Bill Connelly was born in January 1925 in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. He had a half-brother and a half-sister on his mother's side. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], he moved around throughout his childhood as his father worked as an engineer for the WPA [Annotator's Note: the Works Progress Administration was a federally sponsored program that put unemployed Americans to work during the Great Depression]. After Connelly's mother passed when he was six, his father remarried to a real "wicked stepmother." She treated him unkindly and found ways to get him in trouble. His father and stepmother moved to Washington, D.C., leaving Connelly in the care of a friend which turned him over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children when his father did not return to pick him up. He spent two years on a farm when the organization finally located his father. Connelly moved to Washington D.C. when he was about 13 years old and lived with his father again. He was aware of the hostilities rising in Germany and Japan, but since he was a teen, he had no concern for worldly affairs. Connelly heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] while working as a mail clerk at a hospital in Philadelphia. He wondered where Pearl Harbor was located and wanted to enlist right away but was too young [Annotator's Note: music can be heard in the background 0:08:45.000]. Everyone was very patriotic. In February 1943, he enlisted. He had no logical reason for volunteering for the Army over the other service branches. He was inducted at Indiantown Gap [Annotator's Note: Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County and Dauphin County, Pennsylvania] where he scored high on an intelligence test. There was a baseball team at the base.

In February 1943, Bill Connelly was inducted into the Army at Indiantown Gap [Annotator's Note: Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County and Dauphin County, Pennsylvania] where he scored high on an intelligence test. As a result, he was assigned to an MP [Annotator's Note: Military Police] company stationed at Fairmont Park in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. Connelly's outfit was assigned to protect the city from a possible invasion of Philadelphia by Nazi Germany. Additionally, he was responsible for traffic control and escorting German and Italian POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] to various camps across the country. The Italian prisoners were very happy to be in the United States and had pleasant attitudes. The German prisoners were members of the Afrika Korps [Annotator's Note: Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps, German expeditionary force] and were convinced of Germany's supremacy despite their own captivity [Annotator's Note: phone rings in background 0:16:45.000]. The German prisoners he encountered later in the war were much less certain of victory. Connelly was transferred to Fort Custer, Michigan [Annotator's Note: now the Fort Custer Training Center in Augusta, Michigan] where he trained for the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He then boarded an English ship and slept in hammocks. The food was awful on the ship too. Connelly was assigned to the Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division when he reached England. Theoretically the platoon was to seek the enemy and find their location, but in reality, it was used for guarding the perimeter of the headquarters of the regiment. Troops in this platoon would also be assigned to night patrol. Connelly dreaded doing night patrols because they were so dangerous. While he was in England, he took leave in Oxford [Annotator's Note: Oxford, England]. He also visited London [Annotator's Note: London. England] but did not stay long because of the dangers of the buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug]. He commends the American Red Cross, even though they get a bad rap. The Red Cross helped him in many ways. While in England, he did not take any amphibious training to the lead up of D-Day. He did train on transferring to cargo nets.

Bill Connelly [Annotator's Note: with the Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] received a letter from Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] and that is how he found out he was heading to the Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Since the weather was so poor, the invasion was postponed by one day and he waited on a ship until the invasion commenced. Connelly was not worried or scared, but more worried about eating food. His regiment was part of the sixth or seventh wave onto the beach via a Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: LCVP; landing craft, vehicle, personnel]. Unlike the popular notion of troops "storming" the beaches at Normandy, they crawled up the beach at a very slow pace and were constantly pinned down. He doubted if he would ever get off the beach. The Navy destroyers helped the infantry by shooting rounds at the cliffs where the Germans were shooting from. He lived on K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] and C-rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] for much of his time in Normandy. He spent his first night in a foxhole on Omaha Beach and was scared the whole time. He was afraid to leave his foxhole to relieve himself. Connelly made it off the beaches of Normandy and into fighting and patrolling hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation]. He often gave orders to his men to fire in the hedgerows to see if any Germans were hiding. He captured a few Germans. He hated doing night patrols and was often selected to do them. He brought any prisoners to a large field surrounded by barbed wire. They were put on LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and sent to England. Most of the Germans spoke English and had relatives that lived in the United States. He was put on MP [Annotator's Note: Military Police] duty and interacted with many of the local farmers. As he moved through the Normandy region he often thought if he would get out alive and when he would be fed. They had a large standoff in Saint-Lô [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France].

After serving as MP [Annotator's Note: Military Police in the Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] until the breakout at Saint-Lô [Annotator's Note: Operation Cobra, 25 to 31 July 1944 in Saint-Lo (Saint-Lô), France], Bill Connelly was selected for service as an undercover operative with the Army's Counterintelligence Corps to help uncover black market train theft operations. He was assigned to a railroad operating battalion and managed to solve the case of missing PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] train cars while assigned to KP [Annotator's Note: Kitchen Patrol] duty. Once the case was solved, Connelly was pulled out of his position for his safety and reassigned to take prisoners [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] back to England [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:54:16.000]. The prisoners were in the hold of the ship that was barricaded with wire. Then he was assigned to guard duty. He used a Thompson sub machine gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] to guard the hold. He often fell asleep, and one time caught two German prisoners trying to escape. Connelly was sent back to the United States, was relieved to be back, and had no regrets. He was initially sent to Fort Meade [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland] but was soon stationed in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] and reassigned as an MP with the 98th infantry Division during the late stages of the war [Annotator's Note: noise in background disrupts interview at 1:00:08.000].

Bill Connelly was reassigned as an MP [Annotator's Note: military police] with the 98th infantry Division during the late stages of the war and stationed in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. His unit was trained to use flamethrowers and was slated to be the first division to take part in the invasion of mainland Japan. He and his unit made a combat-style landing at Osaka [Annotator's Note: Osaka, Japan] shortly after the Japanese surrender. It took them 24 hours to get off the beachhead even though there was no enemy fire. The Army was not aware of the swampy terrain. Connelly was surprised how pleasant the Japanese people treated the American troops. While in Osaka, Connelly captured Japanese air force officers responsible for authorizing the execution of B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] crew members who had been taken prisoner. He returned to the United States in February 1946 and decided to stay in the Army because of the lack of available civilian jobs. He attended Temple University [Annotator's Note: Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] and received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1950. He was part of the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] at Temple University. He was sent to Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] for some more training. He was not called to serve in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] but worked in the CIC [Annotator's Note: Army's Counterintelligence Corps]. During both the Korean and Vietnam wars [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975], Connelly completed background checks on service members and was responsible for picking up deserters. The men that deserted were mostly criminals. He has complex views on the Vietnam war and saw a degradation of the Army during that time. There was no cause for America to be involved and they should have never gone there. In 1970, Connelly recognized it was time to get out of the Army and retired with the rank of Colonel.

Bill Connelly believes that we [Annotator's Note: the United States] accomplished something with the result of World War 2. His most memorable experience of the war was returning to the United States after fighting in Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He fought because he felt it was his duty and he was very patriotic. The whole country was at war, and he thought it was the right thing to do. The Army changed his life completely. Before the war, his father had abandoned him, and he had no education. As the result of the war and joining the Army, he received an education and ended up retiring as a colonel – something he never thought would happen to him. He will always be grateful for the Army. Connelly is often thanked for his service. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because people have to know what happened.