Name: Rank: Service Number: Service: Award: Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Date of Enlistment: Place of Enlistment: Address at Enlistment: Age at Enlistment: Height: Weight: Martial Status: Trade: Religion: Next of Kin: Date of Death: Age at Death: Cemetery: Reference:

William M. McCormick

Sources American Battle Monuments Commission Fields of Honor findagrave.com European Theatre of Operations Tank Battalion Histories: Province of Nova Scotia Marriage Register Rick Rittler (Nephew of Jesse Bachofer’s)

William Montague McCormick Sergeant (Technician Fourth Grade) 32804686 701st Tank (Destroyer) Battalion United States Army Purple Heart 1909 Dartmouth, NS February 13, 1943 New York City, New York 35 5 feet, 6 inches 145 lbs. Married Checker Church of England Gwendolyn G. Mc Cormick (Wife) Amherst, NS February 24, 1945 37 Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands Plot D Row 2 Grave 10 William was the son of John McCormick (b. Greenock, Scotland) and Susan (Frampton) McCormick of Amherst, Nova Scotia. On February 6, 1941 he became a naturalized American citizen in New York. On June 29, 1943 William, at the time a soldier in the US Army, married Gwendolyn Grace Wilson at Christ Church in Amherst, Nova Scotia. Gwendolyn was aged 38, born in Richford, Vermont, US on February 3, 1903 and was employed as a Medical Secretary (Doctor's office). She was the daughter of Jay Orin Wilson (b. Richford, Vermont) and Edna Sophia (Ferguson) Wilson (b. in Amherst Nova Scotia). At the time of Sergeant McCormick’s death his wife was living in Amherst, Nova Scotia. The 701st Tank Battalion was activated March 1, 1943 at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, under Lt. Col. F. J. Simpson. Originally organized as special battalion equipped with CDL spotlight tanks, they landed in Liverpool, England, on May 1, 1944 and shipped to France in August, 1944 where the battalion stayed until reorganized as a standard tank battalion after October 23, 1944. The battalion moved to front on December 19, 1944 attached to 102nd Infantry Division. The unit joined the assault across Roer River on February 23, 1945. They attacked northward, reaching the Rhine at Krefeld. William McCormick was killed in action (KIA) in the vicinity of Boslar, Germany on February 24, 1945 . Staff Sergeant Jesse (Pinky) Merle Bachofer (1919- 1945), a fellow tank crew member, wrote home that Mac (William McCormick) was the driver of the tank and that they were the best of friends. Staff Sergeant Jesse Bachofer ran toward the tank attempting to save William but was turned back by the flames. Staff Sergeant Jesse Bachofer was killed in action April 9, 1945 at Steinburg, Schleswig- Holstein, Germany. The Battalion crossed the Rhine beginning March 26th attached to the 75th Infantry Division, and was re-attached to 102nd Infantry Division for drive through Munster and across Weser River, and ended the war in Gardelegen. Sergeant William McCormick was originally interred in the Margraten Cemetery, Aachen, Holland and then re-interred in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten when burials were consolidated. It is the only American War Cemetery in the Netherlands and includes the statue of the grieving mother.

701st Tank near Lövenich, Germany (February 25 1945)