In the early morning hours of Feb. 7, 1945, soldiers of the 318th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, 80th Infantry Division began crossing the swollen and rapidly flowing water of the Sauer River in an assault on the German Siegfried Line as part of an Allied drive into Germany’s Saar Industrial region.
As a member of Company G, 318th Infantry Regiment, Pvt. Harold Poulter of Charleston successfully made the crossing but was killed by enemy fire a day later. With heavy resistance by the enemy, Poulter’s body was unrecoverable and later attempts to locate his body were unsuccessful.
On Jan. 17, 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced it had identified the remains of Pvt. Poulter. He will be returned to Illinois for burial at 2 p.m. today at the Janesville Cemetery in Coles County.
Harold Oscar Poulter was born in Charleston on Oct. 17, 1921, the son of Artie Rowe Poulter and Bessie Millage Poulter. Harold had two older half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to Eva Mae Wilson — a sister named Mary Louise, born in 1908, and a brother named Virgil Allen, born in 1913.
Rowe and Eva were divorced sometime around 1919 and on Sept. 6, 1920, Rowe, age 38, married Bessie Millage, age 19. Rowe Poulter was born in Clark County. Bessie was born near Janesville.
Rowe and Bessie Poulter had six children — Harold, Harley (born 1923), Helen (1926), Hollis Jean (1928), Mary Jane (1930) and Jay (born and died 1934).
Rowe worked as a farm laborer in Edgar County but moved to Charleston around the time of his marriage to Bessie. He worked for the railroad as a hostler helper at the Round House in Charleston and later worked in a broomcorn factory. The family lived on North 7th Street and moved to 1421 Olive Avenue sometime in the early 1930s.
When Harold enlisted in the Army, his papers stated he attended school through the eighth grade, which was the standard amount of schooling for most Americans until about 1940. It is likely he attended Central School in Charleston, which is now Jefferson Elementary (801 Jefferson Avenue), located about five blocks from where the Poulters lived on Olive.
At the time Harold and his brother Harley attended, the Central School complex housed an elementary school and the high school. Harold is listed as a member of the freshman class and the track team in the 1936 Recorder yearbook. Harley appears as a freshman in the 1939 Recorder.
The fact that Harold’s enlistment papers said he completed eighth grade may have been because he had to leave school before the end of his freshman year, or he may have skipped a grade.
By 1940, Harold and Harley seemed to be the main financial support for their family. The 1940 U.S. Census lists Rowe Poulter as unable to work and Harold and Harley as having worked throughout 1939 and '40.
Harold is listed as working on reforestation project for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Harley delivered newspapers and attended school. (The census only shows current and previous year work history. Harold most likely worked from the time he left school.)
In late 1941, Harold began working for the American Frog & Switch Company, making railroad equipment in Hamilton, Ohio. Around the same time, the Japanese Imperial Army launched an attack on the American Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, plunging the United States into war.
When Harold registered for the draft in February 1942, he listed his address as 1022 Dayton Street in Hamilton, where he was living with his sister, Mary Louise, and her husband, William Hilsmier.
On June 6, 1942, Harold reported to Cincinnati for his physical prior to enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps. His physical lists Harold as 5 feet, 9¼ inches tall, 158 pounds, brown eyes, brown hair with a fair complexion. It listed his religion as Catholic.
Harold immediately reported to Keesler Air Field in Mississippi for a month, then transferred to Daniel Field in Georgia for a month. In August 1942, he went to Dale Mabry Field in Florida, where he remained until June 1943. He was then sent to Perry Airfield in Florida from June 1943 to October 1944.
It is not known exactly what Harold’s work was during this time; the file containing information about his time in the Air Corps was lost in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973. However, based on activities at Dale Mabry Field and Perry Airfield during his tenure, it is likely he was tasked with building and preparing both to be used as fighter training bases or he may have trained and worked as an aircraft mechanic.
The need for replacements for all American military branches, particularly infantry, had grown as the war, fought in Europe and the Pacific, continued into 1944. Adding to a shortage of trained infantry replacements was the need for a reserve of replacements as the U.S. Army prepared for an invasion of Northern France, which would become known as D-Day, in June 1944
By September 1944, as American forces pushed westward to Germany, the need for infantry replacements continued to plague the U.S. Army and the War Department ordered transfers from the Air Forces to the Ground Forces to be retrained. Men transferred from the Air Forces were assigned to IARTCs (Infantry Advanced Replacement Centers).
In October 1944, Pvt. Harold Poulter was reassigned to the 6th Battalion, 2nd Regiment, IARTC and transferred to the training center at Camp Gordon in Georgia. In November, he transferred to Maryland's Fort George G. Meade in preparation for deployment overseas in mid-December 1944.
Pvt. Poulter was assigned to the 53rd Reinforcement Battalion near Metz, France and transferred to Company G, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division, on Jan. 23, 1945.
On June 6, 1944, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, and after a successful struggle began advancing inland and then west across Nazi-occupied Europe with Germany as the ultimate goal.
The Allies had two main objectives. The first was to take Berlin, the capital of the Third Reich and planned site of Adolf Hitler’s “World Capital Germania,” if he succeeded in winning the war. The second objective was to attack the Ruhr Area, which was the center of German industry with the co*ke plants, steelworks, armaments factories and synthetic oil plants that were invaluable to the German war effort.
Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower felt the destruction of German industry was key to stopping the German Army and therefore considered the Ruhr industrial region to be the main objective.
The Allies employed a multi-pronged approach to the Ruhr Area, with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army set to make an advance toward the Siegfried Line and into the Saar industrial region. (The Siegfried Line was a reinforced defensive line on Germany’s western front, stretching 390 miles from the border of the Netherlands at Kleve in the north, to the border of Switzerland at Weil am Rhein in the south.)
The Allied advance was hindered by supply shortages and torrential rains and flooding, which allowed the German Army to regroup and in December the Allies faced a German counterattack in the heavily forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
The 80th Infantry Division, under the command of Gen. Patton’s Third Army, having moved on its objective near the Saar region in early December, was diverted north to the Ardennes region near Luxembourg to help stop the German offensive. The battle ended in Allied victory and the Allied Armies once again turned their attention to their push into Germany.
On Jan. 23, 1945, Pvt. Harold Poulter was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division as a replacement. The following day, Poulter’s battalion moved on to Beaufort, Luxembourg and occupied positions overlooking the Sauer River.
On Feb. 4, 1945, the 80th Division received orders directing the 318th Infantry Regiment to attack across the Sauer River into the fortifications of the Siegfried Line.
At 0200 hours on Feb. 7, the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion began firing as a diversionary tactic and began drawing artillery fire. At 0210, the 53rd began firing artillery on all known enemy positions. At 0300 hours, Second Battalion, selected to spearhead the attack on the Sauer River, began making its way across the icy river to Wallendorf, Germany and the Siegfried Line.
According to a 1985 report by the Combat Studies Institute called “Assault Across the Sauer,” the Sauer River became the 80th Division’s greatest adversary during the crossing. The report stated that flooding “caused the river to swell to twice its normal size and caused currents of up to 17 miles-per-hour,” and “extracted a high toll in men and material.”
In a Summary Description of Actions Report for the 318th/Company F, dated August 1944-May 1945, author unknown, it was reported the men had to “carry assault boats about 500 yards in ice, snow and mud over treacherous, hilly terrain while the enemy kept up a barrage of ‘screaming meemies,’ artillery, mortars, and small arms fire.”
Company F was the first to jump off and met little resistance, but enemy small arms fire, artillery and mortar fire picked up, the Germans having possible been alerted by Company F, and the subsequent companies met with heavier opposition.
Because of difficulty crossing the river, Second Battalion did not complete the crossing until 2300 hours on Feb. 7, with Third Battalion beginning to cross behind them. First Battalion followed on Feb. 9.
An After Action Report for the 318th Infantry Regiment reported that “at 1300 hours on February 8, Second Battalion attacked Northward and at 2300 reported a gain of 1,200 yards.”
It was during the action on Feb. 8 that Harold Poulter was killed.
Pvt. Harold Poulter was reported as Missing in Action on Feb. 8, 1945. A Missing Report, dated Feb. 23, 1945 and signed by Capt. Ernest M. Stalling of the 318th Infantry, stated Poulter was last seen in a wooded area on the German side of the Sauer River and that a squadron leader saw him shot by enemy rifle fire on a hill after crossing the river.
Due to intense enemy fire, his body was not recovered.
Official word was sent to his mother, Mrs. Bessie Poulter of Charleston, informing her that her son, Pvt. Harold O. Poulter, was missing in action.
The U.S. Army made later attempts to retrieve the bodies of Pvt. Poulter and others killed during the fight, or at least determine their fates.
On Aug. 28, 1945, Second Lt. Kenneth W. Beesting, investigating the death of Pvt. Poulter, wrote a report that stated: “In an attack on a hill about two (2) miles west of Biesdorf, Germany and about three hundred (300) yds east of the Sauer River, subject [Pvt. Harold Poulter] was shot. The terrain was thinly wooded. The enemy held the top of the hill with about a squad of men. As the platoon advanced, the enemy opened up with small arms fire, which hit Pvt. Poulter in the neck.”
During his investigation, Beesting spoke with Pfc. Levin Ange, who stated he saw several dead soldiers and checked their tags and one of them was definitely Harold O. Poulter.
On Oct. 19, 1945, at the conclusion of the investigation, Harold Poulter’s status was changed from Missing in Action to Killed in Action on Feb. 8, 1945. Bessie Poulter received another telegram informing her of the death of her son and a letter of confirmation and condolence from the Acting Adjutant General of the Army, Major Gen. Edward Witsell, dated Oct. 23, 1945.
However, Harold Poulter’s body remained unrecovered. A field investigation in October 1947 failed to locate the remains. During the investigation, it was determined that many of the American soldiers had been buried by the German Army in unmarked graves scattered throughout the area of Wallendorf and Biesdorf, making it impossible to recover and identify all of them.
In a continuing investigation in 1949, the U.S. Army contacted 2nd Lt. Beesting and Pfc. Ange to help determine the “disposition of casualties.” Beesting referenced his 1945 investigation report in reply. In a handwritten letter, Ange verified Poulter’s death:
“I was an eyewitness to the death as I had to jump over Pvt. Poulter’s body to get to cover. As squad leader, I checked his tags, and I left them on his neck. After reporting this and some time later I heard he had been took [sic] off the MIA list and had been placed on KIA list. This was in the latter part of Feb. or March 1945. By whom these casualties were picked up or where they were buried, I do not know. We were both in G Co. of the 318th Inf. Reg. of the 80th Div. Until I received your letter, I had always thought Pvt. Poulter had been accounted for.”
Pvt. Harold Poulter remained unrecovered. His name was recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Luxembourg American Cemetery.
Pvt. Poulter was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Good Conduct, American Campaign, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign with two Bronze Service Stars, and World War II Victory medals, a Combat Infantry Badge 1st Award and an Honorable Service lapel button.
Harold’s brother, Harley, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in Danville in November 1942, five months after his brother enlisted. Both men are gone so it is impossible to say with certainty, but it seems likely that he may have deliberately followed in his brother’s footsteps. He survived the war and returned home in 1945.
In 1947, Bessie Poulter became a charter member of the Coles County Chapter of Gold Star Mothers.
In 1951, human remains, military clothing, a helmet and ammunition were found in a wooded area southeast of Biesdorf, Germany. There were no tags, so identification was not possible, and the remains were given the designation of X-8517 Neuville and interred in the U.S. Military Cemetery in Tunisia.
In September 2022, the Defense Department and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains designated X-8517 Neuville for analysis and comparison to soldiers known to have been lost in the Biesdorf area.
On Jan. 17, 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced the remains had been identified as Pvt. Harold Oscar Poulter of Charleston.
Today, Harold Poulter will be buried alongside his parents in the Janesville Cemetery in Coles County. His niece, Lynn Graves of Greenup, the daughter of Harold’s sister Mary Jane who was just 15 when her brother died, never had the chance to meet her uncle but finds it extraordinary that after 79 years he is finally coming home, and it is a comfort to know he will now rest near his family.
