Oral History Project World War II Years, 1941-1946 - Bill Hall

William Hall was born on 10 February 1924 in St. Paul, Minnesota. One of four children, he attended local schools, graduating from Harding High School in 1942. Following high school Bill was drafted into the Army. After Basic Training Bill was assigned to a light machine gun crew in Co K, 115th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division; this unit landed at Normandy in June 1944. Bill was in action in France until his capture on 4 October 1944 in an engagement near the French-German border. As a POW, Bill spent several weeks at Stalag XII-A, Limburg, before being transported by train across Germany to Stalag III-C, near the eastern town of Kustrin. When in late January 1945 the Germans evacuated this camp due to the advancing Red Army, Bill and many other POWs briefly escaped before being re-captured several days later as the Germans temporarily took back Kustrin. Many former III-C POWs, Bill among them, were subsequently marched off to Stalag III-A, at Luckenwalde south of Berlin. This camp was liberated by Red Army units in late April 1945, but the POWs were forced to remain as negotiations for their return to Western Allied control dragged on after V-E Day. Bill ultimately reached American lines and was flown to a hospital facility in Bristol, England, and several weeks later taken by ship back to the United States. After some time at rehabilitation facilities stateside, in late 1945 Bill was discharged from the Army. Again a civilian, Bill got married (wife Catherine) and helped raise a family; he spent his career in banking in the Twin Cities area, retiring in the early 1990s. This interview was conducted in April 2004 at the Hall home in Oakdale, Minnesota