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| Sgt. Roland Ehlers and his brother Walter landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day as part of the 1st Infantry Division. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54232984 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125370706/Walter-David-Ehlers https://padresteve.com/tag/18th-infantry-regiment/ |
Roland A. Ehlers never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 28, 1917 in Kansas. His parents John and Marie were also both born in Kansas. His father worked as a farmer. Roland had two younger brothers (who both served in WW2) and three younger sisters. By 1940 Roland had completed two years of high school. He was living at home and worked as a farmer.
He enlisted in the army with brother Walter, four years his junior, on October 3, 1940. Brother Claus joined in 1942.
Roland became a sergeant in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Brother Walter was in the same company. The 1st ID landed in Algeria in November 1942 and fought across North Africa to Tunisia. It next played a major role in the invasion of Sicily. Throughout both campaigns the Ehlers brothers fought side by side. At the conclusion of the Sicily Campaign the 1st ID was moved to England to prepare for a major role in the invasion of France.
Company K was assigned to land on Omaha Beach in the second D-Day wave. Perhaps to lessen the odds of two brothers being killed at the same time, Walter was transferred to Company L where he was promoted to sergeant and squad leader.
The brothers didn't see each other on D-Day. Three days later Walter, now a staff sergeant,
repeatedly led his men against heavily defended enemy strong points exposing himself to deadly hostile fire whenever the situation required heroic and courageous leadership. Without waiting for an order, S/Sgt. Ehlers, far ahead of his men, led his squad against a strongly defended enemy strong point, personally killing 4 of an enemy patrol who attacked him en route. Then crawling forward under withering machinegun fire, he pounced upon the gun crew and put it out of action.
Turning his attention to 2 mortars protected by the crossfire of 2 machine-guns, S/Sgt. Ehlers led his men through this hail of bullets to kill or put to flight the enemy of the mortar section, killing 3 men himself. After mopping up the mortar positions, he again advanced on a machinegun, his progress effectively covered by his squad. When he was almost on top of the gun he leaped to his feet and, although greatly outnumbered, he knocked out the position single-handed.
The next day, having advanced deep into enemy territory, the platoon of which S/Sgt. Ehlers was a member, finding itself in an untenable position as the enemy brought increased mortar, machine-gun, and small arms fire to bear on it, was ordered to withdraw. S/Sgt. Ehlers, after his squad had covered the withdrawal of the remainder of the platoon, stood up and by continuous fire at the semicircle of enemy placements, diverted the bulk of the heavy hostile fire on himself, thus permitting the members of his own squad to withdraw. At this point, though wounded himself, he carried his wounded automatic rifleman to safety and then returned fearlessly over the shell-swept field to retrieve the automatic rifle which he was unable to carry previously.
After having his wound treated, he refused to be evacuated, and returned to lead his squad.
For weeks Walter remained in the dark about his brother, who he had not seen since the invasion. In July he got the bad news. Roland had been killed by a mortar shell that explode on the ramp of his landing craft just as he was stepping off to come ashore in the second D-Day wave.
In December Walter Ehlers got the news that he had earned the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in Normandy described above in his MOH citation. He became a second lieutenant and was also decorated with a silver star and bronze star.
Roland's grave is at Sunset Cemetery, Manhattan, Kansas. Brother Claus died in in 2013. Walter died in 2014, the last of the twelve D-Day campaign Medal of Honor recipients.
Thanks to everyone who has read and shared these profiles, last weekend the number of visits to this site exceeded 400,000. Visits are averaging 70,000 a month now. If you share these stories, I bet we could reach 500,000 before year end.
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.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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