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Remember...John William Gill
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John William Gill ("Bill") was born in Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia, on September 11, 1924, to parents Llewellyn John (a manager or salesman) and Faye Murphy Gill (a nurse). Bill was apparently the only child of Llewellyn and Faye and spent the early years of his life growing up in Fairmont. He graduated from West High School, and, according to his WWII draft card, was employed at the Koppers Coal Company store at Everettville .
Bill entered the service in May 1943 and went overseas in December of that year. A private first class, he was assigned to the 30th Infantry of the 3rd Division.
The 3rd Division was extremely active during the period in which Pfc. John William Gill found himself in service. According to the Wikipedia entry for the 3rd Infantry Division (of which the 30th Infantry Regiment was one of its units), it was the only division of the U.S. Army that fought on all European fronts. It saw combat in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. In late 1942 and early 1943, the Division saw combat in French Morocco. The 30th Infantry Regiment were security guards at the January 1943 Casablanca Conference. The following month, Major General Lucian Truscott was assigned to the Division. July 1943 saw the Division in action in Operation Husky (the assault on Sicily), and in September the Division became part of the Allied invasion of Italy. In January 1944, the Division became part of the amphibious landing at Anzio. We can infer that Pfc. Gill was part of that invasion, having gone overseas in December 1943. Over the summer of that year, General Truscott was replaced by Major General John W. O'Daniel, and after Anzio, the Division proceeded to Rome, where action stalled. Removed from the front line, the 3rd Division went into training for the Allied invasion of Southern France. Landing at St. Tropez on August 15, 1944, the Division advanced up the Rhone Valley and through the Vosges Mountains, reaching the Rhine on November 26, 1944.
| It was during this campaign that Pfc. John William Gill met his death on September 9, 1944, in France. Of the 3rd Infantry Division, 4,922 souls were killed in action. Bill is buried at the American Cemetery at Epinal, where his grave has been adopted by Hugues Geschwindenhammer. Epinal is the capital of Vosges, where Bill was killed in action, so it is fitting he be buried there. Pfc. Gill was awarded the Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster. |  Find A Grave photo of marker for John William Gill. Courtesy Hugues Geschwindenhammer |
 The memorial building at Epinal American Cemetery in France. Courtesy American Battle Monuments Commission |
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure
November 2019
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
