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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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Registration ARC
to the UK
Landing on Utah Beach
Siegfriedlinie
Died on pleasure flight
Buried in Margraten, Block RR, Row 12 Grave 290
Air Evac. Nurse diploma
Married
Body washed up
Panama
To Europa
Departure for Europa
Arriving in England
Landing Omaha Beach
Nazi Germany declares war on the US
Battle of Stalingrad: Red Army defeats Germans
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: