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Bronze star/ Purple heart group


Sailorjerry45
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Sailorjerry45

Good evening gentlemen,

 

I came across this little set in a shop in Florida a few years ago and managed to do a little digging on Mr. Paul J. Taylert and found out he received both of these awards during the battle of the Colmar pocket, I don't know what unit he was with however I was still able to find a few interesting pieces of information. There is a period newspaper article saying that this wound happened not one month after being in the hospital for having frozen feet that February. "Doggone it, I'm back in the hospital but don't worry about the Jerry that got me, he's eight feet under" was what he wrote to his parents while recovering from the wound in a French hospital, interestingly enough an article written about him after his death states that he earned his BSM and PH in the Colmar pocket, I'm guessing whoever wrote it had the stories confused as I could see Mr. Taylert having his feet frozen there but his machine gun wound occurred after that battle had ended. As always if anyone has or can find any extra information especially a unit for Private taylert I would greatly appreciate it and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions on these!

 

Thank you, 

Will

 

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I found on Fold3 that he was listed in the 3rd division history as being in the 30th Infantry Regiment - 

 

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From the Democrat and Chronicle (NY) - March 19th 1945 -

 

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And here's his Madison High School senior picture from 1944 -

 

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In WWII, frostbite (frozen feet) was an accepted criteria for award of the Purple Heart. Of course now, it would not qualify as a wound inflicted by the enemy. It is very possible that your guy got the PH for his frozen feet and would have rated an oak leaf cluster for his subsequent wounding.

 

Allan

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