Vincent J. Bickel was born in 1920 to Mr. and Mrs. William Bickel who lived at 455 Saint Mary’s Street in Phoenixville , Pennsylvania.

Vincent graduated from St. Ann’s Parish School, located at 3^rd Road, near the parish at 3^rd and Buttonwood Streets. (Today the school is the Holy Family Elementary School).  He later attended the Phoenixville High School, then on Nutt Street, where the town’s hospital is today.

Vincent worked at Hubbell’s Bakery, rising to the level of a foreman.  Hubbell’s was located on Nutt Road, about where the Giant Supermarket is in 2008.  They made prepackaged crackers and cookies.

Vincent joined the Army in September 1943, and after basic training was assigned to the 338^th Infantry Regiment, 85^th Infantry Division.  This is the same division that Heroes Leroy Barnes from Downingtown, William Carey (West Chester), Walter Ford (Coatesville) and James Marinelli (Downingtown) served.

The 85^th was the second all draftee division to enter combat during World War II. The Division was activated at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in the spring of 1942.  The Division received advanced training in the swamps of Louisiana, and Desert Training in California.

 

Vincent’s division arrived overseas at Casablanca, French Morocco, in North Africa January 2, 1944.  They received amphibious training in Algeria from February to March. They arrived in Naples on March 28^th.  The division was sent north of the Garigliano River to defend against the GUSTAV Line. The GUSTAV Line was a German heavily fortified defensive line south of Rome, which virtually ground the Allied forces to a halt.

 

 

On May 11^th the Division launched its attack on the GUSTAV Line.

Technician 5^th Class Vincent J. Bickel was Killed In Action On May 13, 1944, in Italy.

He is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.