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| Corporal James Van Dyke served in the 90th Infantry Division. https://www.fold3.com/page/653605958-james-n-van-dyke/stories https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2019/01/06/conquering-the-koenigsmacker/ |
James Nelson Van Dyke was 24 years old when he was killed in action in France on Nov 15, 1944. He was the oldest of two sons born to Nelson and Rose Van Dyke in East Rutherford NJ on July 11, 1920. His brother Donald joined the family in 1925. In 1930 the family moved into a brand new house at 101 Woodland Ave in Rutherford. “Jim” would walk around the block to Pierrepont School for his elementary education. Van Dyke was a good student and was active in extra curricular activities at Rutherford High School – including the German Club, the Cinema Club and the Cross Country team. When he graduated in 1938, his academic achievements had earned him a scholarship to New York University. He attended NYU until early 1942.
His Draft registration card from Feb 16, 1942 describes him as being 5’ 10 ½ “ weighing 135 lbs with brown hair and hazel eyes. He left a job at Glen Hays Elevator Company to enlist in the Army Signal Corps in October of 1942. “Basic and specialized training followed at several Army camps throughout the United States. Pfc Van Dyke was particularly interested and qualified in radar work.”
Due to the heavy casualties incurred during the Normandy Campaign and on other battle fronts, the Army was experiencing a shortage of combat soldiers in the summer of 1944. So, In spite of his specialized training, Van Dyke was “assigned to basic infantry for overseas replacement, and landed in England in August, 1944,” Five days later he joined K Company of the 358th Regiment of the 90th Infantry Division. The 90th had been in combat since June 8, just after D-Day and became one of General Patton’s key units in the Third Army. When Jim Van Dyke joined the “Tough Ombres” of the 90th, they had already suffered tremendous casualties in the Normandy hedgerows.
After the dash across France in August and September, the 90th Division ran into determined and deadly German resistance around the fortresses along the Moselle River in Lorraine. As the battles dragged on into November, the 358th Regiment was ordered to capture Fort Koenigsmacker, a fortress built in 1908 that bristled with four 100mm artillery pieces and concrete walls over three meters thick. It had a commanding position overlooking the Moselle about 30 miles north of Metz.
The 358th crossed the rain swollen Moselle River on November 9, 1944 and attacked the fort. After a fierce battle and with the aid of combat engineers, the regiment finally silenced the fort on November 12. The 358th suffered 111 casualties. Over 300 German soldiers of the 74th Regiment of the 19th Volksgrenadier Division were either killed, wounded or captured. Three days later on November 15, 1944, Jim Van Dyke was killed in action. While it is unclear if his death was related to the fight for Fort Koenigsmacker, it is almost certain that he died in that vicinity.
In 1949, Van Dyke’s body was returned to New Jersey for burial at Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst. Articles in The Herald News and Rutherford Republican & American newspapers give details of his life, and the headlines state that his rank was Private First Class. The Army issued “Application for Headstone or Marker” form lists his rank as Corporal. Sometime between joining the 90th Division as a raw replacement in August and his death in November, Van Dyke had earned a promotion.
Van Dyke was one of over 3000 men from Rutherford (1940 Population of 15,466) who served during the war, and one of 95 who lost their lives. His name is listed on the Rutherford WW2 Memorial in Lincoln Park and also on the Bergen County WW2 Monument in Paramus, NJ.
This is one of the final 100 stories (54) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 tail gunner Gerald Gillies. You can read about Gerald 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
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