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| 1st Lt. Nels Nordland earned the Silver Star with the 84th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116648285/nels-algot-nordland https://soldierboy440.wixsite.com/railsplitters/original-84th-pictures?lightbox=dataItem-ioasu0qf1 |
Nels Algot Nordland never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Nels was born on March 15, 1920 in Nebraska. His parents Arvid and Emma were both born in Sweden. His father worked as a self-employed painter and later as a self-employed baker. Arvid died in 1936. Nels had three older brothers, two older sisters, and one younger sister. By 1940 Nels had completed four years of high school and was still living with his mother. He enrolled in the University of Nebraska and participated in ROTC. He stayed through his junior year and was studying journalism. Newspaper accounts reference that he had a wife, but her name is not given.
He enlisted in the army in May 1942. He became a first lieutenant in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 333rd Infantry Regiment, 84th Infantry Division (nicknamed Railsplitters). It arrived in France in November 1944 and joined combat in Germany on November 18, 1944. It participated in the Battle of the Bulge. He was in charge of Company I's 3rd Platoon. Because of his skill and daring, the 3rd Battalion commanding officer would often pick Lt. Nordland to undertake night patrols.
On December 27, 1944, Lt. Nordland's company was engaged against the Germans at Minel, Belgium. His platoon took on the brunt of the attack when the Germans attacked with a mechanized force that included Tiger tanks. Lt. Nordland was repositioning a bazooka team to get an angle that would knock out one Tiger Tank when another German tank appeared and killed him with its machine-gun.
His commanding officer approved a Silver Star award but I was not able to find the citation.
His grave is at Aurora Cemetery in Aurora, Nebraska. I don't know what happened to his widow.
Last year on this date I profiled Pearl Harbor Medal of Honor hero Francis Flaherty, USS Oklahoma. You can read about Francis 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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