Memorial Day Presentation
May 30, 2016
by Jim Buffington
(Used with Permission)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today, and especially thanks
to the American Legion and the VFW for their sponsorship of these Memorial Day
Services. During World War II every
family who had a member serving in the military was sent a service flag along
with a blue star to hang in a window. If
a son was killed in action, the family was sent a gold star which they placed
over the top of the blue star to let anyone who passed know that they had lost
a son. Two years ago, here in front of
this Memorial, we brought to life the memories of those 17 Dundy County boys
who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Pacific Theatre. Today, let’s bring back to life the European
Theatre and the memories of the eleven Dundy County boys whose families
received the gold star from that Theatre.
Although World War II began for America on December 7, 1941 with the
bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was not until nearly a year later when American
soldiers began action in Europe. The
reason for the delay was that in December, 1941, America had only the 17th
largest army in the world, and it took a long time to mobilize and train the
millions of troops necessary for the war effort. Combat in the European Theatre began, not in
Europe, but in North Africa, because Hitler had over 300 divisions in
Europe. At that time an invasion of the
European mainland in 1942 would have been doomed to failure. Several Dundy County boys served in North
Africa as the invasion there began in November of 1942. Life for the front-line soldier in North
Africa was tough. These soldiers were
filthy dirty, they ate if and when, slept on hard ground without cover. They lived in a constant haze of dust,
oppressed by the desert heat during the day, the freezing cold nights, and the
constant pestering of desert flies.
The North African campaign lasted six months, and resulted in the
capture of 250,000 enemy troops.
Americans suffered 19,000 casualties in this campaign, including nearly
3,000 killed in action, but none of these were Dundy County boys.
From North Africa, the allies next invaded Sicily in June 1943, the
first time American troops confronted the enemy on European soil. Sicily is the rugged island off the toe of
Italy, and it is about five times the size of Dundy County.
Ernie Pyle, the war correspondent beloved by GIs, described the
campaigning in North Africa and Sicily in this way: “Outside of the occasional
peaks of bitter fighting and heavy casualties that highlighted military
operations, the outstanding trait of these campaigns is the terrible weariness
that gradually comes over everybody.
Soldiers become exhausted in mind and soul as well as physically. It’s the perpetual choking dust, the
muscle-racking hard ground, the snatched food sitting ill on the stomach, the
heat and the flies and dirty feet and the constant roar of engines and the
perpetual moving and the never settling down and the go, go, go, night and day,
and on through the night again.
Eventually it all works itself into one dull, dead pattern—yesterday is
tomorrow and Troina is Randazzo and when will we ever stop and, God, I’m so
tired.”
Sicily was a tough slog, and 2,300 Americans would be killed. Most of the veteran German troops were able
to escape from Sicily to Italy, where they fought ferociously all during the
Italian campaign, where the Allies would be fighting in Northern Italy, when the
war finally ended.
The allies landed on the shores of mainland Italy on September 3, 1943,
nine months before the D-Day invasion of France began. Ernie Pyle had this to say about the
mountainous Italian peninsula: “The war in Italy was tough. The land and the weather were both against
us. It rained and it rained. Vehicles bogged down in the mud and temporary
bridges washed out. The hills rose to
high ridges of almost solid rock. We
couldn’t go around them through the flat valleys, because the Germans were up
there looking down on us, and they would have let us have it. So we had to go up and over. A mere platoon of Germans, well dug in on a
high, rock-spined hill, could hold out for a long time.”
James Carlyle Carlon graduated from Benkelman High School in 1931. Lyle, as he was called by his friends, was
sent overseas a month before the Allies invaded Sicily. Lyle became a tank commander in charge of his
squadron in Italy. On October 23, 1943,
Lyle Carlon was killed in action.
Edgar H. Nordhausen served in the armored infantry. In January of 1944 his unit was sent to
Italy, just in time for one of the most terrible battles of the Italian
Campaign—Cassino. It was here at Cassino,
on February 11, that Edgar Nordhausen would make the ultimate sacrifice. The Battle of Cassino would last another
three months before the Allies could claim victory.
On June 6, 1944, the D-Day invasion of France began. At the conclusion of the ceremonies here, please
join us at the cemetery to revive the memories of our remaining nine Gold Star
servicemen of the European Theatre.
At the Cemetery
On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed and parachuted ten divisions on the
beaches and hedgerows of Normandy.
Opposing them were 59 German divisions scattered throughout France and
the Low Countries. Because the Germans
believed the real invasion would come farther north, the Allies were able to
overcome the 59-10 odds against them. And
day after day, fresh Allied divisions were landed at Normandy. It was a narrow thing, but the Allies were
able to secure the Normandy beachhead, but not without cost.
John Marlin McKie was born in Haigler, and married to Minnie Mae Hamil,
also of Haigler. We are grateful to him
for helping to secure the Normandy beachhead.
John McKie was killed in action on June 14, 1944, and was posthumously
awarded the bronze star for bravery in action.
John F. Hollinger grew up in Benkelman.
He was a member of a tank crew in the Third Armored Division, known as
the Third Herd. This division
spearheaded the US First Army through Normandy, and in August, 1944, captured
8,000 German prisoners after cutting them off at the Falaise Gap, and ending
the Normandy Campaign. On September 12,
the Third Herd breached the Siegfried Line on the German border, taking part in
the Battle of Hertgen Forest. It was
about September 15 that John Hollinger made the supreme sacrifice, the first
Dundy County boy to die on German soil.
It was in the same area where his father had served in World War I.
September proved to be a severe month for Dundy County boys. Elbert Leroy Mathis, son of Albert Mathis of
Benkelman, was killed in action in Germany on September 28, 1944.
Even though the Allies had crossed into Germany in September, they
penetrated only 22 miles inside the border during the next three months. One of the obstacles to deeper penetration was
the Roer River, where, in November, rainfall was triple the monthly
average. Rain grayed the soldiers,
melding them with the mud until they seemed no more than clay with eyes. It was here at the Roer River that Earl
Medlock, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Medlock of Haigler, was killed on December 3,
1944. Earl Medlock’s brother Leonard was
to be killed on Okinawa in May of 1945.
On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched a surprise attack with more than
400,000 soldiers against 228,000 thousand Americans in the Ardennes Forest in
what is now known as the Battle of the Bulge.
Americans rushed reinforcements to the Battle as best they could, but
conditions were terrible. It was the coldest
winter in Europe in the 20th century, and most GIs had no overcoats. It was the second bloodiest battle in
American history, with 89,000 casualties and 19,000 killed in action, and one
of those killed was Albert Haas, son of Mrs. August Gunther. Albert had spent most of his younger life in
Dundy County. He was killed on December
17.
The Battle of the Bulge raged for 39 awful days. Henry Eugene Krause grew up in Haigler, and
graduated from Haigler High School in 1941.
He trained as a machine gunner, and left for the European Theatre in
November, 1944. He was killed in action
on January 3, 1945.
As in all wars, many deaths in World War II occur away from the battle
field. William Kitchin Douthit grew up
north of Max, and graduated from Benkelman High School. He received his training in Texas, where he
qualified as an expert rifleman. In
February 1945, his family received word that he died at sea in the European
Theatre as a result of a heart attack.
Alonzo Harry Greene, son of William Greene and Marie Denny, lived
almost all his years in Dundy County. He
was married to Ida May McCoy of Max.
Alonzo volunteered for the airborne paratroops. He was one of the reinforcements rushed to
the defense of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Later, at the battle at Cleaveauz, he was
promoted to Staff Sergeant and awarded the Bronze Star for gallantry in
action. On March 24 he was reported
missing in action, and his body was later found near Wesel, Germany. After the war was over, all families of those
killed in action were given the choice of having their sons’ remains returned
home, or to be buried in an overseas military cemetery. Almost half the families chose to have their
loved ones buried overseas. Alonzo
Greene today rests in the American Military Cemetery in Holland.
James H. Wooters graduated from Parks High School in 1933. He enlisted in 1943 and was assigned to the
infantry. He entered the European
Theatre in December 1944, and was killed in action on April 7, 1945, one month
before Germany surrendered. When soldiers
were killed in action, they were often temporarily buried on the
battlefield. A wooden cross was erected
on the grave, and the soldiers’ dog tags were fixed to the cross. James Wooters was the last of the Dundy County
boys to have his dog tags hammered to a wooden cross. He is buried in Butzbach, Germany.
Today, if you thank a veteran for his service and suggest he is a hero,
he will almost always say, “I was no hero.
I was just doing my job. The real
heroes are those who never came back.”
Today, we pay our respects and our eternal gratitude to those soldiers,
sailors, and Marines whose names you see here.
Thank you, Gold Star Veterans, thank you so much.
