Memorial

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2nd Lt Guy Remington was employed by the advertising firm of Young & Rubicam.

He volunteered for the Army of the United States in New York City, New York on 7 May 1942. He first volunteered for the paratrooperd but was refused because he was too tall and because he had a slight defect in one eye. He also tried to get into the U.S. Marine Corps, without success. Finally he was accepted by the Army.

He attended a gunnery school in Connecticut and served in the North African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns before he unit was shipped to England to prepare for the campaigns in Northern Europe.

At Kasserine Pass he demonstrated outstanding ability to command in actual combat and was accordingly recommended for appointment for a field commission. Before his commission, he had been awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in Sicily. He was cited for carrying a telephone and wire to a highly exposed point of observation, where he stayed for two days under severe artillery fire.

After the Sicilian campaign, Remington was sent to England to prepare for the Normandy invasion. More paratroops were urgently needed. Remington volunteered and this time he was accepted. The training had to be carried on at night, on account of the Luftwaffe, and it had to be completed in about a quarter of the time previously considered necessary. On the night of 5 June 1944, at seven minutes after midnight, Remington landed in Normandy with the 1st Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He came down through machine-gun fire that tore his canopy and made seven bullet holes in his uniform. He was unhurt, but he had a "bad drop," landing in a small garden at the back of a German barracks. He threw a hand grenade, scaled the garden wall, escaped in the dark along a canal, and rejoined his unit, which fought eight days behind the German lines until it was relieved by our seaborne troops.

After that, Remington returned to his field artillery battalion. In the Cherbourg campaign and in the drive across France and Belgium, he served as a forward observer, until 13 October 1944, when he was killed in action near Aachen.

His Commanding Officer wrote afterwards: "He was with a forward platoon of infantry when it was surrounded by a surprise attack of the enemy. He and his party were immediately under fire. He ordered his men to withdraw, while he, without regard for his own danger, tried to recover his radio, to prevent it from falling into enemy hands and thereby compromising the entire radio net of his battalion. Although he could not reach the radio, he was successful in destroying it by firing into it with his pistol. In so doing, he lost his life. Words cannot express what his loss has meant, but his memory will always be an inspiration to the men and officers of this battalion."