Missing information?
Do you have any additional information you would like to share about a soldier?
Submit- Full
name
COLTRIN, Walter Leo - Date of
birth
5 November 1923 -
Age
20 - Place of
birth
Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana -
Hometown
Los Angeles County, California
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
19177285 -
Rank
Private First Class -
Function
unknown -
Unit
H Company,
3rd Battalion,
508th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
82nd Airborne Division
-
Awards
Silver Star,
Purple Heart
Death
-
Status
Killed in Action - Date of
death
25 September 1944 - Place of
death
The Netherlands
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
| Plot | Row | Grave |
|---|---|---|
| F | 3 | 25 |
Immediate family
-
Members
Walter Coltrin (father)
Eleanor Coltrin (mother)
Patricia Coltrin (sister)
More information
Pfc Walter L. Coltrin graduated from Gerstmeyer Technical High School and was employed at Lockheed in California.He enlisted in Los Angeles, California on 2 December 1942.
He landed on D-Day at 02:20 hrs. behind a big creamery at the end of Chef-Du-Pont in the vicinity of the crossing point on the Merderet river. In an article in The Courrier-Journal of 11 August 1944, Pfc Coltrin told the following story of the night he was dropped in Normandy: "I was all by myself until 06:00 hrs. so I had some fun cutting German telephone lines. Got four of them before the jerries started shooting stuff at me, so I ducked toward a big swamp. I found four fellows crawling out of it, and I knew one of them so I joined up. At 14:30 hrs. our bunch began storming the town. It was pretty hot for a while. Jerry had a big, mean-looking anti-aircraft train on a siding inside the town, and he gave us hell with it. Then an American P-51 dropped in and shot up the flak train."
He was first buried at the Temporary American Military Cemetery of Molenhoek, The Netherlands.
Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Carla Mans, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com - 1940 Census / WWII Enlistment Record, www.ww2-airborne.us, The Courrier-Journal - 11 August 1944.
Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Des Philippet, Gerrie Franken - SOHE