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name
COLBY, William Gibbs - Date of
birth
10 December 1920 -
Age
24 - Place of
birth
Ohio -
Hometown
Branford, New Haven County, Connecticut
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
31189482 -
Rank
Sergeant -
Function
unknown -
Unit
F Company,
2nd Battalion,
423rd Infantry Regiment,
106th Infantry Division
-
Awards
Bronze Star
Death
-
Status
Died non-Battle - Date of
death
16 March 1945 - Place of
death
Bad Sulza, Germany
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle - Tablets of the Missing
Immediate family
-
Members
Clyde W. Colby (father)
Nellie M. (Millis) Colby (mother)
Ruth I. Colby (sister)
John W. Colby (brother)
Ann Colby (sister)
Barbara J. (Harvey) Colby (wife)
More information
William Colby enlisted on 11 September 1942 at Hartford, Connecticut.He was taken prisoner in the vicinity of Schönberg, Belgium. He was held prisoner in Stalag IV-B in Mühlberg, Germany. It is assumed he died in Bad Sulza during a forced march and was initially buried at the cemetery of this town. From this cemetery two sets of remains were disinterred in February 1953, of which was believed they were of Sgt Colby. They were labeled as Unknown X-7638 and X-7641 and evacuated to Ardennes Cemetery. After investigation no positive identification could be established.
The IDPF contains also documents in which his sister Ruth, tells a complete different story. Her brother seemed to had been arrived in Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, Germany on 13 January 1945. On 14 February 1945, among with countless other prisoners, they started on a five hundred miles march. A Sgt Peter Ruli, who survived this march, was his buddy and he claimed to remember Sgt Colby dropped out of the column in Leisnig on 22 February 1945, complaining of a weak leg.
Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Raf Dyckmans, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com - Brown/Reid family tree, IDPF
Photo source: FOHF