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Personal info

Full name
HOLLIDAY, Karl Owen "Bud"
Date of birth
18 December 1918
Age
26
Place of birth
Wayne County, Iowa
Hometown
Corydon, Wayne County, Iowa

Military service

Service number
O-453965
Rank
Captain
Function
Battery Commander
Unit
HQ Battery,
561st Field Artillery Battalion
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
13 April 1945
Place of death
Klotz, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
C 7 17

Immediate family

Members
Carl O. Holliday (father)
Edith I. (McIntrye) Holliday (mother)
Carmel Holliday (brother)
Gipson Holliday (brother)
Bessie Holliday (sister)
Betty Holliday (sister)
Harold McGee Holliday (stepbrother)
Iris McGee Holliday (stepsister)
Gloria (Patterson) Holliday (wife)
Robert M. Holliday (son)

More information

Capt Karl O. Holliday graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa in 1941.

His son Robert Holliday wrote the following: My Dad died on 13 April 1945. He was a member of an "advance party" comprised of about 15 American vehicles. The Colonel in charge of the "advance party" decided to bypass the American Infantry and to take the group further than was ordered. As the American vehicles approached a hill, German troops hiding on both sides of the road, ambushed them with machine-gun and rifle fire. My Dad and the other three men from his jeep jumped into a shallow ditch. My Dad and his First Sergeant both carried Thompson submachine guns. Both of them stood up and started firing at the enemy. Both were hit by fire from a German machine pistol and were killed.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Terry Hirsch, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, http://www.awon.org/fathers1.html, www.ancestry.com - 1920/1930 Census / Headstone and Interment Record

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, http://www.awon.org/awholl.html, The Des Moines Register, Robert Holliday - courtesy of Friends of WWII Museum - 19 February 2022