Born in May 1922 in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, William Bache was destined like many of those his age to serve the United States during World War II.
Bache enlisted in October 1942 as an aviation cadet and set out to earn a college degree as a member of the Army Specialized Training Program. However, when cadet numbers were reduced from 145,000 to 35,000 in early 1944, he found himself in Europe on the front lines with the 103rd Infantry Division. “As the self-appointed spokesman for about 15 ground force-divisions,” Bache would write, “I can assure you that we were not happy campers.”
Thrown into the thick of it, Bache went from long nights on kitchen duty to dodging mortar blasts during combat patrols. As a private in his regiment’s intelligence and reconnaissance platoon, he experienced the war up close and personally, often beyond the front lines. “You think you know what to expect,” he explained, “but the reality hits you like a two-ton truck.”
On May 3, 1945, with the surrender of Germany only days away, Bache was shot by a sniper. Without a moment to realize he’d been shot, a hail of bullets from a machine gun nest on a nearby hill hit him three more times. He crawled to a bush with his wounded comrades and was taken prisoner. Knowing he would be left for dead, Bache managed to escape by crawling down the hill to the side of a road where a medic finally found him.
What happened in mere minutes occurred in slow motion for Bache. Despite being wounded, he remained clear-minded and calm. “I knew there was no earthly reason that I should still be alive and so I understood that there was no longer any reason to be afraid of anything,” Bache said in reference to his courage during the fight. He was later promoted to corporal and awarded a Purple Heart.
After spending 10 months in an Army hospital, Bache was discharged from the Army in 1946. When he returned home, he gave his medal to his grandmother and, given his “reprieve from death,” began a life he determined would not be wasted.
Following his passion for Shakespeare and poetry, Bache earned a Ph.D. in English literature from Pennsylvania State University in 1952 and began a lifelong teaching career. He published 33 books on Shakespeare along with his memoir from the war, titled On the Road to Innsbruck and Back.
Bache died in October 2004, aged 82. When speaking to his interviewer about his life experiences, he said, “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
We honor his service.
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