Towle, John Roderick

Date of birth:: October 19th, 1924 (Cleveland/Ohio, United States)
Date of death:: September 21st, 1944 (Oosterhout/Gelderland, Netherlands)
Buried on:: American War Graves Calvary Cemetery
Plot: 60. Row: 53. Grave: 1.
Service number:: 35053178
Nationality:: American

Biography

John Roderick Towle was born on October 19th 1924 in Cleveland-Coyahoga County, Ohio, the United States of America. As the second son of William Towle and Mary Simpkins, John grew up together with his elder brother and two younger sisters at E. 73d Street in Cleveland. As a boy he attended Saint Agnes School. On 11th of March 1943, a few months after his 18th birthday, he joined the US Army. He volunteered to become a paratrooper, and such happened.
About his paratrooper training he wrote in a letter to his family: “Well, the first jump is over, and I landed like a feather. You have no sensation of falling at all. I've seen some beautiful things in this world, but, oh brother, nothing can compare with that big, white, silk, beautiful chute".
Via Northern-Africa, John was sent as replacement to Italy and joined Company C of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division ‘All American’. It is likely that this occurred after operation Husky in Sicily in July 1943, when the 504th suffered high personnel losses. John probably was part of the regiment during operation Avalanche in Salerno, in September 1943. Later, John participated in the Allied landing near Anzio, operation Shingle, which started on 22nd January 1944. At the end of March 1944 he and his regiment were shipped in and travelled by sea to England. The heavy losses the 504th endured in Italy, and a lack of replacements, prevented the regiment from participating in operation Overlord, the invasion in Normandy. While staying behind in England, John with his unit trained and prepared for their next operational jump.
In September 1944, the 504th participated in the airborne landings near Nijmegen, part again of the 82nd Airborne Division, during operation Market Garden. His regiment jumped near Overasselt and Grave and conquered the bridge over the Maas-river near Grave and the one near Heumen across the Maas-Waal channel. On 20 September John’s Company C of the 1st Battalion, took part in the river crossing near Nijmegen by canvas boats. After the 3rd Battalion, lead by Major Julian Aaron Cook, had crossed the Waal in the first two waves, the 1st Battalion, with John’s Company C, followed. In the evening the two bridges near Nijmegen across the river were secured and a bridgehead north of the river was formed by the Allied forces.
The next day, on September 21st 1944, private John Roderick Towle died when his unit endured a German counter attack on the west flank of the bridgehead near Oosterhout. After he successfully engaged two tanks and a German squad with his Bazooka rocket launcher, John was fatally injured by mortar fire while attempting to take out a half-track. His brave actions saved those of many others and enabled his unit to successfully repelling the German counterattack. Private John R. Towle was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Only 19 years of age, he was the third member of the 82nd Airborne Division to receive this highest military award. His body was sent home and buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

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European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Private
Unit:: Company C, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division "All American", U.S. Army
Awarded for:: Operation Shingle

Citation unavailable, however, he received this medal for participating in operation Shingle at Anzio, Italy in 1944.

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

Medal of Honor - Army (MoH)

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Private
Unit:: Company C, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division "All American", U.S. Army
Awarded on:: March 15th, 1945

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 21 September 1944, near Oosterhout, Holland. The rifle company in which Pvt. Towle served as rocket launcher gunner was occupying a defensive position in the west sector of the recently established Nijmegen bridgehead when a strong enemy force of approximately 100 infantry supported by 2 tanks and a half-track formed for a counterattack. With full knowledge of the disastrous consequences resulting not only to his company but to the entire bridgehead by an enemy breakthrough, Pvt. Towle immediately and without orders left his foxhole and moved 200 yards in the face of intense small-arms fire to a position on an exposed dike roadbed. From this precarious position Pvt. Towle fired his rocket launcher at and hit both tanks to his immediate front. Armored skirting on both tanks prevented penetration by the projectiles, but both vehicles withdrew slightly damaged. Still under intense fire and fully exposed to the enemy, Pvt. Towle then engaged a nearby house which 9 Germans had entered and were using as a strongpoint and with 1 round killed all 9. Hurriedly replenishing his supply of ammunition, Pvt. Towle, motivated only by his high conception of duty which called for the destruction of the enemy at any cost, then rushed approximately 125 yards through grazing enemy fire to an exposed position from which he could engage the enemy half-track with his rocket launcher. While in a kneeling position preparatory to firing on the enemy vehicle, Pvt. Towle was mortally wounded by a mortar shell. By his heroic tenacity, at the price of his life, Pvt. Towle saved the lives of many of his comrades and was directly instrumental in breaking up the enemy counterattack."

Awarded posthumously.