Private Edward Lee Pierce was born in Molino, Escambia County, Florida on May 10, 1925, the son of George W. Pierce (born 1865) and Willie Bell (born c1898). His mother was thirteen years old when she married her husband, 33 years her senior. He supported his young family as a farm labor first in Laurel Hill in Okaloosa County then in the McDavid area several years later. By 1940, his mother was a widow and his older brother and sister had already left home. He stayed with his mother who began managing an apartment house at 200 East Cross Street. In return, she was paid a small salary and an apartment for $3.00 per month plus a state disability for partial blindness. With only a seventh-grade education, young Edward had limited opportunities for meaningful employment himself. Then came WWII, and the need for a large military force. If a young man was not employed (with few exceptions), he was expected to enlist or be drafted.
Edward enlisted in the US Army on July 9, 1943 at Camp Blanding, Florida where he was processed and received his orientation. He was sent to Oklahoma for basic training before being assigned to the 313th Infantry Regiment assigned to the 79th Infantry Division. As the Army began preparing for the invasion of Europe, Edward joined his new regiment at Camp Phillips, Kansas in November 1943. The purpose of this deployment was preparation for their move overseas. When the training was complete, they loaded onto a troop train and headed east on March 29, 1944. Shortly thereafter, the trains pulled into Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts, the main staging area for the Boston Port of Embarkation. Then came embarkation on the SS Strathmore with 6,000 troops on a ship built for 1,500. They debarked on April 18th in Glasgow, England.
Then came D-Day, although the regiment was not part of the initial landing. They were shipped by train to Crown Hill Camp, a marshalling area for troops waiting to cross the channel. Landing on Utah Beach from the SS President Jackson on June 14, 1944, the regiment began its move inland to join the bloody fight fr Normandy. Intense combat would follow as they pushed through France and Belgium.
Then on December 16th, the Germans launched their last-ditch attack that became known as the "Battle of the Bulge." Driving into the unsuspecting Americans, the enemy tried desperately to break through and split the Allies forces. The ferocity of the attack placed the US troops on the defensive, as all available troops were rushed northward to stop the breakthrough. The 79th Division withdrew on December 22nd to the high ground south of the Lauter River, located halfway between the Maginot and the Siegfried Lines. They worked day and night building entrenchments and interlocking fields of machine gun fire. They strung barbed wire in front of their positions with mines laid throughout the fields. Nearby was the picturesque village of Oberseebach (Alsace Region, France), approximately three kilometers behind the front lines. But the Germans were apparently content to enjoy the Christmas season therefore remained quiet. Meanwhile, the regiment constantly patrolled across the river from their outposts all along the south bank. There was an occasional contact with enemy patrols as well as random artillery shells lobbed into the American positions but overall, there was no attempt by the enemy to take back their lost ground.
And it was here during this festive break in the battle that a 19-year-old Molino boy was killed in action on December 29, 1944. Since he was a member of an anti-tank company, it was most likely due to one of the random shelling's. Regardless, his body was recovered and turned over to grave registration and buried in one of the designated cemeteries. His mother was still living at 200 East Cross Street when the telegram was delivered to her apartment. Simply stated, her son Edward was dead. She was informed he had been buried overseas with the thousands of others who had sacrificed their lives to stop Germany's last great offensive of the war. When the war was over Willie brought her son home to be buried in Bayview Cemetery in September 1948.
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