SGT. ROBERT F. MORRISON, WWII: Took fight to the enemy, fell in Alsace

Third Army soldiers race up "Red Beach" after landing from amphibious infantry landing craft in the opening salvo of Operation Dragoon on the Côte d'Azur, France, Aug. 15, 1944. (U.S. National Archives, public domain)

Sgt. Robert Frederick Morrison was one of eight children born to iron foundryman Louis Frederick Morrison, six of them, Robert included, to Louis' second wife, English immigrant Alice Mary (Roper) Morrison.

The oldest two sons, half-brothers to Alice's half-dozen children, were born to Louis' first wife, Loretta (Flynn) Morrison. Chester was 8 and little brother Louis George II was four when Loretta passed away. She'd fallen through an unfinished attic floor according to a family member and injured her back, dying later in 1913 of complications, it appears.

Widower Louis, born in Poughkeepsie in 1877 to Irish immigrant parents William and Bridget (Fallon) Morrison, 38 and 24, respectively, found a new partner eight years later in Alice Roper of Tarrytown. Alice was born in the town of Wareham, in the county of Dorset in southwest England and emigrated to the U.S. in 1915 at age 23. They married in September 1921 and were immediately a family of four with Chester, 16, and Louis, 12, gaining a stepmother. Alice gave birth to Robert in 1922, John Alfred in 1924, Clifford Thomas in 1926, Genevieve Anne -- the couple's only daughter -- in 1927, Douglas in 1928 and Donald Richard (Dick), 1930.

Alice would raise the young family alone after Louis, 14 years her senior, fell off a Village of Irvington trash collecting truck while on the job near Cedar Ridge in 1931. He broke his back and died within hours at Dobbs Ferry Hospital. Horribly, he appears to have remained conscious for at least a couple of hours before dying before Alice was able to reach his bedside. Alice was 39 at the time.

Alice was familiar with family tragedy. Eight years earlier, her sister Mary of Ardsley Park had died, leaving her husband Dennis Murray to raise an infant child by himself. Mary was about 38 when she died.

Pvt. Robert F. Morrison is shown in
U.S. Army uniform c. 1944. (Photo
courtesy John J. Morrison, Irvington
native, nephew of Robert Morrison)

The Morrisons would have faced some financial struggles even before Louis' death. Louis had managed to buy a single family house at 79 S. Buckhout St. in the new Spiro Park neighborhood in 1929 with help from his sister Ann, who lived with the family. He had been a skilled coremaker in the Lord & Burnham Co.'s Burnham Boiler Corporation iron foundry until it closed in 1930. It was then that he found work with the village.

After Louis' death and without his income, Alice retreated to be with her family in England with her six children in 1933. She and the family returned to Irvington in 1938 and moved into the 50 and later 48 Main Street apartments. The family would continue to have relatives living at 48 Main until 1988.

Alice was one of 12 children born to lumber yard foreman Robert Roper and his wife, Teresa (Penny) in Wareham between 1883 and 1902 She was working as a maid in Dorset before emigrating to North America through Montreal with older sister Mary, also a domestic servant in March 1915. Canada at the time was still a Dominion of the British Empire which allowed easy access to British citizens.

Young Robert, as the eldest of Alice's birth children, quit school after completing sixth grade (c. 1933) at Immaculate Conception School, the parochial school attached to the Morrisons' Immaculate Conception Church parish. He took a job at the Safeway Co. grocery store at 55 Main Street, just across the street from his family's apartment. The address appears to have been the right half of today's Irvington Dry Cleaners, having been annexed and absorbed into one facade that is now listed as 53 Main Street. The left side of that building in the 1920s, '30s and early '40s was what appears to be a butcher store specializing in high quality meats and poultry -- Irving Market. 

The Safeway store transitioned into a Peter Reeves Market after it closed, Safeway being owned at the time by Reeves Market chain founder Daniel Reeves. Geordanes Neighborhood Market stands at 57 Main next door, today, but for most of the second half of the 20th century, that site was Becker's, a stationery and sundries retailer.

The Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial (see video) near Saint-Avold, France, is likely to have been the temporary resting place for the remains of Sgt. Robert F. Morrison before being repatriated to the U.S. in 1948.

Robert also worked as a sales clerk at the Grand Union grocery store at 61 Main St., site of today's La Chinita Poblana restaurant, only three doors east of the old Safeway market.

The Morrisons lived in an apartment at 50 Main Street above what's been a wine and liquor retailer for years (Savvy Sips Wine & Spirits today) before moving next door to an apartment at 48 Main -- a delicatessen for years, now FarmEats restaurant -- which was Robert's address when he was inducted into the Army on Feb. 9, 1944, less than a year after younger brother Clifford, 17, had enlisted in the Navy.

Robert received his induction notice on the same day as another ill-fated soldier, Alick M. Ian of Barney Park, next to the southernmost part of South Eckar Street. Both would give their lives for their country about six months apart in western Germany against the desperate defenders of a doomed Third Reich.

But first there was training for Private Robert Morrison, who joined Company A of the 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division which was assigned to the Seventh Army of Gen. Alexander M. Patch. 

The 141st has been long known as the 1st Texas Infantry because it was created during the Texas Revolution of Oct. 2, 1835-April 21, 1836, an uprising by independence-minded Texans against their Mexico overlords. And Company A was also historic. It was the first company formed in the 1st Texas Infantry in early 1836.

Pvt. Morrison is believed to have been sent from the U.S. to Naples, Italy in late July or early August 1944 where the Seventh Army was preparing for Operation Dragoon on the beaches of the French Riviera. 

The Irvington Veterans Memorial that stands on Main Street at Aqueduct Lane is shown while still a work in progress and names still being added. The granite and bronze memorial that stands on the site today was dedicated on Saturday, Nov. 9, 1963 in conjunction with the annual Veterans Day celebration of the Village of Irvington. (Photo courtesy John J. Morrison, Morrison family photo)

The amphibious operation was originally planned to take place at the same time as the D-Day amphibious landings of June 6, 1944 in Normandy, but was scrubbed for lack of supplies. It was resurrected in July when it became obvious that new ports would be needed to cure supply issues hindering Allied advances through Western Europe. Dragoon would open the ports of Marseilles and Toulons to the Allied supply lines and that's just what it did.

The Seventh Army landed on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur on Aug. 15, 1944 without much opposition. The Allied forces lost 95 men killed and 380 wounded on the first day of the invasion, smashing through German defenses which had been badly undermined by the transfer of the Nazi's top troops to meet the Allied onslaught in Normandy. Weakened in men and materiel, the troops that remained included the Ostlegionen made up of soldiers, some volunteers, some conscripts from the Soviet Union opposed to communism. They were given outdated and in many cases antique weapons.

German losses, mainly through men taken prisoner, were 2,000 that first day. The rest took part in a fighting retreat, but the Allies cut them off at the town of Montelimar. A weeklong battle ensued, mainly and artillery duel. When it ended on August 28th, the Germans had suffered 2,100 casualties with another 8,000 men taken prisoner. Allies losses were 1,575 wounded and killed.

By mid-September, the liberation of southern France was moving quickly, as were the Allied forces which battled German defenders in the Vosges mountains of eastern France on the border of Alsace-Lorraine not far from the German frontier. The Germans were better entrenched for defense there and were not inclined to surrender en masse.

Tired frontline infantrymen from Pvt. Robert Morrison's 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment warm themselves around a campfire with something hot to eat. They had just been rescued after being cut off by the Germans for six days from Oct. 24-30 in the Vosges mountains that form a natural barrier in eastern France to the German border, buffered by the land of Alsace-Lorraine, a region that has been German (1871-1918 after its capture in the Franco-Prussian War) and French for the past 100-plus years. The GIs were awaiting transportation to the rear for R&R. (U.S. National Archives, U.S. Army Signal Corps photo, public domain)

The 1st Battalion of the 141st, which included Pvt. Morrison, was surrounded and cut off for six days in the Vosges from Oct. 24-30. Morrison was limited in what he could report home, but let it be known that his outfit had been "lost." His report was accurate and led to his 1st Battalion earning the nickname the "Lost Battalion" of World War II. Attempts by the 141st's 2nd and 3rd battalions to extricate their 1st brothers-in-arms failed. Finally, its rescue came via a segregated Nisei (2nd generation Japanese-American) all-volunteer outfit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, many of whose members had family members segregated in internment camps in the U.S. while they fought in Europe.

Many of the Nisei themselves were in internment camps when they volunteered to serve.

The 442nd RCT rescued the 1st Battalion at tremendous cost to itself in casualties, killed in action and prisoners taken. Among the 442nd in the fight was future U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, which didn't become a state for another 14 years. He served in the Senate for 49 years, 1963 until his death in 2012. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Italy about six months after the rescue of the Lost Battalion.

In this video, a veteran of the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry

Regiment, 36th Infantry Division recalls his "Lost Battalion" 

being rescued by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team 

of second-generation Japanese-American volunteers in late

October 1944 in the Vosges mountains on the border with
German-occupied Alsace-Lorraine.

The Seventh Army would continue to drive the Germans back through Alsace-Lorraine -- which had been in German hands since 1940 -- on a 68-mile front including the city of Haguenau, and toward the German frontiers, but the Germans launched a counteroffensive on Dec. 31, 1944, it's last offensive of the war, designed to take pressure off its forces already engaged in the Battle of the Bulge to the north. The offensive, Operation Northwind, is known as the "other" Battle of the Bulge. The Germans pushed the Allies back towards the Vosges range and recaptured much territory in Alsace, including Haguenau before the attack petered out on Jan. 25, 1945.

This map of northern Alsace, shows the embattled city of Haguenau (alternatively spelled Hagenau in German) and its southeastern environs where the 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division battled in the late winter and early spring of 1944-45 and where Sgt. Robert F. Morrison was killed in action on March 17, 1945. Note the Moder River (center, top) and Rhine River, the German border (bottom right). The green areas are forests. (Map courtesy Texas Military Forces Museum, 36th Infantry Division archives)

After a brief respite, the Allies pushed back on March 15 with Operation Undertone as the Seventh Army and the French 1st Army attacked the Germans on a 47-mile line from Saarbrücken, Germany, to German-held Haguenau near the German border. Robert was killed in action two days later, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1945 near Haguenau and the Moder River. Born Oct. 5, 1922, Sgt. Robert Frederick Morrison was 22 when he died.

The operation succeeded in driving the last German soldier out of Haguenau on March 19.

The final words Irvington heard from Morrison were these, in a thank-you letter for gifts he received in France from Irvington residents for Christmas 1945. The letter was dated Feb. 28, 1945, 17 days before his death, and was published in the March 22, 1945 Irvington Gazette newspaper, before his death had been made known:

“I received your most welcome package for Christmas and take this opportunity to thank everyone for same. Everything will be very useful and it sure is good to know that our friends in Irvington think about us.

“We have had a pretty tough winter and I sure hope this war will be over soon.

“Sincerely yours, Robert F. Morrison”

Sgt. Robert F. Morrison is interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
 (Photo courtesy John J. Morrison, Morrison family)

Morrison was promoted to sergeant posthumously and awarded the Order of the Purple Heart. His body remained in Europe until late 1948. A memorial service was held in his honor at Baker Funeral Home in Hastings on Friday, Nov. 26, 1948 with an Irvington Post 2911 Honor Guard while he lay in repose. A  requiem Mass followed on the morning of Nov. 27, 1948 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on North Broadway in Irvington followed by his burial with full military honors at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

EPILOGUE: After playing a lead role in Operation Undertone, the Seventh Army, minus the late Sgt. Morrison, fought across the Rhine River into the German homeland, captured the major German cities of Nuremberg and Munich and transited the Brenner Pass on the Italian frontier, ending the war in Italy where it had departed before landing on the French Riviera on Aug. 15, 1944.

The Seventh had fought almost continuously for about nine months and advanced more than 1,000 miles.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I wasn't aware of Operation Northwind (Nordwind in German), nor Operation Undertone until researching Sgt. Morrison's fate. There is an excellent book on the subject that is available for download free and with no obligations written in conjunction with the U.S. Military College: "The Last Offensive," by Charles B. MacDonald. Click here to download a PDF version ...

... Sgt. Morrison's brothers Clifford, John, Douglas and Dick all served in the armed forces. Clifford quick high school to join the Navy and fought in the Pacific theatre. John was in ROTC at New York University on four-year engineering scholarship and underwent training beginning in August 1944 as an aviation cadet in pre-flight training school for the Army Air Forces. He qualified as a navigator and was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant, but the war was almost over, so the Army allowed him to return to NYU and complete his studies. 

Later, Douglas served as an Army chaplain's assistant in the then-West Germany during the Korean Conflict in the early 1950s, while Dick, a sergeant, served as a U.S. Air Force MP in Alaska at the same time.

Links to similar personal stories about Irvington heroes who gave their lives for their country*

WORLD WAR II

◼ Pfc. Cuthbert Powell Sinkking: Class of '42 gave 3 of its own to the ages

◼ Sgt. Arnold J. Meszaros: Among first to land on Utah Beach

◼ 2LT. Robert R. Chalot, Jr.: Son of French WWI pilot dies in dad's homeland

◼ Pfc. John Joseph (Joe) Gilchrist: Died after capture of Saint-Lo

◼ Lt. (j.g.) George Eddison Haines: Lost at sea, awarded Silver Star

◼ Pfc. Joseph Thomas Costello: Teen lost life in Battle of Mindanao

◼ MSgt. James Peter Kelley: Survived WW II and Korea; died in fall

◼ S1 Archibald Ronald: Lost on next-to-last Navy ship sunk by U-boat

◼ TSgt. Raffaele R. (Ralph) Reale: A hero's life ended on East Sunnyside Lane

◼ Sgt. Robert F. Morrison: Took fight to the enemy, fell in Alsace

◼ Lt. Col. George W. Beavers Jr.: Re-upped as private; died on war's eve

◼ F2 Claude L. Bronnes: Went down with the Atlanta at Guadalcanal

◼ MMLC William James Downey: Died aboard ship off West Coast

◼ Pvt. Alick Main Ian: Died taking Aachen, first German city to fall in WWII

◼ Pfc. George Mills Hill Jr.: Survived Okinawa, only to fall in South Korea

◼ Pvt. Peter R. Robinson: Lost to shadows of time over Pacific, answers never found

◼  Pfc. Matthew A. Smith: Felled by friendly fire in training accident

WORLD WAR I

◼ Profiles of Philip McGovern, Louis Kindervatter, George Hazlett, Frank Farrell and John Kelly Jr. who gave their lives in the Great War

* World War II deaths include soldiers who enlisted during the World War II era and died while still in uniform, either killed in combat, or died of accidental or other causes. Two of the World War II fallen served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict and are listed under World War II. One of those died in an accidental fall after surviving both wars, the other was killed in action in Korea after surviving World War II.World War I deaths also include battlefield deaths and accidental or illness-related deaths by service members still in uniform at the time of their passing.