Memorial

More information

Pvt. Malcolm L. Phillips grew up in De Pere, Wisconsin together with nine brothers and two sisters. He attended Erwin School in De Pere. Before he entered the Army, he worked at the Sturgeon Bay Ship Yards in Wisconsin. In his spare time he loved to fish and hunt. Malcolm was engaged to be married. He never had the chance to fulfill this commitment.
The terrible circumstances of the battle taking place that early January can be seen in another passage of a report by Sergeant Theodore Drapper ... "The weather continued to get colder and colder until it went well below freezing and stayed there. This meant there was only one thing worse than not sleeping - and that was sleeping. The quickest way to freeze is to lie still. Men went to sleep in overcoats - when they had them - and woke up encased in icy boards. It was practically impossible to bring up supplies and rations in anything but half-tracks. Water congealed in canteens. Frostbite was as dangerous as all the Krauts and their guns put together." It was under these circumstances, on 6 January 1945, that Private Malcolm Phillips' life from De Pere, Wisconsin, ended.