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Personal info

Full name
AMBROSE, Edmund P
Date of birth
1921
Age
unknown
Place of birth
Dallas County, Alabama
Hometown
Selma, Dallas County, Alabama

Military service

Service number
20416434
Rank
Private First Class
Function
unknown
Unit
B Company,
1st Battalion,
502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment,
101st Airborne Division
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
22 October 1944
Place of death
Dodewaard, Gelderland, Holland

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
G 1 13

Immediate family

Members
Edmund P. Ambrose (father)
Vallie Ambrose (mother)

More information

Pfc Edmund P. Ambrose attended high school for four years.

He joined the National Guard in Selma, Alabama on 25 November 1940.

On 22 October 1944, seven demolition men from Regimental HQ, were assembled under their section leader, Lt Richard A. Daly. About a dozen German Riegel mines (Anti-tank mines) had been recovered from a dirt road where German Engineers had planted them. A table was brought out of a nearby Dutch house and the mines were placed on and near the table.
When S/Sgt Schlensker demonstrated how to open the lid and disarm one of the mines, the device exploded. Evidently, the Germans had placed an anti-tampering protection system in that particular mine which exploded, setting off all the other mines stacked nearby. Lt Daly, S/Sgt Schlensker, Pfc Edmund Ambrose, Pfc. Joseph Hill, Pvt George Sheppard, and Pvt Joe St. Clair were all killed instantly.

Only Pvt Oresti Quirici survived the explosion, although he lost one eye and part of his leg.

Cpl Brigham was fatally wounded as a result of the explosion. He would die in the early morning hours of the next day.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Carla Mans, www.findagrave.com, www.ancestry.com - 1930 Census

Photo source: Tom Verheijden, www.findagrave.com - Ralph Peeters, The Selma Times-Journal 19 November 1944