Remembering World War II

Name: Charles Plympton Smith Rank: First Lieutenant Service Number: O-1323361 Service: Headquarters, 304th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division, United States Army Awards: Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Silver Star Date of Birth: September 27, 1922 Place of Birth: Burlington, Chittenden County, Vermont Date of Enlistment: August 18, 1942 Place of Enlistment: Rutland, Rutland Co., Vermont Age at Enlistment: 19 Address at Enlistment: Chittenden County, Vermont Height: 5 feet, 8 ½ inches Complexion: Light Brown Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Occupation: Actor (on enlistment record) Marital Status: Single Date of Death: March 7, 1945 Age at Death: 22 Cemetery: Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Chittenden County, Vermont Charles Plympton Smith was the son of Charles Plympton Smith (1892-1967), and Dora Jones (Freeman) Smith (1892–1967), and the husband of Beatrice Hazel (Small) Smith (1922-2012). He had three sisters, Dorothea Smith (1919–2007), Grace Freeman (Smith) Lillie (1921–1961), and Julia Smith (1928–1998). His mother was born in Milton West, Queens County, Nova Scotia, and his father was born in Burlington, Vermont. Charles married Beatrice on December 6, 1942. They had one daughter Jill Freeman Smith (b. 1944). The family lived on Smith Street in Burlington, in an area known as Appletree Point and Charles graduated from Burlington High in 1940. He was also working as an apprentice mechanic. He completed 2 years of college at the University of Vermont, before enlisting. Charles enlisted with the US Army Air Forces in March of 1942. When he married Beatrice in December 1942, he was stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey with the USAAF, but transferred to the US Army infantry in March of 1943. He was commissioned as an officer at Fort Benning, Georgia and served at Camp McKoy in Wisconsin before going overseas. In November, he went to Europe with Patton’s Third Army as an Intelligence Officer. His death notice published in The Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vermont) on March 27, 1945, states he died at an army evacuation hospital in Luxembourg. An obituary published in the same paper on September 18, 1948, states Charles died in Germany. He died of wounds, likely sustained in Germany from which he succumbed while in the evacuation hospital in Luxembourg. The family chose to repatriate his remains rather than having him interred at an American Battle Monument Commission cemetery in Europe, and he is interred at the Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington, Chittenden County, Vermont. Charles earned a Purple Heart for injuries, a Bronze Star on August 10, 1945, and the Silver Star on August 24, 1945, for meritorious citations.

Charles Plympton Smith

Sources: findagrave honorstates.org – Charles P. Smith