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| Lt. Waverly Wray earned the Distinguished Service Cross with the 82nd Airborne at St. Mere Eglise. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92061713/waverly-w-wray https://www.pinterest.com/pin/538672805425422753/ |
Waverly W. "Deacon" Wray never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 27, 1919 in Batesville, Mississippi. Surprisingly, I was no able to find any census or other information about Waverly from ancestry.com. In all the other material I found, there was no mention of his parents or any siblings. By 1940 Waverly had completed four years of high school and found work as a farm hand.
He enlisted in the army in January 1941. He volunteered for the parachute infantry and eventually became a first lieutenant and executive officer in Company D, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Lt. Wray stood out of the crowd. First of all he was 250 pounds. He didn't womanize, drink, or smoke and the worst language to come from his lips was "Jad Brown it." He sent half of his pay home to help build a new church. His fellow paratroopers called him "Deacon."
The 505th PIR made its first combat jump into Sicily on July 10, 1943 and then Salerno on September 14, 1943. Later in the fall, the 505th PIR was sent to North Ireland and later England to prepare for the invasion of Normandy.
Late in the evening of June 5, 1944, the men from the 505th PIR boarded 117 C-47 Skytrains for the flight to Normandy. Just before 2:00 am on June 6, 1944, Pfc. Lt. Wray jumped out of his C-47 Skytrain and landed near Sainte Mere Eglise. The skill of the 505th PIR pathfinders resulted in 75 percent of its men landing in their drop zones. It successfully captured Sainte Mere Eglise, the first town liberated in France.
Lt. Wray's exploits on D-Day + 1 have been recounted at many websites including here. There were up to six thousand German troops armed with tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons converging on the 600 lightly armed paratroopers. To learn more of the expected attack, Lt. Wray, an experienced woodsman, designated himself a one-man recon mission. He surprised the German commander of the 1st Battalion, 158th Grenadier Infantry Regiment and his staff in a field. While in the process of taking them prisoner, he was shot at by a nearby German. Lt. Wray's uniform was pierced by bullets and a part of his ear was shot off. He responded quickly and dispatched ten or more of the enemy.
He returned back to town and then led a company attack, where he was wounded again, that caused the Germans to break and run. With key German officers dead, further German attacks on St. Mere Eglise that day were unorganized and failed. For this successful attack, Lt. Wray was nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross, but it was not awarded until after he died.
His DSC citation reads as follows:
While his platoon was engaged in a heavy fight with the enemy, First Lieutenant Wray, completely disregarding his own safety, crawled under devastating machine gun fire and although wounded, fought on until he had destroyed two enemy machine gun positions. Returning to his platoon he reorganized it and, securing a re-supply of ammunition, led it in a successful attack upon the enemy. Only after he had driven the enemy from his platoon sector did he accept first aid for his wounds.
First Lieutenant Wray's valiant leadership, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty at the cost of his life, exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, the 82d Airborne Division, and the United States Army.
Lt. Wray also earned the Silver Star near Nijmegin, Holland during Operation Market Garden. A sniper was threatening his men. On September 21, 1944, he exposed himself by charging across a bridge so his comrades could see where the sniper was. He was killed by the German sniper, who was immediately taken down by Lt Wray's wireman. I could not find the citation.
His grave is at Shilo United Methodist Church Cemetery in Panola County, Mississippi, the very church he helped pay to build during the war.
The state of Mississippi has named a section of Mississippi Highway 35, near the community where he was raises, as Waverly Wray Memorial Highway.
Last year on this date I profiled Saipan fallen Frank Sheehan, 2nd Marine Division. You can read about Frank 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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