Walter Jacobs was born in Mississippi. His father worked a variety of jobs. Jacobs grew up on a farm that did not have electricity. He plowed and cut wood and did everything a country boy would do. Jacobs played football in high school when he was there. One year during the depression he did not go to school because they could not afford books or clothes. At the time, if a man got a job he might make 75 cents a day. On the farm they sometimes worked ten hours for 50 cents a day. Jacobs did not finish high school. He had failed one year because he was not interested in it but when he got old enough to play football he studied enough so he could play. After the war, Jacobs attended a veteran's class with 11 others veterans and was able to finish high school. After that he went to work for a paper mill in Tuscaloosa and worked there for 24 years in the instrument shop. Jacobs went in the Army on 1 December 1943 and went on active duty on 8 December. He went to Fort McPherson, Georgia for assignment then into the infantry at Fort Jackson, South Carolina [Annotator's Note: Jacobs took his basic training at Fort Jackson]. Jacobs was visiting his brother in Birmingham on Sunday [Annotator's Note: Sunday, 7 December 1941] when he learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He had never heard of Pearl Harbor. Jacobs headed uptown to get a ride home and picked up a copy of the extra newspaper that had been printed that day. After finishing basic training at Fort Jackson the division went to Louisiana for maneuvers. During the move from Fort Jackson to Louisiana their records were lost and they all had to take their shots again. After the maneuvers they were sent to Hiler, Arizona [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. They stayed at Hiler through the summer. During his stay he was able to go to Phoenix for a few days. The rattle snakes were bad out there. One day they killed 13 of them. Fortunately, none of them were bitten that Jacobs knows of. One morning, Jacobs was lying on a shelter half with his friend when his friend felt something crawling on his arm. It was a rattle snake. He stayed as still as he could until the snake got off of him. From Hiler they went to West Virginia for mountain training. After the first night Jacobs was sent to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania for demolitions school. When he got there he was told that the school had been cancelled. Jacobs did not have anything to do. He was able to get passes whenever he wanted. They made a practice landing on the east coast. They shipped out of Camp Picket, Virginia and went ashore at the Camp Bradford naval base. The weather was freezing. There was snow on the ground and icicles forming on their helmets. Before that they had been practicing on cargo nets. From Virginia they went by train to San Diego then shipped out from there to Hawaii for two months of jungle training. They also did a lot of swimming which they enjoyed.

From Hawaii, Walter Jacobs and his division went to Guam. One of their regiments, the 307th [Annotator's Note: 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division], went in with a Marine division. The other two regiments landed the next day. The reef was so high that the landing crafty could not get in all the way to the beach and the soldiers were forced to wade shore. There was very little resistance to the landing. The following day, they went up Mount Alifan which the Marines had taken. They had gone up to relieve the Marines because they were going to secure the Orote Peninsula. When Jacobs got up on Mount Alifan there were dead Japanese soldiers everywhere who had been killed by artillery fire. It did something to Jacobs seeing a sight like that for the first time. They were given orders not to fire unless told to do so. Not long after dark people started shooting even though Jacobs does not think there was a Japanese soldier anywhere near them. Jacobs had been drafted into the Army. He had no idea what the Army would be like. They got two months of basic training. First, they learned the ten general orders. They also learned to do close order drill and how to use and maintain their weapons. They trained out in the field. They always double timed it everywhere they went. They practiced at the rifle range then fired for the record. When firing for the record, they had eight rounds in their rifle and another eight rounds in their cartridge belt. Jacobs fired eight rounds and hit the bull's eye with every shot. Then he rolled over and grabbed the second clip and loaded it into his rifle. When he fired these eight rounds however he fired them into the target to his left and not his own. The instructors did not let him fire again.

When they left Guam, Walter Jacobs suffered acute tonsillitis and had to go to the hospital. He was still there when his unit got orders to go to New Caledonia to rest and get replacements. About the time they got down below the equator they learned that they [Annotator's Note: American troops] were having trouble on Leyte. The Japanese had stopped them up in the mountains. They got orders to turn around and go there. They went ashore where the initial landings had taken place. After a few days, they were loaded back on ships and landed on the other side of the island at the Ormoc Valley. The Japanese were not able to get reinforcements or supplies. Jacobs landed on Leyte on 7 December 1944. During the campaign they were credited with killing 18,000 Japanese troops. His regiment [Annotator's Note: 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division] had to go through the rice paddies when they were heading north and the 307th [Annotator's Note: 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division] was on the road. The 307th had to repair bridges and kill the Japanese they encountered before they could get their wounded out. Some of the men had been wounded for three days before they could be gotten to a hospital. Things would have been better if they had helicopters. The wounded were carried on jeeps with stretchers mounted on them as well as in ambulances. One of Jacob's best friends was wounded by bullets that passed through his lung and legs. He did not survive. When the island was secured they were loaded on trucks and taken back to the beach where the initial landings had taken place. There, they worked in shifts unloading ships. One of the guys found a box with whiskey in it. A guy named John Brown from Paris, Alabama started drinking and was so drunk by the time had come for them to leave that he had to be put over the side in a cargo net. He could not walk down the gang plank. Jacobs was in Company F, 306th Infantry Regiment. At this time he was a BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] man. One day, Jacobs was told to report to the First Sergeant. The First Sergeant told him that he was now a squad leader. From then on he was a squad leader. They left Leyte and took the Kerama Islands, which were southwest of Okinawa. The water around the islands was deep so ships could be repaired and unloaded there. The islands did not have many Japanese on them. Jacobs went ashore on one and there were no enemy troops on it. Tokashiki was the largest of the islands and several men in Jacobs' company were wounded taking it. They were in reserve for the Okinawa invasion. The landings were not bad. Since they were not needed, Jacobs' unit took Ie Shima, which was to the northwest of Okinawa. That was where Ernie Pyle was killed. Some units were hit much harder than Jacobs' unit was.

[Annotator's Note: Walter Jacobs served in the Army as a squad leader in Company F, 2nd Battalion, 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division.] When the island [Annotator's Note: Ie Shima] was secured they went over to Okinawa where they relieved the 96th Infantry Division. The first night they were subjected to an intense artillery barrage for three hours. It was the first time they had been under fire like that. They stayed in the same place for two or three days because they had to wait for the Marines on their right to advance. The Japanese tried to break through their lines but did not hit their company. The next morning, Jacobs was sent to clean out a group of Japanese on a hill. They went up the hill and killed two of them. When they went over the top of the hill they saw the rest of the Japanese. They started shooting and the Japanese started running. Later, they counted 38 Japanese dead. Some of them had committed suicide by blowing themselves up with hand grenades. Jacobs saw that one of the dead Japanese soldiers had a pistol. Jacobs was going for the pistol when he saw more Japanese in a cave. He threw two grenades into the cave and forgot all about the pistol. On 13 May [Annotator's Note: 13 May 1945] they tried to take Chocolate Drop [Annotator's Note: Chocolate Drop was the nickname given by the men of the 77th Infantry Division to Hill 130which was part of the Shuri Line defenses]. They tried a frontal assault but the Japanese mowed them down like they were cutting hay. Jacobs was wounded during the attack. He was hit in the heel of his left foot by a Japanese bullet while laying in a shell crater. Later, he and five other soldiers were in a foxhole when a shell from a Japanese knee mortar hit it. Jacobs was hit by several pieces of shrapnel. By that night there were only 13 men left in his company. Three days later there were only 69 men left in the battalion. Jacobs was sent to a hospital on Tinian then after healing up he was sent to Saipan. From Saipan he headed back to the Philippines where he was to be part of the reserve force for the invasion of Japan. Fortunately, the war ended while he was still en route. When the surrender was announced all of the men aboard the LSM [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Medium] were given two beers. Jacobs was sent to Hokkaido where he spent about six weeks. Since he had enough points to go home he was sent down to the coast where he boarded a ship bound for Honshu. There, he took the train to Yokohama where he waited 13 days aboard ship which took him to Pearl Harbor.

[Annotator's Note: Walter Jacobs served in the Army as a squad leader in Company F, 2nd Battalion, 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division.] In Pearl Harbor he boarded the battleship Maryland [Annotator's Note: USS Maryland (BB-46)] which took him to Seattle where he spent another 13 days. From Seattle, they went by train to Camp Shelby [Annotators Note: Camp Shelby, Mississippi]. Jacobs sent his family a telegram on 3 January 1946 telling them that he would be home. He did not think to tell them that he would be in a car and his brother went downtown to wait for him. His brother had gotten home before he had. Jacobs knocked on the front door and his older sister answered. His family was all glad to see him. When Jacobs left to go to war he did not think that he would return. Jacobs took part in the Louisiana Maneuvers after basic training. They conducted river crossings on the Sabine River. One of the roads was very slick and a lot of the men kept falling down. During the maneuvers was the first time Jacobs and many of the men ever saw an armadillo.

Walter Jacobs took part in the fighting on Guam, Leyte, Kerama Retto, Ie Shima, and Okinawa. Of those, Okinawa was the worst for him. They had never been under heavy artillery before Okinawa. Additionally, the Japanese had knee mortars [Annotator's Note: Type 89 grenade launcher] that were very accurate. During every one of their voyages Jacobs got very seasick. On Leyte they had a tough time marching through the rice field. In places the mud was knee deep and they were carrying food and supplies for three days. On Guam, they set up a CP [Annotator's Note: command post] on Mount Alifan from where they would go out on patrols. One of the sergeants was told to take two men down to the bottom of the hill and burn a little shack there in order to keep Japanese snipers from using it. The sergeant and two men got down to the shack and burned it down. They also got into a few skirmishes in which they killed several Japanese soldiers. When they were heading back up the hill they broke one of the cardinal rules of patrolling. They went back the same way they came. The jungle on the hill was very thick and full of Japanese troops. The Japanese ambushed the three men and a fierce fight ensued. The sergeant fired every round of ammunition he was carrying. One of the men managed to get away and was able to signal for help. Jacobs and the rest of his platoon made their way to the wounded man who told them that the other two men were dead and pointed them to the ambush site. Jacobs was carrying a BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle]. He and another soldier were put out on the right flank. The soldier on the right with Jacobs opened fire at what he thought were Japanese soldiers. When he did, the Japanese in the area all began firing back at them then left the area. Jacobs' platoon was able to get to the dead men. The two soldiers had been stabbed to death with bayonets. Their bodies were mutilated. The sergeant had been wearing a watch and one of the Japanese soldiers cut his hand off to get his watch. That was a sight that still sticks with Jacobs. On Ie Shima the Japanese had planted bombs in the ground with plates on them that would go off if something passed over it. While advancing, Jacobs came across a wounded Japanese soldier. Since the enemy soldier did not have anything with which he could harm Jacobs, he did not kill the man. Instead, he called for a medic.

Walter Jacobs thought the BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] was a good weapon but required a lot of practice. One night on Leyte, Jacobs and two others were in a position where a machine gun had been set up. Jacobs and one of the other guys were sleeping. The third guy was on watch. The man on watch heard some Japanese soldiers approaching and opened fire. One of the Japanese soldiers was hit in the lungs and fell very close the Jacobs' foxhole. The wounded man was struggling to breathe and making a lot of noise so Jacobs fired a full clip from his BAR at him. Things were quiet after that. If that third man had been asleep all three of them would have been killed. When Jacobs became a sergeant he had three men who would not stay awake during the night. He decided to put all three of them in the same hole. The landings on Guam and Leyte were conducted during the wet season. It rained constantly. Sometimes it would stop raining at night. They would bail their foxholes out with their helmets. Mosquitoes were another problem. Jacobs had contracted malaria as a kid and did not want to take his atabrine. He ended up in the hospital as a result. One day, Jacobs' unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division] approached a road and suddenly came under fire. Jacobs could tell by the sound of the fire that it was friendly fire. After a short time they were able to get the situation sorted out. Strange things happened in combat. The Japanese put some of the natives in work camps. Jacobs' unit liberated several of those camps. On one occasion, Jacobs came across two of the natives the Japanese had with them during the fighting. They had cut the men's heads off before Jacobs could get to them. The bodies were still warm when they got there.

Walter Jacobs thought that the Japanese were not normal people. They were fanatics. They were good at sneaking around at night. The Japanese were tough. If their equipment had been as good as that of the Americans, things in the Pacific would have been worse. Their anti-tank guns were very effective and they knocked out several tanks with them. Jacobs was wounded in the foot by a bullet. He told his scout, Duffy, that he was hit. His scout told him that he was going to make a run for it but Jacobs told him to wait because if they both got up at the same time they would make too big a target. Jacobs got up and ran to a large shell crater and jumped in. There were three other guys already in the hole when he jumped in. Moments after he jumped in, his scout Duffy jumped in with him. There was a lot of firing going on at the time. The rain had been so bad that the bottom of the hole was nothing but slop. A grenade from a Japanese knee mortar landed in the hole and went off right next to one of the guys. Jacobs got out of the hole and made a run for the foundation of an old building. Had the grenade been an artillery round they all would have been killed. While they were running, Duffy was shot in the leg and went down. A tank crew later picked him up. A tank which was out of ammunition and heading to the rear to reload stopped next to them. The tankers asked Jacobs if he wanted a ride and Jacobs accepted. He jumped up on the tank but sat on the side closest to the Japanese. A bullet hit the tank right next to his arm so he jumped over to the other side of the tank. The platoon commander, Lt. Bush, Sgt. Coffee, and J.B. Kirkendal [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] were all killed by the same artillery shell. That is what happens when an artillery round comes in close. Jacobs believes that the wound he sustained saved his life. Had it not been in the bottom of his foot he would have been returned to his company and gone back into combat. Jacobs was sent to Tinian for a while then went over to Saipan. He was there for quite some time. While he was there, his division was pulled back and sent to Cebu. They were going to be the reserve force for the invasion of Japan.

The war did not have much of an effect on Walter Jacobs. He has never had a problem talking about it like a lot of guys did. At some of the reunions he went to many of the guys could not stand to watch the war films they would show. Jacobs thinks that the war effected the replacements more than the older guys because they did not have as much training. Jacobs had trained with his unit for two years before going into combat. The first combat experience Jacobs had was seeing dead Japanese on Mount Alifan that had been blown apart by artillery. When soldiers go into combat for the first time they think that everyone is shooting at them. If a person survives combat for three days they learn the way ordnance sounds and can tell how close rounds are to them. Jacobs went to Camp Stewart, Georgia for the reactivation of his old regiment [Annotator's Note: the 306th Infantry Regiment]. He represented the 2nd Battalion and was able to take part in the ceremony. There were visiting generals there along with other World War 2 veterans. Jacobs believes that it is important for there to be institutions like The National WWII Museum. During World War 1, the 308th Regiment advanced further than the units on side of them and they were surrounded by the Germans. The only communications they had were homing pigeons. The message that was sent was misinterpreted and many of the men were killed when friendly artillery was fired into their position. At the time the divisions had four regiments. During World War 2 divisions only had three regiments.