horrid discovery; another man in the forward observers unit, who has never shaken the images from his mind, has long been in psychiatric treatment at the Veterans Administration.

Also memorable to William Jucksch was meeting a Russian field outfit, similar to his own forward element, coming from the East. According to decisions made at the Potsdam Conference, the Americans were not supposed to take Austria; nevertheless, Jucksch said, there they were face-to-face with the worn out, "ragtag" Russians, and it was a wonder that they didn't shoot at each other. That night they had an "unbelievable" party. The Russians outfit had rifle-bearing women soldiers who had liberal ideas about sex [Annotator's Note: Jucksch smiles broadly]. There was music, and dancing, and vodka. Jucksch said he forgot what happened after he had a couple of drinks. He had a terrible headache the day after the party that, coincidentally, was V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. Jucksch was grateful that the war in Europe was over. The Americans started taking over small towns, and appropriating more comfortable quarters in Austrians houses. After a few weeks, the Americans were pulled out of Austria, and Jucksch's 607th Battalion [Annotator's Note: Jucksch was on a forward observer team in Headquarters Battery, 607th Field Artillery Battalion, 71st Infantry Division], moved to the little town of Rain am Lech in the Augsburg, Germany area. There was nothing to do but guard duty, which he said was important because the Germans couldn't be trusted. It was rumored that the Americans would begin training for jungle warfare, but Jucksch said he "never got a lick" of that training before the atomic bomb explosions forced the Japanese surrender. That, he said, was the real victory.

The first thing the Americans did was open the German breweries, according to William Jucksch. They established enlisted men's and officer's clubs, and got German music in. He said the Americans organized "tremendous trips" for the soldiers, and he went on a ten day holiday through Lugano, Switzerland and Pisa, Italy to Rome during Christmas time 1945. He traveled with a buddy who was Catholic, and they attended midnight mass celebrated by Pope Pius X at the Vatican. Back in camp, Jucksch played intramural football on Nazi parade grounds and on playing fields built for the Hitler Youth. After the football season ended, he was made a staff sergeant and sent to Nuremburg to help wire a building that would be used for the war crimes trials. He noted that the local inhabitants seemed appreciative of the American efforts to reinvigorate their country, but never met anyone who would confess to being a Nazi. According to the point system, Jucksch was not immediately eligible to go home and had to wait until May 1946 to take a Victory ship [Annotator's Note: a class of rapidly produced cargo ship], the Rensselaer Victory, from Namur, Belgium to Fort Dix, New Jersey and discharge. Afterward, he visited his mother in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and hitchhiked back to his elderly grandmother's farm in Missouri.