Missing information?

Do you have any additional information you would like to share about a soldier?

Submit

Personal info

Full name
GILLIS, James H
Date of birth
12 November 1924
Age
20
Place of birth
Kane, McKean County, Pennsylvania
Hometown
McKean County, Pennsylvania

Military service

Service number
33679859
Rank
Private
Function
unknown
Unit
333rd Infantry Regiment,
84th Infantry Division
Awards
Silver Star,
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
23 November 1944
Place of death
Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
P 17 8

Immediate family

Members
Frank H. Gillis (father)
Laura S. Gillis (mother)
Janis A. Gillis (sister)

More information

Pvt James H. Gillis was attending Notre Dame University with the class of 1946 when he stopped his studies to enlist in Erie, Penssylvania on 13 May 1943.

Corp Jack Hutsell wrote that after they took the pillboxes between Prummern and Mullendorf, they found Gillis seriously wounded. He was yellowish and no sign of blood and had a weak pulse. They took him back on one of the bunks from the pillbox thru the thick mud of the beetfield. They had to cross a high point that the Germans had zeroed in and were hit by an artillery shell. Hutsell lost his hand and had to lie there for several hours until dark. It is supposed Gillies died on that spot.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Terry Hirsch, Astrid van Erp, J. Kohlen, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com Veterans Compensation Application / Family Tree / U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, www.newspapers.com - The Kane Republican, Notre Dame Alumnus News - June 1945

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, J. Kohlen