For Memorial Day-Marvin K. Boller
Here in the United States, Memorial Day will be upon us soon.
In researching for my upcoming book on the liberation of the train, I are reminded of the sacrifices of the soldiers, again and again. Right now I'm revisiting a horrific incident that occurred just across Hitler's "West Wall", the so-called Dragon's Teeth that formed the three-mile deep defensive fortifications that our troops had to cross to enter German soil. Resistance was stiff; on a cold and rainy day before Thanksgiving, 1944, several tanks of the 743rd Tank Battalion's 'D' Company were wiped out in a muddy apple orchard a few miles across the border.
[caption id="attachment_4834" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Letter to Marvin Boller postmarked 5 days after his death. It remains unopened in a museum in Belgium. Thanks to Vincent Heggen, the curator.[/caption]
In 2012, I was alerted to the existence of an unopened WWII era letter in a memorial museum in Belgium. The envelope was postmarked Nov. 27, 1944, and addressed from the USA to PFC Marvin K. Boller, D Co., 743rd Tank Battalion. It was also stamped ‘DECEASED’. I wrote to Carrol Walsh, a liberator of the train near Magdeburg and a fellow member of Company D, and asked if he knew Boller; I also sent him this image of the envelope. He wrote back:
Riverside Cemetery, Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, USA. Credit: J M Schumann[/caption]
Letter to Marvin Boller postmarked 5 days after his death. It remains unopened in a museum in Belgium. Thanks to Vincent Heggen, the curator.[/caption]
In 2012, I was alerted to the existence of an unopened WWII era letter in a memorial museum in Belgium. The envelope was postmarked Nov. 27, 1944, and addressed from the USA to PFC Marvin K. Boller, D Co., 743rd Tank Battalion. It was also stamped ‘DECEASED’. I wrote to Carrol Walsh, a liberator of the train near Magdeburg and a fellow member of Company D, and asked if he knew Boller; I also sent him this image of the envelope. He wrote back:
‘Hi Matt, I was stunned when I read your message. I remember Boller very well and remember when he got killed. I believe it was just before Thanksgiving 1944 when a big German tank wiped out four tanks of the first platoon of Co. D of the 743rd. Every member of every crew of every one of the four tanks was killed. I seem to remember packages arriving for some of these guys after they had been killed. I used to tease Boller, who was an older man, because he wanted to vote for Tom Dewey and I was big for my pal, FDR. Boy what a memory you stirred up. I knew all the guys that got killed in that engagement.’Walsh and others would survive and go on to liberate Holocaust survivors on April 13th, 1945. So here is a tribute to Marvin Boller, and all who fell. His body was returned to the United States. Rest on. [caption id="attachment_4836" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Riverside Cemetery, Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, USA. Credit: J M Schumann[/caption]
MARVIN K. BOLLER
PFC, 743 TANK BN WORLD WAR II
Birth: Oct. 9, 1908 Death: Nov. 22, 1944
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