WW2 Battle of the Bulge Fallen - William Ervin, 99th Infantry Division

TEC4 William Ervin served with the 99th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88977715/william-frederick-ervin
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/battles-elsenborn-ridge-part-i

TEC 4 William “Frederick” Ervin, Jr 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 WWII fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  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 II fallen in one free-to-access central database. We are going to need a lot of volunteers. 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.

Frederick was born on July 31, 1920 in Onslow County, North Carolina. His parents, William “Fred” Ervin and Vera Ayden Lockamy, were also both born in North Carolina. His father served in the first world war as a US Army PFC, in the 117^th Engineer Train in France. After the war, he worked as a salesman. Frederick had one brother, John David, who died at the age of 18 months. By 1940, according to the Federal Census, he was attending his first year of college.

Frederick enlisted in the US Army in November of 1942. He was assigned to the 394^th Infantry Regiment, Headquarters Company, and trained at Camp Van Dorn, Mississippi, with the rank of Technician 4. A TEC 4 was a non-commissioned officer with skilled training as tank drivers, mechanics, cooks, etc. and was addressed as “Sergeant.” Ervin married Netha Mizzelle Lanier at Camp Van Dorn on July 23, 1943.

The 394^th Regiment was part of the 99^th Infantry Division, and arrived in England for further training in October 1944. They landed in Le Havre, France on November 6, 1944. The 99^th first participated in the Rhineland campaign. By November 1944, the division moved to defend the Allied line in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. This was considered a quieter location, ideal for training new units and resting units who had seen heavy fighting.

On December 16, 1944, the German army made its last large offensive move of the war against the thinly-spread line in the Ardennes. This surprise attack of tanks, paratroopers and infantry was met with fierce US resistance, despite the cold weather, difficult terrain and smaller numbers. They fought valiantly, delaying the German advance significantly, but were forced to fall back.

On December 17, 1944, the action reached Ervin’s 394^th Headquarters Company in Hunningen, Belgium. Originally well behind the lines, headquarters personnel of every specialty took up arms. The Germans overran the position that day, and Ervin became one of the casualties. The Battle of the Bulge would continue until the end of January 1945, and became the third-highest battle in US history for fatalities. The Allies eventually took back the Ardennes, but at great cost.

Frederick Ervin’s grave is located in Ervin Cemetery, Ervintown, Onslow County, North Carolina.

Thank you, Frederick for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Frederick.

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This profile was written by Marilyn N. Clark. "I have a long-standing interest in World War 2. My grandfather and numerous great-uncles served in that conflict. I have a BA in history from the University of Utah and have a lot of experience with volunteer genealogical research. It’s an honor to find and share information about these heroes that made such great sacrifices. Many thanks to Don for organizing this effort to share their stories.”

This is one of the final 50 stories (35) 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 B-17 gunner Bernard Vermeer and a famous sportscaster. You can read about Bernard 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.

 

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http://www.tggf.org