Remembering World War II

Name: Joseph McGillivray Rank: Private 1st Class Service Number: 31295671 Service: 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, VII Corps, US Army Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: December 14, 1906 Place of Birth: Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: February 5, 1943 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 36 Address at Enlistment: Suffolk Co., Massachusetts Height: 5 feet, 10 inches Complexion: Ruddy Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Gray Occupation: Porter Date of Death: June 15, 1944 Age: 37 Cemetery: Normandy American Cemetery, France Grave: Plot F, Row 8, Grave 28 Joseph was the son of Frank Michael MacGillivray and Margaret A (MacIsaac) McGillivray. He had an older sister Catherine, two younger sisters Genevieve and Veronica, and a younger brother Michael (1915-2005). Michael served in the United States Army Air Force in WWII. When he immigrated in 1926, his arrival contact in the US was his aunt, Mrs. Stephen J Mcinnis. By 1930, he was working as a chauffeur, or driver, for the Wilson Truck Company in Massachusetts. The family was living on Blue Hill Ave in Boston, Mass. In April 1940 Joseph was working as a chauffeur for a private family in Boston. He registered for the US Draft in Boston, Mass., on October 16, 1940, was working at the WT Grant department store, and was living at 37 Fairland St in Roxbury, Suffolk Co. with his mother and some of his siblings at the time. His father died some time prior to 1940, as his mother is recorded as widowed. After enlistment in February 1943, and basic training stateside, he trained with Company C, of the 31st Battalion, 1st Replacement Depot in Canastel, Oran in Algeria. It is there that he also signed his Petition for Naturalization for US citizenship on July 6, 1943. He was assigned to the 60th Infantry Regiment (nicknamed the Go Devils), of the 9th Infantry Division (also known as the Old Reliables). The 60th Infantry Regt. fought in the liberation of Sicily. Then, on November 11, 1943, the 60th embarked for Winchester, Hampshire, England. They took part in the Normandy Campaign but did not land immediately on June 6, 1944. On June 11, 1944, the 60th Infantry debarked at Utah Beach on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, France. Joseph McGillivray was killed in the efforts to secure the Douve Line early in the Normandy Campaign only four days after his Regiment landed in France, and 9 days after D-Day, on June 15, 1944. Joseph McGillivray was buried in the US Army temporary Cemetery 3539 at La Cambe, in Normandy (Plot J, Row 2, Grave 32). 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. Joseph McGillivray was reinterred there. Forty-four sets of brothers lay side by side at the Normandy American Cemetery. Members of the Wartime Heritage Association, George Egan and Glen Gaudet, visited the Normandy American Cemetery in July 2009 and laid a cross of remembrance in memory of those Nova Scotians lost.

Joseph McGillivary

Source: American Battle Monuments Commission - Joseph McGillivray American Battle Monuments Commission – Normandy American Cemetery 9thinfantrydivision.net findagrave

9th Infantry Division, the "Old Reliables”, and the 60th Infantry Regiment (motto, ‘To the Utmost Extent of Our Power’) insignias