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| Lt. Wayne Winans, served with these men from the HQ Company, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR. The photo was taken two days before Lt. Winans was killed. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64939773/wayne-e-winans https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/538672805421098433/?autologin=true |
Wayne E. Winans never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on April 6, 1918 in Wisconsin. His parents John and Florice were born in Wisconsin and Ireland, respectively. His mother died in 1920. His father worked as a federal prohibition officer and later a government investigator agent. By 1930 Wayne was living with his widowed grandmother. Wayne had two older brothers (who both died as children) and a younger brother.
He enlisted in the army on Monday, December 8, 1941. He volunteered for the airborne and became a first lieutenant in the HQ Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Lt Winans most like took part in the D-Day airdrop into Normandy. His next assignment was the 101st airdrop into Holland on September 17, 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. The 101st was tasked with taking five bridges. They managed to take four but the Germans destroyed the fifth. Lt. Winans was either killed by a German bombing mission of Eindhoven on the night of September 19/20 or the next day when the Germans tried to cut off the road north.
His grave is at Woodland Cemetery in Shawano, Wisconsin
Last year on this date I profiled B-24 officer Walter Ross. You can read about Walter 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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