Arthur goes into service
December 1, 1942
After his high school education Arthur Whitbeck enlisted in the army. At Camp Claiborne in Louisiana, he was trained as a tank technician and assigned to B Company, 784th Tank Battalion. Arthur was part of a crew of a Sherman tank.
Read the story: overview >
To the front
Le Havre, dec. 25, 1944
784 Tank Battalion embarked on Oct 30 '44 in America and arrived on Christmas Day in Le Havre (F). The front line lay along the German border and the Batlle of the Bulge (Ardennenoffensive) was in full swing. The battalion immediately moved further. Within one week, on Dec. 31, they had entered Germany at the border at Eschweiler.
Read the whole story: Combat route (1) >
Anxious hours
Sevelen, March 2, 1945
Task Force Byrne went smoothly. That changed on March 2, when Arthur's B Company fought at Sevelen, which was strongly defended by German paratroopers. The Americans were sealed off from reinforcements and supplies ...
Read the whole story: Combat route (3) >
Arthur is killed
Kamperbruch, March 4 1945
On March 4 Arthur and his comrades were ordered to attack Kamperbruch. The commander expected little opposition, but the Germans had set up tank guns. Arthur's tank was directly hit.
Read the whole story: Combat route (4) >
July 1943 (?)
Registration ARC
September 1943
to the UK
July 16, 1944
Landing on Utah Beach
March 15, 1945
Siegfriedlinie
May 1, 1945
Died on pleasure flight
June 19, 1945
Buried in Margraten, Block RR, Row 12 Grave 290
February 18, 1943
Air Evac. Nurse diploma
Jan. 15, 1944
Married
July 26, 1943
Body washed up
March - Augus 1943
Panama
June 1944
To Europa
November 23, 1943
Departure for Europa
January 20, 1944
Arriving in England
June 1944
Landing Omaha Beach
US enters the war
December 11, 1941
Nazi Germany declares war on the US
Turnaround WWII
Februari 2, 1943
Battle of Stalingrad: Red Army defeats Germans
Memories of Arthur
In March 2015, Arthur Whitbeck's
relatives visited Margraten
for the first time.
Left to right: Brandon, Charles and Erica
Whitbeck. Charles' father Irving was Arthur’s brother.
Brandon and Erica are Charles’s children.
Charles: “I always wanted to pay my respects to my uncle who served in WWII. Coming to Margraten is something I always thought about doing, but I never made it over here. My uncle died in 1945 and I was born in 1951. I’m 63 years old now and I finally got the chance to do this. Nobody else in the family has done it. But somebody had got to come by and say a prayer and pay their respects. My dad still remembers him. His sisters have died recently, but of course they remembered him also. He is still part of the family history. His memory is fading but he is not forgotten…”
"After Arthur's death, his family received two
letters from officers of the 784 Tank Battalion.
Personnel officer Wilbur Smith wrote the letter on March 9
to inform the Whitbeck family
about the death of their son.
In an undated letter to the Whitbeck family,
1st Sergeant Evans of 784 Tank Battalion
later writes about the memories
the men of the battalion had of
Arthur: “Arthur was a clean cut soldier and held
up the morale of the army. We, the men of the
company, have missed him so much, he was the life
and soul of the company.”
Jefferson Wiggins was one of the African-American grave-diggers in Margraten. Mieke Kirkels wrote down his story in the book Van Alabama naar Margraten.
Awards
Arthur Whitbeck was awarded
various medals, which his family
received in 2002. That seems late,
but it is not unusual. When medals were
awarded to fallen soldiers, something regularly
went wrong. Many forgotten medals were only
recently awarded. At the time of the war little attention
was paid to the role African American soldiers played.
Recently this has changed, with extra attention being given
to their part in the war. This may be one reason why
Arthur Whitbeck's medals were only recently awarded.