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| 2nd Lieutenant Daniel Herron earned the Silver Star while serving with the 29th Infantry Division in France. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21406498/daniel-s-herron https://www.pinterest.com/pin/698269117199733957/?lp=true |
Daniel Sherwood "Dan" Herron never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Daniel was born on January 11, 1920 in Texas. His parents Francis and Josephine were both born in Kansas. His father worked as a house electrician and later as an elevator manufacturer signalman. Dan had an older brother and two older sisters. Dan completed four years of high school and worked for an architecture firm. By 1940 Dan's parents had moved to Alabama. That same year Dan enlisted in the army.
He joined the field artillery via the Texas National Guard. He was selected for Officer's Candidate School and graduated in August 1944. He was sent overseas as a replacement and eventually became a second lieutenant and forward observer in an artillery company attached to the 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division.
The 115th Infantry Regiment landed on D-Day and was engaged in fighting for the next couple of weeks. It suffered many casualties at Omaha Beach and in the Normandy hedgerows, requiring constant replacements to bring them up to strength. 29th Division casualties in Normandy were unbelievably high -- 2,500 killed and 8,000 wounded. Keep in mind that a World War II infantry division had about 15,000 men. Lt. Herron likely replaced one of these casualties.
Lt. Herron was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry for action during September 1944. Intense enemy machine-gun fire was inflicted on his unit resulting in many casualties including the death of his company commander. Lt Herron advanced by creeping and crawling until he reached a vantage point from which he could call in cannon fire to destroy the enemy weapon and crew.
On November 16, 1944, the 115th Infantry Regiment was tasked with taking away some French villages held by German troops. Instead of charging into the town to dislodge the enemy at high costs, the commanding officers decided on a different tactic -- the attacking companies would surround the towns first. While the villages were surrounded, it left the Americans in the open, exposed to small arms and mortar fire. Units were pinned down until nightfall, suffering casualties all day long. One company came back with only 17 men and 3 officers. Lt. Herron was one of those killed this day. After these poor results, the 29th ID went back to directly attacking enemy controlled villages, no longer giving them a defensible position to fire on troops in the open.
His grave is at Crown Hill Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.
Last year on this date I profiled PFC Ernest Edgell, 101st Airborne Division. You can read about Ernest 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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