Remembering World War II

Wendell Lee Anderson

Sources: American Battle Monuments Commission worldwartwoveterans.org

Name: Wendell Lee Anderson Rank: Private Service Number: 31363638 Service: Company L, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Division, US Army Date of Birth: September 25, 1924 Place of Birth: Goldboro, Guysborough Co., NS Date of Enlistment: June 23, 1943 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Essex, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 18 Height: 5 feet, 5 inches Complexion: Light Eyes: Blue Hair: Black Trade: Semiskilled occupation in manufacture of paper and pulp Marital status: Single Next of Kin: Oland C Anderson (Father) 19 Perkins St, Gloucester, Mass. Date of Death: June 12, 1944 Age at Death: 19 Cemetery: Normandy American Cemetery, France Grave: Plot J, Row 4, Grave 6 Wendell Lee Anderson was the son of Mildred Estella (Giffin) Anderson (1900-1973) and Oland Clarke Anderson (1900-1985). His parents were married December 19, 1923 in Goldboro, NS. They were both in Gloucester, Mass. by 1925. Wendell’s father married his second wife, Margaret Sticklen, a stenographer, on June 20, 1933 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At the time, Oland had a taxi cab business. Wendell’s mother remarried in Quebec in 1941 to Laurier MacLellan. Wendell moved to Massachusetts and lived with his aunt Mona L Rodger (husband of Thomas Rodger) at 27 Lexington Ave in Haverhill, Mass. in 1941. Mona was Oland’s sister. The census for 1940 finds Oland and Mona’s mother, Wendell’s grandmother, Sadie C Anderson, living with Mona in Haverhill as well. Wendell is working at the Haverhill Boxboards Co. on South Kimball Street in Haverhill when he registered for the Draft on December 24, 1942. After enlistment in 1943, and initial processing at Fort Devens, Mass., Wendell was assigned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center, Camp Croft, South Carolina. After a brief furlough at home, he was stationed at Ft. Meade, Maryland, and from there shipped overseas December 20, 1943. He served in Company L, 38th Infantry, 2nd Division. He was stationed in Wales until June of 1944, when he participated in the landings on D-Day at Normandy as a machine gunner in a heavy weapons company. Wendell and the 38th Regiment liberated Trévières, France, on June 10, 1944. Wendell Lee Anderson was killed in action on June 12, 1944, at Trévières. Private Wendell Lee Anderson was buried in the US Army temporary Cemetery 3539 at La Cambe, in Normandy (Plot G, Row 3, Grave 57). La Cambe was established by the United States Army Graves Registration Service during the war, and was originally the resting place for both American and German soldiers, sailors and airmen buried in two adjacent fields. In 1945, the Americans transferred two-thirds of their fallen from La Cambe back to America whilst the remainder were re-interred at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. Wendell Lee Anderson was re interred there. Obituary: PRIVATE WENDELL L. ANDERSON, 31363638 KIA US Army. Private Anderson attended Bayview Academy, Goldboro, Nova Scotia. He came to Haverhill in 1941 to live with his aunt and was employed at the Haverhill Boxboards Co. He enlisted in the Army July 8, 1943, and after initial processing at Fort Devens, Mass., was assigned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center, Camp Croft, S. C. After a brief furlough at home, he was stationed at Ft. Meade, Md., and from there shipped overseas December 20, 1943. He served in Company L, 38th Infantry, 2nd Division. He was stationed in Wales until June, 1944, when he participated in the landings on D-Day at Normandy as a machine gunner in a heavy weapons company. He was killed in action on June 12, 1944, at Trevieres, France, while with the First Army. Private Anderson is buried in a military cemetery at La Cambe, France. He leaves his father, Mr. Oland C. Anderson, 19 Perkins St., Gloucester, Mass., and mother, Mrs. Laurier MacLellan, Canada.