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| Lt. Robert Lemmon was with the 7th Armored Division during the Battle of Chartres. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34616192/robert-t_-lemmon https://www.eucmh.be/2018/03/10/7th-armored-division-combat-command-b-aar-august-1944-france/ |
Robert Thorton Lemmon, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 2, 1919 in Virginia. His parents Robert and Mary were also both born in Virginia. His father worked as a doctor. He died in 1937 at age 58 from hepatic cirrhosis, often caused by chronic alcoholism. Robert Jr. had a younger brother. By 1940 Robert was living with his widowed mother and brother and attending college.
He enlisted in the army in September 1943. He became a second lieutenant in Company B, 23rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division (nicknamed "Lucky Seventh"). It landed on Omaha Beach on August 10-14, 1944 and was assigned to Patton's Third Army.
On August 15, 1944 the 7th AD was carrying out orders to take the city of Chartres. Running into enemy 22mm and 88mm guns, the 23rd AIB took casualties and was forced to withdraw. Lt. Lemmon was killed in action that day.
His grave is at Presbyterian Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 co-pilot John Mayes. You can read about John here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
The title says 7th Infantry Division, which served in the Pacific. In the blog it says 7th Armored Division, which served in Europe.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I will fix it. Thanks for catching my error.
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