WW2 Fallen 100: WW2 Fallen - Lawrence Miller, 6th Armored Division + Dennis The Menace creator

Saturday, March 14, 2020

WW2 Fallen - Lawrence Miller, 6th Armored Division + Dennis The Menace creator

Cpl. Lawrence Miller, shown with wife Doris, served in the 6th Armored Division in France.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79381729/lawrence-miller
Armored Attack 1944 by Steven Zaloga, pg 616

Lawrence Miller never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, I invite you to help write some!

Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org..

This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.

Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

He was born on March 14, 1920 in Louisiana. His parents Simon and Louis were also both born in Louisiana. His father worked as a farmer. Lawrence had two older sisters, one older brother, two younger brothers, and three younger sisters. By 1940 Lawrence was still living at home. He had completed five years of education and was working as a government laborer. At some point he married Doris Doucet.

He was drafted into the army on March 20, 1942. He reached the rank of Tec/5 in Company B, 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division. The 6th AD arrived in Normandy in late July and was part of the Operation Cobra breakout. After crossing France it reached the Saar in early November.

The 6th AD advanced in bad weather amid flooded fields and limited roads from one fortified town to another, each defended by Germans well equipped with anti-tank guns. Cpl. Miller was killed on November 14, 1944 when his unit was advancing toward Neid, France.

His grave is at Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Iota, Louisiana. I don't know what happened to his widow.

Thank you Cpl. Miller for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Lawrence.

HANK KETCHAM
The cartoonist Hank Ketcham was born on the exact same date as Lawrence Miller. Hank was born in Seattle, Washington. He became interested in drawing at a very young age. After high school he moved to Los Angelos and found a job working for Disney. He worked on Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi.

After World War 2 started, Hank joined the US Navy and became a photographic specialist. He create cartoons while in the navy including Half Hitch which ran in The Saturday Evening Post.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/126593439500854595/?lp=true

After the war, Ketcham became a freelance cartoonist. In 1951 he started drawing Dennis The Menace which became a big hit appearing over time in more than one thousand papers. Ketcham died in 2001.

Last year on this date I profiled Arthur Sprick, 1st Armored Division. You can read about Arthur 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.

Follow on Twitter @ww2fallen100
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100