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| Millard Sanders served with the 65th Armored Field Artillery in Germany. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29588787/millard-sanders https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/world-war-ii-unit-history-book-65th-1808609887 |
Millard "Hoss" Sanders never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on April 19, 1919 in Texas. His parents Aaron and Mary were also both born in Texas. His father worked as a farmer and later as a retail grocery salesman. Still later he worked as a grocer. Millard had two older brothers, an older sister, and a twin sister. By 1940 Millard had completed four years of high school and was living at home working in his father's grocery store.
Millard was drafted into the army on March 8, 1942. He reached the rank of corporal in the 65th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. It was equipped with 105mm howitzer motor carriage M7 Priests.
Cpl. Sanders likely joined as a replacement since the 65th Armored FAB was already in Tunisia in the spring of 1942. It also fought in Sicily in 1943. The 65th Armored FAB was the very first artillery battalion to land on D-Day. It fought across northern France and the Rhineland.
After crossing the Rhine, Cpl. Sander's unit moved forward day and night, encountering little resistance. On April 1, 1945, Easter Day, his unit had reached Magdeberg, on the Elbe River, a mere 80 miles from Berlin. While a lot of Germans had lost the will to fight at this point in the war, there were still diehard loyal Nazi troops willing to fight to the end. Early in the morning his unit was surprised by counterattacking Germans. The M7 guns were set up to provide fire support for another unit so could not be deployed in time to target the assaulting Germans. Cpl. Sanders led the effort to stop the Germans using small arms and it cost him his life. His driver credits his efforts for saving the lives of many men in the battalion.
You can read the letter the driver wrote to Cpl. Sander's girlfriend here.
His grave is at Athens Cemetery in Athens, Georgia.
Last year on this date I profiled Sliver Star hero Gerard Bunce, 2nd Infantry Division. You can read about Gerard here.
MASON ANDREWS
Mason Andrews was born on the same day as Millard Sanders. He was born in Virginia. After graduating from Princeton University, he got his medical degree from John Hopkins.
He served as a medical officer on an LST in the South Pacific during World War 2.
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| https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18913167/mason-cooke-andrews |
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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