This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Duane Kimbrow-Historian
to remember
Mauldin, William Henry ("Bill"), T/3.
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Contact Info
Last Address Mountain Park
Date of Passing Jan 22, 2003
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Bill Mauldin, though trained as a rifleman with the 180th Infantry Regiment, became famous as a cartoonist for the 45th Division News, and then for the Stars and Stripes newspaper, illustrating the life of the combat soldier in WWII.
He was syndicated in more than 100 stateside newspapers in 1944, but it was the series "Up Front ... With Mauldin" that helped Americans to understood what the war was really like. He participated in the invasion of Sicily and then the Italian Campaign.
He was wounded at Monte Cassino by a mortar round which gave him even more credibility. Though well loved by the regular soldier, he created a fierce enemy in General Patton who threatened to "throw his ass in jail" at one point. He also served in France and Germany.
Bill was an author and editorial cartoonist for the Stars and Stripes, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Chicago Sun-Times. He also acted in two movies, including John Huston's 1951 movie production of "The Red Badge of Courage."
He was laid to rest on 29 January 2003 in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, in Section 64, Grave 6974.
Bill Maudlin, from Up Front (1945): "The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry. I don't make the infantryman look noble, because he couldn't look noble even if he tried. Still there is a certain nobility and dignity in combat soldiers and medical aid men with dirt in their ears. They are rough and their language gets coarse because they live a life stripped of convention and niceties. Their nobility and dignity come from the way they live unselfishly and risk their lives to help each other. They are normal people who have been put where they are, and whose actions and feelings have been molded by their circumstances. There are gentlemen and boors; intelligent ones and stupid ones; talented ones and inefficient ones. But when they are all together and they are fighting, despite their bitching and griping and goldbricking and mortal fear, they are facing cold steel and screaming lead and hard enemies, and they are advancing and beating the hell out of the opposition. They wish to hell they were someplace else, and they wish to hell they would get relief. They wish to hell the mud was dry and they wish to hell their coffee was hot. They want to go home. But they stay in their wet holes and fight, and then they climb out and crawl through minefields and fight some more."
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Southern France Campaign (1944)/Operation Dragoon
From Month/Year
August / 1944
To Month/Year
September / 1944
Description Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence (Southern France) on 15 August 1944. The operation was initially planned to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, the Allied landing in Normandy, but the lack of available resources led to a cancellation of the second landing. By July 1944 the landing was reconsidered, as the clogged-up ports in Normandy did not have the capacity to adequately supply the Allied forces. Concurrently, the French High Command pushed for a revival of the operation that would include large numbers of French troops. As a result, the operation was finally approved in July to be executed in August.
The goal of the invasion was to secure the vital ports on the French Mediterranean coast and increase pressure on the German forces by opening another front. After some preliminary commando operations, the US VI Corps landed on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur under the shield of a large naval task force, followed by several divisions of the French Army B. They were opposed by the scattered forces of the German Army Group G, which had been weakened by the relocation of its divisions to other fronts and the replacement of its soldiers with third-rate Ostlegionen outfitted with obsolete equipment.
Hindered by Allied air supremacy and a large-scale uprising by the French Resistance, the weak German forces were swiftly defeated. The Germans withdrew to the north through the Rhône valley, to establish a stable defense line at Dijon. Allied mobile units were able to overtake the Germans and partially block their route at the town of Montélimar. The ensuing battle led to a stalemate, with neither side able to achieve a decisive breakthrough, until the Germans were finally able to complete their withdrawal and retreat from the town. While the Germans were retreating, the French managed to capture the important ports of Marseille and Toulon, soon putting them into operation.
The Germans were not able to hold Dijon and ordered a complete withdrawal from Southern France. Army Group G retreated further north, pursued by Allied forces. The fighting ultimately came to a stop at the Vosges mountains, where Army Group G was finally able to establish a stable defense line. After meeting with the Allied units from Operation Overlord, the Allied forces were in need of reorganizing and, facing stiffened German resistance, the offensive was halted on 14 September. Operation Dragoon was considered a success by the Allies. It enabled them to liberate most of Southern France in just four weeks while inflicting heavy casualties on the German forces, although a substantial part of the best German units were able to escape. The captured French ports were put into operation, allowing the Allies to solve their supply problems quickly.
