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| Pvt. George Smith served with the 99th Infantry Division in Germany. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88286204/george-j-smith https://www.pinterest.es/pin/486177722260358351/ |
Private George Judson Smith never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Private Smith, 24, was killed in action in Germany fighting with the 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, on April 9, 1945, just a month before Germany surrendered.
The last year of his short life was a whirlwind. In the summer of 1944, he was running his family farm in Sheridan, New York, a rural area near Lake Erie about 30 miles southwest of Buffalo. He had become responsible for the farm at the age of 17 when his father died. He was drafted in August 1944, got married in February 1945, was shipped overseas in March, and died in April, all in the space of less than eight months.
George was born August 19, 1920 in Sheridan, the son of Judson Edgar “Judd” Smith and Helen Christine Kaltenbach Smith, who were married October 27, 1919. He had two younger siblings, Edgar and Pearl. He graduated from Dunkirk High School in 1937, the same year his father died, leaving him responsible for the farm. His mother remarried in 1941 and passed away in 1984.
He was drafted August 23, 1944, entered the service at Fort Dix, New Jersey and went through infantry training at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. On February 7, 1945, he married a local girl, Louise Edna Gens, at the Sheridan Methodist Church. They had originally planned to wed in Philadelphia, but as with many things in wartime their plans changed.
A month after his wedding he was sent to Europe in March 1945 to join the 394th Infantry Regiment, a battle-hardened unit that just played a major role in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. After the Battle of the Bulge, the 394th moved into Germany, and Private Smith was killed there on April 9, 1944, just sixty-one days after his wedding.
He was initially buried in Europe, and his remains were returned to the States in 1949. He is interred at the Sheridan Cemetery.
His widow remarried a local man in 1947, had a family, played the organ at church and social gatherings, and died in 1983. His brother, Edgar, died in 1998, and his sister, Pearl, in 2015.
Thank you, Private George Judson Smith for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for George
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This profile was written by John F. Schlatter. “I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee and a retired corporate public relations manager, living in Las Vegas. I served as an active duty and reserve Army officer 1974-82. I’ve written two books about veterans. One tells the stories of WWII veterans through postcards they wrote to the folks back home, and the other honors about 50 of the 168 Americans who died in Vietnam on the Fourth of July. I’ve also been a volunteer in the effort to find photographs of all 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam. Researching and writing the stories of those who died to preserve freedom has gone from a hobby to a passion for me. If we don’t honor and remember, who will?”
This is one of the final 50 stories (15) 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 Carlson's Raiders Fallen Edward Maciejewski, 2nd Raider Battalion. 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.
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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by
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“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”
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