William H. Biagioni was born in Danbury, Connecticut but grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During World War 2, he wanted to be a pilot. His brother was selected to go to the Army Air Corps. When their mother found out that his brother enlisted it upset her so Biagioni told his mother he would wait to be drafted. In late 1942, he was drafted and was shipped out to North Camp Polk [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk in Vernon Parish, Louisiana] with the 8th Armored Division. There he completed basic training with the 49th Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: 49th Armored Infantry Regiment, 8th Armored Division]. He was assigned to a trucking company. He soon realized he did not like being in the trucking company and decided to sign up to be a paratrooper. He drove to Shreveport [Annotator's Note: Shreveport, Louisiana] and stayed overnight at a USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization, Inc.] camp to take the train the next day to Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. During the night, someone has pick-pocketed him and stole all his money. When he reached Fort Benning, he was put in an area they called the "Frying Pan" because it looked like a big chicken coup. He stayed there until they were ready to train him in jump school with the 541st Parachute Infantry Regiment. After he passed jump school, he went to communication school for eight weeks at Fort Benning. He was then sent to Camp Mackall, North Carolina [Annotator's Note: in Hoke, Richmond, and Scotland Counties, North Carolina]. From Camp Mackall, he was sent to Camp Shanks, New York [Annotator's Note: in Orangetown, New York] to board a ship and go overseas. Biagioni was assigned to the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Northern Ireland as a replacement. He was then shipped to Nottingham, England where his regiment continued to train doing day and night jumps. Some of the guys landed wrong and broke their legs. On 6 December, Biagioni made his jump into Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. As they came over Normandy, he saw ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] fire and the pilot gave them the "go" to jump. He landed in a field, got out of his parachute quickly, and gave cover to a friend nearby. They realized that the pilot did not drop them in their targeted area and found a ditch to rest in. During the night, more and more guys showed up. During the early morning, Biagioni heard the Naval ships firing their cannons. They joined another regiment and began to travel through the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation]. They soon came under fire from the Germans, but not for long. The colonel he was with brought everyone to a place called "Hill Dirty" where they had fixed bayonets for the first night. Biagioni did not have a radio, so he could not communicate with his unit. The next day, he took part in the battle on Hill 30 [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bloody Gulch, also called Hill 30, on 13 June 1944 near Carentan, Normandy, France]. After this battle, he was able to secure a radio. The radio was in a backpack and weighed about 30 pounds. He was selected by the platoon leader to be part of a combat patrol. Biagioni was a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] and not too happy about going on combat patrols. The whole experience was scary. They would go out at night and attack a roadblock or go into villages. During some of the combat patrols, he had a hard time keeping up with the goal of the mission. There were times where he did not understand why they were doing certain tasks and felt too many people were getting wounded on the patrols. Biagioni respected his lieutenant, who was Lieutenant Colonel Irving Shanley [Annotator's Note: later US Army Lieutenant Colonel Irving Thomas Shanley], especially as the war progressed.

William H. Biagioni [Annotator's Note: assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] participated in the night patrol and attack on Hill 30 [Annotator's Note: Battle of Bloody Gulch, also called Hill 30, 13 June 1944, near Carentan, Normandy, France] soon after they landed [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They had to protect the roadblock that headed up Hill 30. They used a machine gun to fire through the roadblock. Biagioni used an M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] to continually fire at a building. The Germans initially put up some flares. He would have to wait for the flares to burnout before continuing with the platoon's mission. Biagioni did not have much interaction with the lead commanders, Millsaps [Annotator's Note: US Army First Lieutenant Woodrow W. Millsaps] and Polette [Annotator's Note: US Army Second Lieutenant Lloyd L. Polette, Jr.]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer talks to Biagioni of a controversial historian's perspective from 0:19:40.000 to 0:20:10.000.] There was some hesitancy between the lead commanders. During the attack, he was stopped, while the leaders decided to what to do next. Later, when they made it back to the CP [Annotator's Notes: command post], the leaders had a debriefing, which Biagioni did not take part in. Biagioni was part of the communication team. The mission was to drive the German forces back and then help another regiment led by Colonel Lindquist [Annotator's Note: later US Army Major General Roy Ernest Lindquist], to join them on Hill 30. However, his team his helped with the counterattack on the Germans and then began to move up to the hill. Biagioni was the radio operator for Lieutenant Colonel Shanley [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Irving Thomas Shanley]. Shanley was a great leader. He got along with his other commander, Chet [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Chester Earl Graham], as well, but there was some pros and cons to how he managed the team. Once the battalion reorganized after the mission on Hill 30, their next mission was to get to Baupte [Annotator's Note: Baupte, France] near the Douve river to capture a nearby town, Beuzeville-la-Bastille [Annotator's Note: Beuzeville-la-Bastille, France]. His regiment gave the town a heavy shelling, then crossed the river. As they continued toward the town, they were met by German tanks. They were able to defeat the tanks, took the town and headed to Baupte. They met some more German resistance but were able to overcome it. When his battalion reached Baupte, they knocked out ten more German tanks. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer discusses with Biagioni the account that was written about this mission and who received credit for it at 0:31:00.000.] Biagioni witnessed the attack on the tanks and saw the young German soldiers dead on the ground. His next mission was to capture Hill 131, which began on 3 July 1944. There was a lot of artillery fire. When his company received orders to go, Biagioni there was heavy resistance and sniper fire. Colonel Shanley was wounded during this attack and was eventually evacuated out. After his battalion captured Hill 131, Colonel Alexander [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], who took control after Colonel Shanley was injured, was killed while he and his group were charging Hill 95. Commander Chet Graham became the battalion commander and Biagioni and his unit took Hill 95. They then proceeded to maneuver through hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] and open fields. While they were in the open field, a few of the troops were killed. Some people blame Graham for their deaths. They continued meeting heavy resistance until they reached their mission location. They got a new battalion commander, Royal Taylor [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Royal R. Taylor]. Soon after they were pulled out of Normandy.

William H. Biagioni jumped into Holland on 17 September 1944 [Annotator's Note: Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 17 to 25 September 1944]. Biagioni's youngest brother was born that day. [Annotator's Note: The interview is interrupted by a person off screen entering the interview room at 0:36:39.000; there is a break in the video.] During the flight to Holland, his plane was hit while he was standing waiting for the green light to jump. Seconds after the plane was hit, he was given the go ahead to jump. He does not know what happened to the plane after the incident. As he was parachuting down into an open field, he saw several foxholes. As soon as he and his unit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment] landed, they prepared to fire away, but they soon realized there was no one in the foxholes. A medic captain took over the unit. The captain had a map and a compass and ordered the unit to advance on a road in a certain direction. Biagioni and another went ahead and scouted the area for any resistance. When they reached a railroad track they saw a unit of Germans. They held back for a while until they thought it was clear to advance again. They joined up with the rest of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Nijmegen [Annotator's Note: Nijmegen, Netherlands]. The civilians were cheering as they walked through the city. They dug in at the outskirts of the city near a hospital for disabled children. The nuns running the hospital gave the troops soup, in return, Biagioni gave a nun his parachute wings. They returned to their drop zone when the unit left and took up defensive positions. At this time, Major Holmes [Annotator's Note: later US Army Colonel Otho E. Holmes] was his battalion commander. They received a bad artillery attack one night [Annotator's Note: The interviewer speaks with Biagioni of the status of the various companies at 0:41:14.000]. One of the companies had broken through so Biagioni, Holmes, and a runner named Hess [Annotator's Note: Army Private First Class John T. Hess] jumped into foxholes. Hess was killed trying to get a souvenir after the attack. The whole night was very scary. He went on a couple of patrols while in the Netherlands, but it was very difficult and could not get far out before seeing Germans. Eventually, Biagioni's regiment was pulled and replaced by the 504th Regiment [Annotator's Note: 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. His unit was given new orders to help the British prevent the destruction of the Waal River Bridge [Annotator's Note: Waal River, Netherlands]. He and some guys found shelter in a barn, but soon heard concerning noises and decided to vacate. Not long after, the barn was hit with artillery. Another time, he was out on a patrol to find the location of the Germans. It was scary because he was ordered to draw enemy fire. The Germans fighting in the Netherlands were like the ones he faced in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France], except that they were younger.

William H. Biagioni was pulled from Holland and placed in some barracks in France. Not long after they had settled in, his unit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] was alerted about the progress in the Hurtgen Forest [Annotator's Note: Battle of Hürtgen Forest, 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945; Hürtgen, Staatsforst, Germany]. His unit was given orders to gather their equipment and were loaded into trucks and sent to a marshalling area. They waited for their next assignment. While there, it began to snow. They were assigned to an outpost and held the area as an escape route for the 106th [Annotator's Note: 106th Infantry Division]. The Germans were slowly advancing on the road in the distance. Soon the Germans began shelling in their direction, so they retreated. The next day, the Germans attacked his unit. They counterattacked and slaughtered the Germans. Biagioni spent Christmas 1944 at that location. Soon after, they recaptured the eight miles they lost. The weather was cold, and he had to walk through snow. He ate the snow to stay hydrated. He was in the Hürtgen Forest at some point. He witnessed a tree burst which killed a few troops and gave him a concussion. Shortly after capturing a town, Biagioni collapsed from combat exhaustion. He was taken to a hospital for about a week to rest and receive medication. When he was released and ready to return to his unit, they had advanced so far into Germany that he was pulled out of combat again. After the Germans surrendered, he did occupation duty in Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany]. His unit finally settled in nice barracks and a new mess hall was available to them. He was eventually sent home after being transferred to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. Biagioni had very little interaction with General Gavin [Annotator's Note: US Amry Lieutenant General James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin]. He saw him during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He also did not have contact with other superior officers. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer ask Biagioni what it was like to be in the Battle of Bloody Gulch, also called Hill 30, 13 June 1944, near Carentan, Normandy, France.] It was nerve racking, but he knew he had a job to do. His superior officers pushed their men to advance through combat and thought they were great leaders.