Pvt Stewart Sickels C/314th IR, killed in action 12 July 1944
Replies: 2
Pvt Stewart Sickels C/314th IR, killed in action 12 July 1944
Hi,
I wonder if anybody can help me find out more about Pvt Stewart Sickels, ASN 42006756, who was killed in action in Normandy, France, on 12 July 1944, and whose family resided (in 1944)at 166 Summit Avenue, Phillipsburg, NJ. Pvt Sickels belonged to C Company, (1st Battalion) 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division, and was killed by enemy machine gun fire 2000 yards north of the town of Lessay, near the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, during First United States Army's attempt to develop an offensive southwards against the German forces deployed in that area. Pvt Sickels' fate is the subject of a moving and interesting correspondence between his father, Mr. C. C. Sickels (Christian name unknown) and General Dwight D Eisenhower, at that time Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. I came across these letters in the Ira T. Wyche Papers in E. Carolina University (Wyche commanded 79th ID in the ETO), and I know that after his death, Pvt. Sickels was initially interred in the VIII Corps cemetery at Ste. Mere-Eglise. Later, his body was returned to the USA, and he was interred at Beverly National Cemetery, NJ (he is buried in Section F).
I am a military historian working in the UK (more specifically, I'm deputy head of the War Studies Department at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst - the British equivalent of your own West Point), and am currently working on a book about the Normandy campaign. I would like to quote the correspondence relating to Pvt Sickels' death in my book, but would also like to find out more about this young man (he was only 19 when he died) and - if possible - make contact with surviving family members. I appreciate that this is a big request, but I would be grateful for any assistance that readers of this message board can render. I am of course happy to reciprocate, if I can, and to provide copies of the correspondence to the Sickels family, if I am able to make contact with them.
I can be contacted via this message board, or directly on my home email address (clarktrew@btinternet.com) or my work email (s.trew@rmas.mod.uk). Thank you for taking the time to read this message.
I wonder if anybody can help me find out more about Pvt Stewart Sickels, ASN 42006756, who was killed in action in Normandy, France, on 12 July 1944, and whose family resided (in 1944)at 166 Summit Avenue, Phillipsburg, NJ. Pvt Sickels belonged to C Company, (1st Battalion) 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division, and was killed by enemy machine gun fire 2000 yards north of the town of Lessay, near the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, during First United States Army's attempt to develop an offensive southwards against the German forces deployed in that area. Pvt Sickels' fate is the subject of a moving and interesting correspondence between his father, Mr. C. C. Sickels (Christian name unknown) and General Dwight D Eisenhower, at that time Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. I came across these letters in the Ira T. Wyche Papers in E. Carolina University (Wyche commanded 79th ID in the ETO), and I know that after his death, Pvt. Sickels was initially interred in the VIII Corps cemetery at Ste. Mere-Eglise. Later, his body was returned to the USA, and he was interred at Beverly National Cemetery, NJ (he is buried in Section F).
I am a military historian working in the UK (more specifically, I'm deputy head of the War Studies Department at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst - the British equivalent of your own West Point), and am currently working on a book about the Normandy campaign. I would like to quote the correspondence relating to Pvt Sickels' death in my book, but would also like to find out more about this young man (he was only 19 when he died) and - if possible - make contact with surviving family members. I appreciate that this is a big request, but I would be grateful for any assistance that readers of this message board can render. I am of course happy to reciprocate, if I can, and to provide copies of the correspondence to the Sickels family, if I am able to make contact with them.
I can be contacted via this message board, or directly on my home email address (clarktrew@btinternet.com) or my work email (s.trew@rmas.mod.uk). Thank you for taking the time to read this message.