PROCEEDINGS


         IN THE CASE OF:
        

         BOARD DATE: 16 September 2003
         DOCKET NUMBER: AR2003083996


         I certify that hereinafter is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in the case of the above-named individual.

Mr. Carl W. S. Chun		Director
Mr. Robert J. McGowan		Analyst

The following members, a quorum, were present:

Mr. Fred N. Eichorn		Chairperson
Mr. Melvin H. Meyer		Member
Ms. Karen A. Heinz		Member

         The applicant and counsel if any, did not appear before the Board.

         The Board considered the following evidence:

         Exhibit A - Application for correction of military
records
         Exhibit B - Military Personnel Records (including
         advisory opinion, if any)

FINDINGS :

1. The applicant has exhausted or the Board has waived the requirement for exhaustion of all administrative remedies afforded by existing law or regulations.

---

2. The applicant requests that his WD AGO Form 53-55 (Enlisted Record and Report of Separation - Honorable Discharge) be corrected to show that he earned 5 battle stars [now known as bronze service stars], not the 2 listed. In effect, he is also requesting that the campaigns listed in Block 32 of his WD AGO Form 53-55 be corrected.

3. The applicant states he fought in Normandy on D-Day, in France, Belgium, and Germany.

4. The applicant's military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973. Information herein was obtained from alternate sources.

5. The applicant was inducted into the Army of the United States on 7 May 1942 and assigned to the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, when the division was activated in August 1942.

6. The 4th Infantry Division was carefully trained for its World War II mission. Its troops participated in the Louisiana and Carolina Maneuvers during the fall of 1941, and the unit trained as a motorized division at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in early 1943. In September 1943, after reverting to a standard infantry organization, the division moved to Camp Gordon Johnson, Florida, where it underwent training at the Amphibious Training Center. Even after arriving in England in January 1944, the division spent another four months of training at Slapton Sands, near Devon, practicing amphibious techniques and rehearsing for D-Day.

7. The combat history of the 4th Infantry Division shows that it participated in five World War II campaigns: Normandy, 6 - 24 June 1944; Northern France,
25 July - 14 September 1944; Rhineland, 15 September 1944 - 21 March 1945; Ardennes-Alsace, 16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945; and Central Europe, 22 March - 11 May 1945.

         a. The 4th Infantry Division was part of the vast army that invaded Fortress Europe on 6 June 1944, coming ashore at Utah Beach. While the 8th Infantry Regiment was diverted to assist elements of the 82d Airborne Division, which had been isolated around Ste. Mere Eglise, the division's other infantry regiments, the 12th and 22nd, pushed north in an attempt to enlarge and secure the beachhead.

         b. On 26 June 1944, the 4th Division, now at full strength with the return of the 8th Infantry Regiment, joined in the drive on the vital port of Cherbourg. Facing substantial opposition as it turned north, divisional units eventually settled

---

into assault positions east of the city. After two days of fierce fighting, troops from the 4th broke through the city limits and occupied the town until relieved by the 101st Airborne Division two days later.

         c. The 4th spent the month of July pushing deeper into the French countryside as part of the VII Corps' drive south. When the First Army Commander ordered the corps to swing southeastward, the 4th Division was assigned the mission of taking the town of St. Pois. The battle for St. Pois dragged on for five days before the division overcame the stubborn enemy opposition. The surrender of St. Pois coincided with a major German counterattack westward toward Avranches in an effort to split the advancing Americans. The 30th Infantry Division, hardest hit in the VII Corps area, took a beating at Mortain, but the 4th, still near St. Pois, reinforced and stabilized the center of the American line. The enemy offensive, though initially overwhelming, eventually deteriorated.

         d. During the last week of August 1944, the 4th Division, newly attached to the V Corps, participated in the liberation of Paris. In conjunction with the French 2nd Armored Division, it crossed the Seine and moved into position south of the French capital. The two units began their assault on the 24 August 1944 and received the German commander's surrender the following day. With Paris secure and the French troops on site, the 4th did not delay in the city but pushed forward toward the northeast.

         e. When General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, announced plans for a drive to the Siegfried Line in September 1944, the 4th, still part of the V Corps, moved east to the Meuse River to join the assault troops. The 4th was originally paired with the 5th Armored Division in an attack on the town of Bievre, but fuel shortages, which increasingly plagued the Allies as the supply lines from the channel ports lengthened, slowed the armored columns. The 4th was forced to continue the advance on Bievre alone. The division continued its push eastward, advancing towards St. Vith, Belgium, and on 14 September 1944 reached the Siegfried Line at the Schnee Eifel ridge. Hoping to break through the German's so-called West Wall defenses, the V Corps Commander ordered the 4th to take the ridge and continue to advance to the east. The rough terrain along the Schnee Eifel ridge stalled the division. Its initial efforts resulted in a modest advance but at the price of heavy casualties. When the division attempted an assault with its regiments abreast, a handful of carefully dug-in German soldiers held them off. During the attack across Mons Creek, part of the 22nd Infantry's first battalion was cut off from the rest of the division and pinned down under murderous fire. The assault on the West Wall was finally canceled on the 17th, and the division went on the defensive, trying to hold the precarious foothold it had gained at such a high price.

         f. The First Army planned another offensive along the West Wall which called on the 4th Division to play a major role. In early November 1944, the 4th moved to the Huertgen Forest region where it participated in the VII Corps' effort to penetrate enemy defenses of that formidable natural barrier. The 4th Division Commander announced to his men the division's objective: a quick drive on the Roer River. The division would not meet this objective and, in the days that followed, would face some of their fiercest and costliest fighting of the war, enduring incessant action in dangerous terrain. Men from the division's 12th Infantry, for example, found themselves encircled when they were sent to relieve elements of the nearby 28th Infantry Division southwest of the Huertgen. Other elements of the 12th, struggling to break through to their trapped comrades, were also cut off. In an all-out effort, the remainder of the regiment pushed its way through and pulled out the isolated troops. Meanwhile, the rest of the division continued to hammer at the German defenses, but the hard fighting of November resulted in only modest advances well short of the Roer, and those at great cost in men and material. On 1 December 1944, the VII Corps Commander halted the offensive and sent in the 83d Infantry Division to relieve the weary men of the 4th Division, their numbers greatly depleted by the deadly fight in the Huertgen Forest.

         g. The division was moved to Luxembourg where, taking advantage of a quiet zone, it stood down to receive replacements for its killed and wounded and to send many of its combat veterans on leave. Ironically the division's rest area was situated in the path of the German offensive through the Ardennes, an assault that marked the beginning of the last great German offensive of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. The 12th Infantry bore the brunt of the German thrust in the 4th Division sector. Divisional elements stopped the enemy advance on Osweiller and Dickweiller and, despite heavy German fire, contained the attack. When its sector stabilized, 4th Division sent patrols towards Echternach in an advance toward the Sauer River.

8. Available records show that the applicant was with the 4th Infantry Division throughout the above combat until he was hospitalized with trench foot on 13 December 1944. He never returned to his unit and was eventually evacuated to the United States and separated with a disability on 6 August 1945.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. From the records available and from a reading of the history of the 4th Infantry Division, it is clear that the applicant should be credited with participation in the following campaigns; Normandy, 6 - 24 June 1944; Northern France, 25 July - 14 September 1944; and Rhineland, 15 September 1944 - 21 March 1945.

---

2. Because he was hospitalized on 13 December 1944 and never returned to his unit, he could not have participated in the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign (16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945) or the Central Europe Campaign (22 March 1945 - 11 May 1945).

3. In view of the foregoing, the applicant’s records should be corrected, but only as recommended below.

RECOMMENDATION:

1. That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by issuing to the individual concerned a DD Form 215 (Correction to WD AGO Form 53-55) showing that he participated in the Normandy Campaign and that he is entitled to three bronze service stars.

2. That so much of the application as is in excess of the foregoing be denied.

BOARD VOTE:

__fne___ __mhm___ __kah___ GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________ ________ ________ DENY APPLICATION



                           Fred N. Eichorn
                  ______________________
                  CHAIRPERSON

---

INDEX

CASE ID	AR2003083996
SUFFIX
RECON
DATE BOARDED	20030916
TYPE OF DISCHARGE
DATE OF DISCHARGE
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY
DISCHARGE REASON
BOARD DECISION	GRANT PLUS
REVIEW AUTHORITY
ISSUES 1.	107.0000
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.