.jpg)
The Laurel Advocate of Dec. 27, 1944, published a long letter from Dale Iler describing his experiences in the army from June through October 1944.
At the time the letter was published he was fighting with the 30th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge.
Iler was born to Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Iler of Laurel in 1920. Following his graduation from Laurel High School in 1938, Iler went to California seeking work. Unable to find a job, he enlisted in the Army and served a three-year hitch. He was discharged in the summer of 1941 but reenlisted in November.
At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he was stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, MO. In June 1944, he was promoted to Sergeant and sent overseas. He landed on Omaha Beach with the 30th (Old Hickory) Infantry Division five days after D-Day. This is where his letter begins: “From the time we hit the Normandy beach and began fighting on June 15th, censorship has kept our Old Hickory Division engagements pretty well under wraps.
The 30th Infantry Division received its baptism of fire on June 15 and its progress to the German frontier was marked by battles that have been vital in the master strategy of World War II.
On July 7, the 30th drove the Germans back across the Vire River. Then in a spectacular dawn attack, the Old Hickorymen forced the crossing of the Vire and opened the drive on St. Lo. The breakthrough at St. Lo on July 25 was spearheaded by the Old Hickorymen. They then battered open a passage through the hedgerows allowing American armor to fan out over France.
These battles in the hedgerow sector were real slugging matches with every foot of our advance being stubbornly contested and complicated by rough and frequent counter attacks.”
(Although Iler did not mention it in his letter, several American bombers sent from England to bomb German defenses mistakenly unloaded several 500-lb. bombs on American lines causing more than 100 casualties.) Iler’s letter resumes: “Some of the heaviest fighting remained to be accomplished near Mortain when the 30th took over the area of the First Infantry Division on August 6. At that time one of the German Panzer Divisions struck the most powerful blitz of the campaign in an attempt to drive through to Avranche and separate the American First and Third Armies.
It was there that infantry riflemen with bazookas, tanks, artillery and tank destroyers — with the help of U.S. planes and British rocket-firing Typhoons — finally threw back the German tanks in a battle that see-sawed for three days before the Germans concluded that they were no match for one American division.
“In the same battle at Mortain-St. Barthélemy, one American battalion was isolated on a hill cut off without food, ammunition, and medical supplies for five and one-half days. Despite the fact that they were under constant enemy fire, they refused all demands to surrender.
The 30th Infantry was commended for the courage of the men who refused to let overwhelming odds discourage them in the battle against German tanks at St. Barthelemy, and for the loyalty and stamina of the members of the ‘lost battalion’ who defied surrender demands, their spokesman telling the German officer: ‘Go to hell! We wouldn’t surrender if our last round of ammunition was fired and our last bayonet broke off in a Jerry belly.’
A week later the Old Hickorymen forced the retreat of the Germans. The 30th then drove on to free Evreux and Louviers, then crossed the Seine at Mantes-Gasicourt to enlarge the bridgehead there and prepare for the breakthrough into Belgium.
An infantry speed march was made when, on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, the 30th dashed to Tournai, Belgium, covering 180 miles through enemy territory in 72 hours. The 30th was the first Allied division to enter Belgium.
The Old Hickorymen then drove on to become the first Allied troops to enter Holland arriving there on Sept. 12 after capturing the famous border fortress Eben Emael on the 10th. Maastricht, Holland, fell to the 30th on Sept. 18.
In a letter to the Advocate dated Sept. 23, Iler wrote “I have been all through Normandy, Brittany, France, Belgium, and Holland.” He noted he was still getting the Advocate once in a while and all the boys in his platoon enjoyed reading the Black Ford stories in Allison’s Pop-Offs column.
After three months of bitter fighting, the 30th Infantry Division troops charged through the greatest concentration of artillery and mortar fire they had ever met to storm the German Siegfried Line.
The attack on the Siegfried Line began Oct. 2 and continued for two weeks to establish a bridgehead through what the Germans called their impenetrable West Wall.
Smashing through the Siegfried Line in the sector north of Aachen where it was heavily manned and then aiding in closing the gap that forced Aachen’s fall constituted one of the toughest jobs assigned to any division in the battle of Europe.”
Although this is where Sgt. Iler’s letter ends, he continued fighting with the 30th Infantry Division until the end of the war.
He was discharged in May 1945 and returned home in June with a Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds he received to his face and knee. He also brought home a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement from June 15 to Dec. 8.
