Commander of the 3d Armored Division, Maj Gen. Maurice Rose was killed in action near Paderborn, Westphalia, where many of many ancestors immigrated from in the 19th Century.
Rose was cut off in a forested area near the city and his part attempted to escape in their Jeeps, which one Jeep managed to do. Stopped by a tank, a Waffen SS tank commander emerged from the hatch with a submachinegun and Rose's hand went for his sidearm. He was machinegunned and left. The remainder of his party hid in the woods overnight, and recovered his body, which contained operational orders that had not been disturbed, that night.
He was the highest ranking U.S. Army officer to be killed in direct action by enemy forces during World War Two.
Rose was Jewish by descent and grew up in a Jewish household in Denver. His father was a businessman who later became a rabbi. Rose himself could speak Yiddish and read Hebrew. He joined the Colorado National Guard before he was legally old enough to do so, hoping for a military career early on, and hoping to serve in the Punitive Expedition, but was discharged six weeks later when his age was discovered. He enlisted again during World War One at age 17 with his parents permission, and went to OCS, which says something about how different things were in regard to educational requirements at the time. He was briefly out of the service in 1919, but returned to the Army as an officer in 1920.
Rose was married for about ten years, from 1920 to 1931, to Venice Hanson of Salt Lake City. although the marriage ended in divorce. Their son served as a career Marine Corps officer and also served in World War Two, as well as the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He later married Virginia Barringer in 1934.
While born and raised Jewish, Maurice identified as an Episcopalian as an adult, which has lead to speculation on whether his conversion was real or political, it being difficult at the time to advance in American society, and the Army more particularly, while being outwardly Jewish. Not that much is known, however, about his personal religious convictions.
He was 45 years of age.
The Battle of Lijevče Field began near Banja Luka between Croatian and Chetnik forces in what would soon be incorporated into communist Yugoslavia.
The Red Army took Danzig. The Danzig Corridor, of course, had been one of the things the Germans claimed they required that lead to World War Two.
Anyone else make a connection to Greenland today.. . . ?
Eric Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey to 16 year old Patricia Molly Clapton and 25 year old Canadian soldier Edward Walter Fryer. He was raised by his grandparents, whom he thought to be his parents until he was nine years old. He thought, at that time, his mother was his older sister. She'd marry another Canadian soldier later on and his grandparents would continue to raise him.
He was performing the blue professionally by age 17.
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