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| Pvt. Paul DeVoe served with the 101st Airborne in Normandy and Holland. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79909566/paul-k_-devoe https://www.army.mil/article/46037/the_island_not_a_vacation_destination |
Paul K. DeVoe never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Paul was born on June 17, 1920 in New York. His parents William and Mildred were born in New Jersey and New York, respectively. His father worked as an electrician and later as an electrical engineer. Still later he worked as an electrical company estimator. Paul had one younger sister. By 1940 Paul had completed three years of high school and was still living at home.
He volunteered for the army in August 1942. Later he further volunteered to become a paratrooper. He became a private first in Company C, 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He arrived in England in August 1943.
Pvt. DeVoe took part in the D-Day airdrop into Normandy. He was wounded during the Normandy campaign but recovered in time for the 101st next assignment - an airdrop into Holland on September 17, 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden. The 101st was tasked with taking five bridges. They managed to take four but the Germans destroyed the fifth. The Allies also failed to take the final bridge at Arnhem and the 101st spent weeks consolidating the Allied position in Holland.
On October 3, the 506th PIR moved north to take over the front lines on the west side of the area north of Nijmegen referred to as The Island. The Germans had plans to cross the lower Rhine to destroy the bridge at Nijmegen, under Allied control. Their attack went through the 506th PIR's sector on October 5, 1944 and was accompanied by heavy artillery fire. Many American positions were overrun. Pvt. DeVoe's battalion was brought in as reinforcements to stop the Germans. Company C had 118 men. The fighting required house to house fighting in the town of Opheusden. The German brought in tanks which the paratroopers had to counter with bazookas. Pvt. DeVoe was killed on October 6, 1944. By then Company C was down to 26 men. The fighting continued for days but the paratroopers denied the Germans from achieving their goal to destroy the Nijmegen bridge.
His grave is at Elmwood Hill Cemetery in Troy, New York.
This is one of the final 100 stories (78) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Distinguished Flying Cross hero and B-25 pilot Edward Irving, who was shot down by the Russians. You can read about Edward 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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