Departure for Europe
November 23, 1943, Virginia
Richard's battalion - totaling some 660 men - on Nov 23. 1943 boarded in Virginia after a rigorous training. Richard's battalion - totaling some 660 men - on Nov 23. 1943 boarded in Virginia after a rigorous training.
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Arriving in England
January 20 1944
Jan 20. 1944 82nd 82nd Engineer Combat Battalion arrived in Liverpool, England. It would be six months before they saw action.
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Landing at Omaha Beach
between 10th and 16th June, 1944
On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe began. The 82 Engineer Combat
Battalion landed in stages between 10 and 16 June, 1944 on Omaha Beach in Normandy. The intention was to rapidly push on to the rest of France, but the advance was slow.
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Operation Cobra
end of July 1944, Saint-Lô
end of July 1944, seven weeks after D-Day, the front had stagnated. Operation Cobra had to break the deadlock. 82 Engineer Combat Battalion was located around Saint-Lô, near the front. Richard Wells particpated fully in Operation Cobra.
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Building bridges
August 1944, Meulan
On August 7 Richard was in Vire, where he and his comrades initially constructed an (emergency) bridge. On August 26 they arrived in the town of Meulan and constructed a bridge over the Seine. Early September the 82 Engineer Combat Battalion went on to Belgium.
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Died
September 9, 1944, Kesselt
On September 9, 1944 Richard, with three others, was given the task of finding a suitable place for a temporary bridge across the Albert Canal. The Germans had blown up all the bridges. Their jeep was shot at between Kesselt and Veldwezelt, Richard was hit and died.
Read the story: Comabt route (3)>
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
Richard F. Wells
A soldier's soldier
| Name: | Richard ‘Dick’ F. Wells |
| Born: | May 14, 1924 |
| Deceased: | September 9, 1944, 20 years |
| Rank & Military component: |
Corporal B-Company, 82nd Engineer Combat Battalion |
| Cemetery: | Block J, Row 6 Graf 6 |
For every soldier fighting on the American front there were many support troops: intelligence, maintenance personnel, freight drivers, and so on.
Corporal Richard "Dick" F. Wells was part of such a support unit: the battle engineers.
On 9 September 1944 he was part of a reconnaissance patrol along the Albert Canal with the task of finding a suitable place to build a temporary bridge.
During that patrol Wells and his comrades came under fire.
Wells' comrades were taken prisoner by the Germans, but he himself was riddled with bullets. Richard Wells was 20 years old.
Richard Wells was part of the battle genius of the American army. The combat genius came immediately behind the front line soldiers.
This is a list of activities which sappers had to perform in the war:
- clearing obstacles such as barbed wire, bunkers and mines
- construction of (emergency) bridges,footbridges, pontoon bridges and Bailey Bridges
- construction and repair of roads and railway lines
- construction of (drinking) water supply
- building (temporary) housing
- clearing rubble and earth
- construction of pipes and telephone cables
- and solve all other possible problems you might encounter in wartime.
