SGT. ARNOLD J. MESZAROS, WWII: Among first to land on Utah Beach

American GIs swarm onto Utah Beach in Normandy, France in the opening assault of Operation Overlord, the Allies' D-Day attack on Nazi Germany's Fortress Europe. Among the initial wave of attackers was Irvington native Arnold J. Meszaros. (Wikimedia Commons, National Archives, public domain)

U.S. Army Sergeant Arnold J. Meszaros survived the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, helped liberate Paris and survived a gunshot wound to the chest during the bloody Battle of Hürtgen Forest only to be returned to “mop-up” duty near Weisheim, Germany on Feb. 28, 1945 with the reeling Nazis nine weeks away from unconditional surrender.

Three days later he would be killed in action.

Soldiers say you never hear the shot that kills you. Meszaros likely thought he was in prime position to survive the war. Instead on March 3, 1945 he fell in the Rhineland some 40 miles east of Luxembourg.

Pictured is the final letter Arnold Meszaros wrote to his parents from the battlefield immediately after returning to duty from a gunshot wound to the chest and just five days before his death on March 3, 1945. Dated Feb. 28, 1945 from somewhere in France, it reads: "Dear Mom and Pop, Just a few lines to let you know I am all right. I am now back with my outfit, there isn't much doing here. How is everything at home?  I hope you are all well and aren't worrying about me too much. How is Harold coming along in school? I hope he isn't fooling around too much. I haven't had a letter from you for about 3 weeks. I imagine that it will catch up with me before too long. Say, have you received my purple heart yet. Let me know when you get it. Well, I'll close for now and give everyone my love. Love, Arnold. P.S.: I am putting some clipping[s] about the outfit." (Image courtesy Meszaros family)

Sgt. Meszaros was the second member of the Irvington High School Class of 1942 to die in that U.S. push into Germany in a span of 22 days. His former IHS baseball teammate, Pfc. Cuthbert Powell Sinkking, like Meszaros with the 4th Infantry Division, had been killed in the same general area on Feb. 9. There would be no more sharing by Meszaros and Sinkking of the Memorial Park diamond on hot, sunny summer Irvington afternoons.

Remarkably, the duo’s IHS classmate, 2nd Lieutenant Robert R. Chalot Jr., who played football and basketball with Meszaros in high school and then played freshman football at Susquehanna University with Meszaros in the fall of 1942, had been killed five weeks before Sinkking, the B-26 Marauder bomber Chalot was piloting crashing and exploding off a runway in France while beginning an ill-fated bombing run into Germany on Jan. 1, 1945.

The crossroads city of Saint-Lo is shown in ruins after being destroyed by German and Allied artillery fire in 1944 during the Battle of the Hedgerows. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division expelled the Nazis from the city. Irish-born Parisian writer Samuel Beckett made famous the city's sobriquet, "The Capital of Ruins," coined by Roman Catholic Archbishop Bernard Jacqueline. (Photo courtesy Regional Council of Lower Normandy via U.S. National Archives, Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Remarkably, graduating classes at IHS had perhaps 30 to 35 members in that era, half or more of them women, leaving about 15 to 18 male graduates. That meant the Class of ‘42 lost perhaps 20 percent of its young men on the battlefield in 1945.

But this is the story of Arnold Meszaros. Meszaros, one of three American-born sons of Hungarian immigrants John and Anna (Somogyi) Meszaros, who came to the U.S. in 1904 and 1906, respectively, and made their home in Irvington after the births of John Jr. in 1917, Arnold in 1924 and Harold in 1927.

John Sr. was a craftsman who found work molding iron products at Lord & Burnham Co.’s Burham Boiler Corporation plant at Main and South Astor streets  in Irvington. Later he became a chauffeur as his sons joined the military, first Pace Business School graduate John Jr. — eventually a lieutenant — on Feb. 12, 1942 then Arnold on Feb. 13, 1943, cutting short a college career that had begun with football practice late the previous August.

Irvington High School football stars Robert Chalot (left)

and Arnold Meszaros are shown c. 1941 at what

appears to be the Memorial Park field where the Bulldogs

played their home games into the 1960s.

(Photo courtesy Meszaros family)

This photo shows the Freshman 11 football team at Susquehanna University in the fall of 1943 that included Irvington High School Class of 1942 buddies next to each other in the center row, Arnold Meszaros (No. 75, fifth from left) and Robert Chalot Jr. (No. 70, sixth from left).  (Image courtesy Meszaros family)

John Sr. later became superintendent of the estate of banker Henry Graves Jr. on the northwest corner of West Sunnyside Lane and Broadway on the Irvington/Tarrytown border. The estate has been known since then as Shadowbrook.

John Jr. took a break from Army life in March 1942 to get married to Jean Creighton of Ossining but was quickly back training, new bride Jean remaining behind in Westchester.

Little brother Harold was still in high school and too young to go to war, but he enlisted in 1946 and served a year in the peacetime Army. Harold would go on to become a favorite teacher, coach and administrator for more than a generation of Irvington High School students before his untimely death at age 50 in 1977.

The Meszaros family lived in a variety of rented apartments as the boys were growing up. In 1920 they lived at 5 N. Eckar St., in 1930 9 N. Dutcher St., in 1940 on South Broadway. By the time the older boys were in the Army, the family was at 25 Main St., just a few doors west towards the train station from North Cottenet Street.

Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division advance though the Hürtgen Forest in the Rhineland on Nov. 18, 1944, the day Pfc. Arnold J. Meszaros of Irvington was severely wounded by a shot in the chest and suffered secondary facial wounds as well that would keep in him a Belgium hospital until for more than three months..He returned to his unit in the Rhineland on March 3, 1945 and was killed in action two days later. (U.S. Signal Corps photos, U.S. National Archives, Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Arnold enlisted on Feb. 13, 1943 in Pennsylvania where he was in the spring semester of his sophomore year at Susquehanna. After completing military training stateside, he deployed to Great Britain with Company A, 1st Battalion of the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division on May 9, 1944. Meszaros and the 4th, known colloquially as the Ivy Division because the Roman numeral for four is IV, formed the first infantry assault wave on Utah Beach on D-Day, landing in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944.

Meszaros advanced inland with the Ivy and took part in the Battle of the Hedgerows in Normandy which culminated in the Allied breakthrough at Saint-Lo on July 19, 1944, the first domino to fall and open the eventual route that led to the Aug. 25, 1944 liberation of Paris.

Meszaros, a private first class by this time, and his Ivy Division would push on through Belgium and the fortified German Siegfried Line on the Belgian-German frontier, engaging in the Sept. 19-Dec. 16 Allied offensive Battle of Hürtgen Forest. The Ivy Division spearheaded the battle’s Operation Queen, its second phase move towards the Rur River Dam which began on Nov. 16, 1944. Meszaros was seriously wounded on the second day of Operation Queen, shot in the chest and suffering secondary wounds to the face on Nov. 18, landing him in a Belgium hospital for the better part of three months.

Arnold J. Meszaros

The Hürtgen Forest offensive would continue for a month, ending only when the Germans countered with their own Ardennes offensive on Dec. 16, a surprise maneuver that would go down in military annals as the Battle of the Bulge. Hürtgen Forest, which ended effectively in a German defensive victory, would make history itself. It was the longest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army and the longest Allied battle on German soil.

Meszaros, who was still listed as a private first class at the time of his death, was listed as a sergeant when his death was announced. It is not clear if he had been promoted before his death and not been notified or if he was promoted posthumously. The awarding of the Purple Heart, which Meszaros had earned at Hürtgen Forest, can often precede a promotion.

Sgt. Meszaros died south of Weinsheim, Germany, some 47 miles east of the Luxembourg-Germany frontier.

His remains were likely temporarily interred at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Luxembourg, well known as the final resting place of iconic World War II U.S. commander Gen. George S. Patton.

This is the citation signed by U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson on May 4, 1945 awarding the Purple Heart to Pfc. Arnold J. Meszaros for wounds that resulted in his death on March 3, 1945. Meszaros would be promoted to sergeant posthumously. This Purple Heart was the second earned by Sgt. Meszaros, the first coming for wounds to his chest suffered during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest some three months earlier. (Image courtesy Meszaros family)

Sgt. Meszaros’ remains were returned to Irvington in early March 1949, four years later. His funeral was held at his home parish, Irvington’s Immaculate Conception Church on April 22, 1949 and he was buried with full military honors including the firing of a three-volley salute and the playing of Taps at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery that same day. His funeral cortege from ICS to Sleepy Hollow was said to be almost a half-mile long. Organizations and individuals involved in the well-known Meszaros’ funeral and interment included Irvington Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2911 in full dress uniform and its ladies auxiliary, the towns of Mount Pleasant-Greenburg American Disabled Veterans, a U.S. Army honor detail from Governor’s Island and Irvington’s Gold Star Mothers.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Author Ernest Hemingway accompanied Arnold Meszaros’ 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division as it fought its way through Nazi Germany’s famed defensive Siegfield Line across the Luxembourg frontier near Buchet, Germany in mid-September 1944. The essay he wrote describing the scene — “War in the Siegfried Line” — was published in the Nov. 18, 1944 edition of Collier’s magazine. Click here to read it.

Video explores the Luxembourg American Cemetery
where it is believed Sgt. Arnold Meszaros was temporarily
interred. The cemetery is the final resting place of
famed U.S. Gen. George S. Patton.

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.