Soldiers

William Richardson served in B Company of the 1st Battalion of the 505. He was wounded by shrapnel from a Panzer Tank in Sicily. The concussion from the rounds was so severe, he didn't realize he had been injured until the next day. Richardson and several others hid in a drain under a highway until the Germans, who overran them, pulled back. Enemy tanks and soldiers passed right above them. He was evacuated to North Africa and received the Purple Heart in a hospital there.

While fighting in Holland during the German attempt to re-take the country, he and others of the 505 hid near the bank of a river the Germans were trying to cross. A panzer would move halfway into the water and spray the other side with machine gun fire, trying to draw fire and sniff our any potential ambush. Once they felt it was safe and got halfway across the river, Richardson and the other paratroopers would pop up and let them have it. This continued for an extended period of time as the Germans would retreat and move down stream looking for another place to cross. As the diesel-powered tanks were noisy, the members of the 505 would simply move along and set up another ambush and repeat the process.

Richardson said you could always tell where you were from the sound of the machine guns (they were behind enemy lines on many occasions). The American machine guns had a slower rate of fire than the German guns.

Before going off to war, he met Christine Botnen on a bus in Seattle, WA. They fell in love instantly. Upon his return from overseas, they met in Salt Lake City and married.