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Grave marker of Wallace R. Bailey, Hq 3rd, 508th
veteran, in the Highland Memorial Park Cemetery, Staffordsville (Johnson
county), Kentucky. Wallace enlisted in the Army
at Ft Thomas, Newport, KY on 14 August 1943 and was assigned to Hq 3rd,
508th PIR on 2 March 1944.
.Pvt Bailey was wounded in action in Normandy, France
on 3 July 1944 and was able to return to duty on 18 September 1944 with
Service Company. After further recuperation Pvt Bailey was
returned to Hq 3rd.
At some juncture Pvt Bailey was next transferred to
the 551st PIB. According to his grave marker he was wounded on 3
January 1945.
The following is based on a history of the 551st PIB:
On 26 December, the 643 officers and men of the 551st
reported to the 508th PIR of the 82nd Airborne Division near Basse
Bordeax. Major General James M. Gavin, commanding officer of the 82nd
Airborne Division, visited their bivouac at Rahier on 27 December. He
told the Battalion that it had been chosen to make the initial "raid in
force" against the Germans. He told them they would be the unit who was
going to turn the battle around. He stressed that they might take very
heavy casualties but that a great deal depended on the outcome. Their
task was to pass through the U.S. Army's forward lines, cross about 4
miles (6.4 km) into German-held territory, and to attack and reduce the
German-held village of Noirefontaine. They were then to return to base
with prisoners for interrogation.
From 3–8 January 1945, the 551st assaulted the small hamlets of Mont de
Fosse, St. Jacques, and Dairomont. According to the unit's
Presidential Unit Citation, "On 4 January, the battalion conducted a
rare fixed bayonet attack of machine gun nests that killed 64 Germans."
Fighting through the thick woods cost the 551st heavy casualties. On the
morning of 7 January, down to only 250 men, they were next charged with
taking the village of Rochelinval, Belgium, along the Salm River. Pfc
Bailey was apparently wounded on the first day of that assault series,
one of the heavy casualties predicated by Gen Gavin. The
appearance of the handicap symbol on his grave marker may signify that
he was severely wounded that day. In fact, the 551st' casualty rate
was so high that on 27 January 1945, in Juslenville, Belgium, General
Gavin informed the remaining men that the battalion was being
inactivated and all remaining soldiers would be absorbed into the 82nd
Airborne Division.
Many of those men were assigned to the 508th. At least 66 men
were transferred to the 508th Service Company on 31 January 1945.
Another 40 or so were absorbed by various 508th companies during the
first half of April 1945.
[Note: we were unable to determine the meaning of "WASSIE" as shown
on his grave marker.] |
