Red Dragon, Purple Heart
by A.C. Townsend
December 03, 1943 – Vicinity of Caspoli – Company “A” continued second hour of preparatory fire for special service troops from 0001 to 0100. Firing seventy two (72) rds WP and fifty six (56) rds HE on the Mt. Difensa area. No further support was called for by forward observer with special service troops. Radio communications (SCR 511) was very poor, use of wire was necessary, this being disrupted a great deal of the time by enemy shell fire. The SCR 511 is proving more unsatisfactory with each operation, wire communications is practically impossible with forward observers moving with forward elements of infantry. Need for radio with greater range for fire control is very urgent. At approximately 2030 Pvt Higgins, PFC Jeffries were killed in action, and Pvt’s Hassa and Lucas were slightly wounded by enemy shell fire of unusually heavy caliber. ~ Record of Events, Company A, 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion, Prepared by Walter J. Eldredge
Private First Class Willie K. Jeffries, son of Mrs. Tura Cathan Jeffries, Donansburg, Ky., has been killed in action in the Mediterranean area, the War Department announced today. ~ Lexington Leader, January 14, 1944
He was born May 29, 1921. He signed his draft registration card on February 16, 1942 and enlisted in the United States Army the following July 9 at the age of twenty-one. He left his family’s Green County, Kentucky farm for six weeks of basic training and months of specialized training, and then he followed orders to North Africa, to Sicily, to Italy.
He served as a Private First Class with Company A of the 2nd Chemical Battalion. On November 15, 1943, Company A was attached to the 36th Infantry Division. They were joined on November 19 by the First Special Service Force and were tasked with taking the heavily fortified German stronghold on Monte La Difensa, which was controlled by the 104th Panzer Grenadier Regiment. Soldiers worked in constant rain and snow with no shelter beyond caves and slit trenches, fighting through miserable weather conditions across soft, muddy ground. The action began on December 3. We now call it The Battle of Mount Difensa.
The battle exacted heavy casualties. At 8:30 p.m. on Friday, December 3, 1943, PFC Willie K. Jeffries died instantly when he was hit by German mortar fire. The U.S. WWII Hospital Admission Card File indicates he suffered a cerebral concussion caused by artillery shell fragments.
He was twenty-two years old.
The soldiers of the 2nd Chemical Battalion were known as the Red Dragons. Their motto: Flammis Vincimus; We conquer with fire. They were armed with the rifled M2 4.2-inch mortar nicknamed the ‘Goon Gun,’ which fired both high explosive (HE) shells that packed 3.64 kilograms of explosive charge and chemical shells that exploded to release white phosphorous (WP).
These soldiers called forth the kind of courage that can’t be described by anyone who wasn’t there. They weren’t just fighting for themselves and their Company, or even just for their families back home in the States. They fought for the freedom of citizens of the United States and her allies and for future generations they would never meet.
They fought for you and for me. They are the reason we enjoy the freedom we all take so tragically for granted.
Decades ago, a sepia photograph of a handsome young soldier, framed in an oval medallion flanked by an American flag, hung on the wall above the television in my grandmother’s living room. Captivated, I asked my grandmother who he was. His name was Kenneth, she shared; he was her little brother; and he died over in Sicily during World War II, twenty-three years before I was born. She thought he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but she wasn’t sure.
Our conversation was cut short by another adult in the family who ordered me to never again bring up the subject of the soldier. I was a child, and that was the only opportunity I ever had to talk to my grandmother or any of her siblings about their brother.
Upon the deaths of my grandfather in 1994 and my grandmother in 1997, the gold-framed portrait of Kenneth disappeared amidst family heirlooms auctioned off to the highest bidder. As years passed, my inexplicable need to find this young man, to somehow make contact with his memory and get to know him, deepened. Kenneth is the reason for my interest and research into World War II. When I wrote my first novel, which opens on the morning of the Trinity Test in 1945, one of the characters chose his name. He lived on in my mind and in my heart, an aching, anonymous mystery. Over the past decade, I searched for Kenneth among Internet archives, but it was as though he had never existed. I couldn’t even locate a picture of him among any historical military web sites, and that hurt most of all.
My prayers were answered when I stumbled across the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor online. I typed his name in the search box – Willie K. Jeffries – and there he was. His photograph filled the screen, and tears filled my eyes: after all of these years, I found you! I immediately printed out that photograph.
Renewed research uncovered details on genealogy sites and military accounts of the War that allowed me to piece together some of the specifics of Kenneth’s military service. I learned that my grandmother’s scant details weren’t entirely correct. Kenneth was killed in Italy, not in Sicily, and he never came home. He was laid to rest in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.
Kenneth was the sixth of nine children. He had brown hair and brown eyes. He stood 5’9” tall and weighed 150 pounds at the time of his enlistment.
Facts are wonderful, and I am so grateful to have them, but there will always be more questions than answers. What was Kenneth’s personality like? Did he have a girlfriend? Did he write letters home to his parents? Do those letters still exist somewhere, or were they long since destroyed as his parents and each of his eight siblings passed away? What became of his personal effects and his Purple Heart?
Perhaps it is enough that, after more than four decades, I can look into the face of the soldier I never knew and be so very proud of the amazing hero he was and will always be.
Reading about what he endured makes me shamefully aware of just how little I know about determination and courage, loyalty and duty. Kenneth gave not only his life but also his future. The opportunity to fall in love and marry and have children, the privilege of reaping the rewards of hard work and creativity, the warmth and love of grandchildren and great-grandchildren as his life advanced into a good old age, all were forfeit to his allegiance to our country during a global fight for freedom.
As a writer, I am drawn to names and their meanings. It did not escape me that ‘Willie’ is a Germanic name meaning ‘the desire to protect,’ and ‘Kenneth’ is Gaelic, meaning ‘a kind, gentle man.’ I choose to believe that my great-uncle epitomized both of those definitions.
There may come a time when Willie Kenneth Jeffries is remembered by no one. For now, at least, his life and sacrifice are cherished by his oldest sister’s only granddaughter, herself now a woman past fifty, but always the awestruck little girl staring into a photograph at the face of a handsome young soldier, long deceased, who still has stories to share.
Tremendous thanks to the online archives of Walter J. Eldredge for recording the history of the Red Dragons and for pinpointing the time, date, location, and manner of PFC Willie K. Jeffries’ death. Learn more at: https://www.4point2.org/2cmb.htm#WWII%20KIA and
http://www.red-dragons.org/A%20Co%202nd%20Cml%20Bn%20Sicily-Italy%201943-44.pdf
National Purple Heart Hall of Honor: https://www.thepurpleheart.com/roll-of-honor/
Draft cards and other WWII military records: https://www.fold3.com/?group=1
I found the way to print your post, thanks. Wold like to see you sometime.
I found the way to print your post, thanks. So glad you did this work. Would love to see you sometime.
Hi Danny, I’m glad you were able to print the story. I’ll send the article’s photos to you in a private message on Facebook. I’d love to see you again as well. After so many years, Kenneth has brought some of his family together again!
Is there any way I can print of get a copy of the article you posted on Facebook. I am not literate enough to figure out how to print your writing.
I have Kenneth’s burial flag and his Purple Heart. Thanks so much for this research I have learned things that I have questioned all my life.
Danny, thank you for sharing this. I’m so glad to know that his flag and his Purple Heart remain in the family, and I am grateful to know that I’m not the only one who remembers Kenneth and wanted to learn more about him. If you get a chance, order a copy of the book “Finding My Father’s War” by Walter J. Eldredge. From that book, I learned that Kenneth actually died in a foxhole during heavy mortar fire. The soldiers had dug in for the night and spread blankets over the holes to keep out the worst of the bitter wind. A shell fragment came through the blanket and struck Kenneth in the head, killing him where he slept. It is heartbreaking to have lost someone you never had the opportunity to meet, but he lives on in our memories and in our gratitude for his courage and sacrifice.
Thanks for your reply, I have other pictures and items of his. Would love to share information anytime you want.
Danny