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Joseph Edgerly: No Soldier Left Behind by Les Hughes © by author 2014 |
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The Last Patrol At 0700 hrs on 4 November 1944, a 19-man patrol from “C” Company of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion led by 2LT Richard Hallock was dispatched to the mountains north of Mollières, France1, to determine whether the area was still occupied by the enemy. After scaling the side of a mountain and finding two pillboxes commanding its approaches unoccupied, the patrol pressed on in the direction of a rocky ledge in the basin between the pillboxes. With PFC Edgerly in the lead as #1 Scout and PFC Carter as #2 Scout, the main body of the patrol followed by bounds, its progress slowed by the two and a half feet of snow that lie on the ground. After the main body of the patrol had proceeded about 75 yards past a large boulder lying in the basin, and with the scouts still about 150 yards short of the ridge, the main body of the patrol came under attack from concealed positions ahead – first from a machine gun, and then from a 20-mm cannon. Hallock ordered a withdrawal to the boulder, which offered the only cover in the basin. Soon, those behind the boulder found themselves exposed to flanking fire. Rather than risk having the entire patrol cut off, Hallock ordered a withdrawal from the basin, leaving behind four men who had been unable to reach the boulder: PFC Joseph A. Edgerly, CPL Clarence R. Carter, PVT Joe G. Rowe, and PFC John F. Chappell, Jr.2 CPL Carter alone of the four men cut off from the main body of the patrol would return: the remaining three men were reported missing in action.3 In the course of
researching the 551st Battalion’s casualties, I found that
Dan Morgan listed each of the three missing members of the patrol as
killed in action (KIA). But when I examined the casualty records of the
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), I found that
Edgerly’s status was a finding of death (FOD), which is a designation
typically reserved for individuals whose death, in the absence of a
body, is inferred from circumstantial evidence.4 I was puzzled.
Morgan, in his history of the battalion, had written (my comments in
square brackets): “Joe Edgerly had lavished care and affection on
Furlough [the battalion’s Dachshund mascot]. Legend has it that she
went on this patrol. Joe’s body was not recovered until the next day,
and according to legend, she [Furlough] stayed with his body overnight,
until the recovery team came up the next morning”.5 Orfalea, in his
history of the battalion, repeats this.6 Why, I wondered, did Edgerly
have a casualty status of FOD if his body had been recovered the next
day? In 2014, I obtained, via
a Freedom of Information Act request, a copy of the Individual Personnel
Death File (IDPF) of Joseph Edgerly. The file, covering 120 pages,
illuminates both the reason for the FOD casualty status and the tenacity
of the War Department and the American Graves Registration Command in
accounting for missing service personnel, a task that continued long
after the Second World War ended. And it illustrates how time alters
memories. Joe
Edgerly Joe Edgerly enlisted in
the Army on 1 July 1942, ten days after his eighteenth birthday. In
November of that year, following basic training at Camp Roberts,
California, he entered the paratrooper training program at Fort Benning,
after which, in early January 1943, he processed through Hampton Roads
on his way to Panama and the 551st. Dan Morgan and others put
him in “B” Company in Panama and afterwards, but he is listed among
“C” Company personnel at Mackall and in France. Morgan wrote of Edgerly:
“He had a very rough start in life as a homeless youngster living on
the streets of Boston…”7 Similarly, Orfalea describes him as
having been “…a homeless waif in Boston as a child…”8
and
“an orphan who escaped the streets of Boston to move out west before
he hit his teenage years”.9
While
census records suggest Edgerly may have had a problematic home life and
a hardscrabble childhood, they contradict his having been homeless or an
orphan. At the time of the 1930 US Census, six years after Edgerly’s
birth, his mother and father were living apart: his father, listing his
marital status as “married,” was living with his widowed mother and
her son by a second marriage; Edgerly’s mother was listed as the
divorced head of her own household of four children. Edgerly’s father
is not to be found in the 1940 US Census, but his mother still appears
as the divorced head of household, but now with six children (Joe the
eldest), two born since the 1930 census, and all of surname Edgerly.
Additionally, when Edgerly enlisted, he designated his mother as next of
kin, and her and his paternal grandmother as the beneficiaries of his GI
life insurance. At the time of his enlistment, he listed his education
as one year of high school. These facts argue against his being an
orphan or homeless. On the other hand, the fact he enlisted at Camp
Grant, Illinois, indicates that, by age 18, he had left Boston for
greener pastures. What appears not to be
in dispute is Edgerly’s popularity in the battalion – recollections of
him by veterans of the battalion are invariably warm. “Joe Edgerly was
an unforgettable person. After all, how many of us would go AWOL to the
front? Joe was almost a perfect physical specimen: very muscular,
adventuresome, carefree and gung-ho. So when we got to Italy Joe went
AWOL from the battalion… He was gone a few days, maybe four… the
next time I saw him he mentioned that he had done this, and I asked him
why. He said he had just wanted to see what combat was like. He’d gone
up to the Fifth Army front. …To me, that is derring-do of the highest
order.”10 “Joe was one of our outstanding athletes – boxer,
track, weights, one-arm pushups, whatever. He was also a champion of the
underdog, in the most realistic sense.”7 “…many men in the
battalion would have the impression that Joe Edgerly was the one who
gave us Furlough [the battalion’s Dachshund mascot], an impression
that stemmed from his concern and affection for her.”7 Legends of Fall But what of the patrol of 4 November 1944 that left Edgerly, Rowe, and Chappell missing? Let’s start with the statement of Morgan, repeated by Orfalea: “Legend has it that she [Furlough] went on this patrol. Joe’s body was not recovered until the next day, and according to legend, she stayed with his body overnight, until the recovery team came up the next morning.”5 Surely, neither Edgerly,
who always had Furlough’s welfare at heart, nor the other members of
the patrol, either out of concern for her welfare or their own, would
have taken Furlough on a patrol into contested territory. Especially
telling is the report of the patrol’s action, dated 23 November 1944,
wherein it is stated that two and one-half feet of snow lie on the
ground traversed by the patrol. Imagine a Dachshund keeping up with the
patrol in snow that deep! The legend is improbable but not surprising:
it reflects the affection in which the men held both Furlough and
Edgerly, and the degree to which the two were associated: if Joe Edgerly
had to die, that’s the way his buddies would have wanted it to
happen, with Furlough by his side. More surprising is the recollection
that Edgerly’s body was recovered the next day, a claim that equally
is legend – months would pass before the remains of any of the three men
lost on 4 November 1944 were recovered. But one can imagine how such a
belief might have arisen: the battalion was dispersed along a line in
the Maritime Alps, and word of the patrol’s casualties would have
circulated by word of mouth, altered and embellished in the process. And
November 1944 was a time of flux for the battalion. Two weeks after the
fatal patrol, the battalion was relieved and withdrawn to St. Jeannet,
near Nice; and three weeks after that, the 551st was on its
way north, to the Ardennes. The Search Although remains
suspected to be those of Chappell and Rowe had been recovered months
later, all three men were officially carried as MIA when hostilities in
Europe ended. Shortly after the end of the war, in an effort to learn
more about the action of 4 November 1944 that left Rowe, Chappell, and
Edgerly missing, the Army queried Clarence Carter, the lone survivor of
the men who were cut off during the ambush, regarding the fate of the
three missing men. Carter had returned to duty after the ambush, and
later, as a member of “A” Company, was wounded during the Bulge. In
a letter dated 4 October 1945, Carter wrote (comment in brackets mine):1 “In answer to the letter which I received just
today on the fate of Joseph A. Edgerly, John F. Chappel Jr, and Joe G.
Rowe. I inform you that all three were killed in action on a
reconnaissance patrol mission in which I was a member. Description of
action: We went forward in a five men echelon to observe German
positions. Before we could get to the top of the Ridge we were fired on
by two machine guns and several small arms. We had to back down the hill
to withdraw, then another gun opened up on us from the side about 75
yards from us. We hit the snow but it was too late to get away. The rest
of the patrol left over the rise, left us there to take it. It was just
about dark when the ferrys (sic) came down on skies (sic) to check up
and see if we were dead. I was the only one to come out alive. No
witness (sic) were left. They were killed about 8 miles off of St.
Savaius on 4 Nov. 1944 by machine guns and small arms. The place of
burial is unknown. Their [sic] were no other witnesses.” By
“St. Savaius” Carter meant St. Sauveur, which today appears on maps
as Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée, six miles southwest of Mollières, seven and one half miles
south southeast of Isola (cited below), and six and one half miles from
where Edgerly’s remains were recovered. When Carter wrote (by hand, I
suspect) “ferrys” and “skies,” I believe that he meant: “It
was just about dark when the Jerries
came down on skis to check up
and see if we were dead.” This interpretation makes sense in that the
Americans had gone up the
mountain to patrol; the Germans, in positions above, would have had to
come down to check for
American dead. The comment suggests Carter may have fooled the Germans
into believing he was dead; then withdrew to safety under the cover of
darkness. But I have found nothing specific relating to the
circumstances of his return from the patrol, and they remain something
of a mystery, especially in light of the battalion’s report of 23 Nov
1944, more than two weeks afterwards, which seems to imply that all four
men are still missing.
Key locations in the recovery of remains of members of the patrol of 4 Nov 1944. X marks the location of Edgerly's remains. The undulating yellow line (top, right) is the French-Italian border. The remains of two
soldiers had been found together in the “vicinity, Isola, France,”
the same general area where the patrol had been ambushed.12 Precisely
when these remains were found is not clear from the documents in
Edgerly’s IDPF, but both Rowe and Chappell were carried as MIA as late
as September 1945. The identification tag (“dog tag”) of Joe Rowe
was found with one set of remains. Only remnants of clothing were found
with the other, one with the laundry mark “C-8228,” which pointed to
John Chappell. (Laundry marks consisted of the first letter of the
individual’s last name and the last four digits of his service
number.) Both sets of remains were interred in the Luynes U.S. Temporary
Military Cemetery at Aix-en-Provence, 13 miles north of Marseille:
Rowe’s under his name, and Chappell’s, pending formal
identification, as X-160. The identification of X-160 as Chappell was
still considered tentative as late as March 1946. The fact that the
remains were probably those of members of the patrol on which Edgerly
had disappeared led the Quartermaster General, on 15 March 1946, to ask
the Graves Registration Command in Versailles, France, whether other
remains had been found in the same area as those of Rowe and X-160 that
might be Edgerly’s. In fact, unburied
skeletal remains had been recovered in the area of Testa della Rubina,
about one mile north northwest of Mollières. The exact date the remains were located is not given in
Edgerly’s IPDF, but the official report of the recovery is dated 15
October 1945. Recovered with the remains were size 8½EE combat boots; a
reversible, fur-lined ski parka; socks; and remnants of a shirt and
trousers. No identification tag was found, nor did the surviving
remnants of clothing bear any useful markings. On 18 October 1945, the
remains were interred at Luynes as X-187. In the absence of
remains identified as Edgerly’s, a Finding of Death was issued on 8
November 1945; setting, by statute, the date of his death as 5 November
1945, one year and one day after he went missing. Later, when
Edgerly’s remains were formally identified, his casualty status would
be changed to “killed in action” and the date of his death to 4
November 1944, but it is the status FOD that appears today in NARA’s
files. By August 1948, when it
was apparent that X-187 might be Edgerly, the Graves Registration
Command requested Edgerly’s dental records. Five pre-mortem tooth
charts (the first recorded in Basic Training; the last in Italy) were
compared with those of two post-mortem examinations (the first in
October 1945; the second in August 1947). In September 1948, the
identification of X-187 as Edgerly was complete. The basis of the
identification was cited as: (a) dental records, (b) Edgerly’s
recorded stature versus those inferred from the skeletal remains13,
(c) the 8½EE combat boots recovered with the remains (Edgerly was on
record as wearing size 8½D), and (d) the nearness of the recovery site
to where Edgerly had been reported missing. On 5 October 1948, the
American Graves registration Command notified the Quartermaster General
that X-187 was Joseph A. Edgerly. On 5 November 1948, four
years and one day after PFC Edgerly had been declared missing in action,
a letter was sent from the Memorial Section of the Quartermaster Corps
to his mother, Mrs. Marion Edgerly of Charlestown, Massachusetts,
notifying her that her son’s remains had been identified and
requesting that she, as next-of-kin, specify whether she wished his
remains interred abroad or returned to the States for interment. On 1
December 1948, Mrs. Edgerly notified the Army by telegram that she
wished her son to be interred abroad. Joseph A. Edgerly is
interred in the Rhone American Cemetery at Draguignan, France, the city
the 551st liberated in August 1944, as is John F. Chappell,
Jr., who died with Edgerly, and ten other members of the battalion. The
third man lost that day, Joe G. Rowe, is interred in the Baltimore,
Maryland, National Cemetery.14 Records suggest that Clarence R.
Carter, the only one of the four reported missing on 4 November 1944 to
have survived, died in 1972, at age 49.15 Odds & Ends Joe Edgerly was born in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, on June 21, 1924.
His father was also Joseph A. Edgerly, though there is no evidence Joe ever
appended “Junior” to his name. Indeed, census records suggest the
possibility that young Joseph Edgerly might not have been born with that
name. Joe does not appear in the 1930 US Census. Instead, the household
of his mother includes a son Robert, age 6, the age that Joe would have
been in 1930. Robert is missing from his mother’s household in the
1940 US Census, but son Joseph, age 16, is present.
Joe Edgerly’s mother
bore six children and lived to be 81 years of age. His two sisters have
disappeared from public records, perhaps due to marriage and changes of
surname. But the men of the Edgerly family can be traced, and while it
is impossible to gauge what success in life they might have enjoyed, it
appears that longevity eluded them: Edgerly’s father died at age 49;
two brothers at age 52; a third brother at age 62. References Morgan, Dan (1984). The
Left Corner of My Heart. Wauconda, WA: Alder Enterprises. Orfalea, Gregory
(1997). Messengers of the Lost
Battalion. New York: The Free Press. Individual Personnel
Death File (IDPF) of Joseph A. Edgerly. Human Resources Command,
Department of the Army. Endnotes 1. At the time of the patrol and the recovery
operations, Mollières
and Testa Della Rubina (referenced when Edgerly’s remains were found)
were noted on maps in Edgerly’s IDPF as being in Italy. Today, they
lie in France, in land, I assume, that was ceded by Italy to France in
the Italian Peace Treaty of 1947. Isola, then and now, is in France. 2. The battalion’s Operational Summary for
November 1944 [Morgan, p. 318] states that one Frenchman, in addition to
the four Americans, went missing on this patrol. It is reasonable to
surmise that the Frenchman was one of the FFI guides who worked with the
battalion. 3. “Statement of Circumstances Surrounding
Missing in Action Personnel,” from Headquarters, 1st Bn.
551st Parachute Infantry (Rein) to The Adjutant General, 23
November 1944. The battalion’s Intelligence Summary for November 1944
[Morgan, p. 317] states that the patrol “encountered machine gun fire
from well concealed pillboxes.” 4. NARA’s list of dead and missing is organized
by the state and county of residence specified by the individual upon
enlistment. Edgerly’s name should have appeared in the list of
casualties of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, but instead it appears in
the Sussex County list. 5. Morgan, p. 280. 6. Orfalea, p. 180. 7. Morgan, p. 89. 8. Morgan, p. 69. 9. Morgan, p. 179. 10. Morgan, p. 154. 11. IDPF of Joseph Edgerly. 12. Isola lies about 5.5 miles roughly west of the
site where Edgerly’s remains were found, but the term “vicinity”
is vague. 13. At the time of his enlistment, Edgerly’s
height and weight were recorded as 5’ 6” and 139 lbs. 14. One of the battalion’s veterans whose
recollections Dan Morgan and Gregory Orfalea tapped for their books was
Ellery Sweat, a surviving member of the patrol on which Rowe was killed.
Sweat recounted [Morgan, p. 310] that he was carrying the Browning
Automatic Rifle (BAR) that day, and as the climb progressed, he became
very fatigued. Rowe offered to carry the BAR and give Sweat a chance to
recover, and it was Rowe who was in possession of the BAR when the
ambush was sprung. Sweat believed that Rowe’s covering fire with the
BAR was instrumental in allowing the bulk of the patrol to extricate
itself from the ambush. 15. I concluded this from the Social Security Death
Index, for which I used personal information for Carter gleaned from his
enlistment file and from census records. (The roster of battalion
personnel that Morgan compiled has the wrong ASN for Carter. His correct
ASN appears in the battalion’s Bulge casualty lists and in Edgerly’s
IDPF.)
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