Hometown Heroes of WWII
Two from the Davis family sacrifice their lives
By Michael Rocchetti
Pvt. 1st Class Threlkeld Davis
December 31st 1944, was a quiet day along the Maginot Line near Bitche, France. It had snowed again. The ground was frozen and covered with deep snow, it was bitter cold, and there was an uneasy standoff between German and American forces.
At midnight though, all hell broke loose. The Germans opened up with an artillery barrage that the Americans initially thought was just a grim celebration of the New Year. The Germans then launched a major counterattack called Operation Nordwind – which was centered on the sector SW of Bitche, France occupied by the U.S. Army’s 100th Infantry Division – the Centurymen. It was here, near Lemberg, France that Private 1st Class Threlkeld Davis had his position overrun during this German counterattack. Initially he was listed as missing in action. Later as German forces retreated, the body of Private Davis was recovered and it was determined that he had been killed in action on Jan. 1, 1945. The records of the 399th Infantry Regiment indicate that Private Davis was a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal.
Threlkeld Davis was born May 7, 1925, in Honolulu to a military family. He was survived by his mother Esther Threlkeld Davis and a sister Harriet. The mother’s heartache was compounded by the earlier loss of her husband, (and Threlkeld’s father) Colonel Everett Davis (a career Air Corps aviator from Putnam) who died in a plane crash in Alaska in November 1942 during the Aleutian Islands Campaign. Threlkeld Davis enlisted in the Army on Feb. 1, 1944, from Spokane, Wash. He was a Private 1st Class assigned to Company L, 399th Infantry Regiment of the 100th Infantry Division (nicknamed the “Sons of Bitche”). He was buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery in St Avold, France and later reinterred at the Grove Street Cemetery in Putnam along with his father, Colonel Everett Davis.
Colonel Everett S Davis US Air Force
In early June of 1942, the Japanese invaded and occupied Kiska and Attu – two Aleutian Islands which are a part of Alaska. In order to dislodge and expel the Japanese, U.S. military forces in Alaska needed to be strengthened - especially the air arm. The fledgling 11th Air Force, under the command of Colonel Everett Davis, needed to expand rapidly – with new forward operating bases, aircraft, and pilots that could operate in what is generally considered to be the worst flying weather in the world.
On Nov. 28, 1942, Colonel Davis was returning from an inspection of one of his forward operating bases in the Aleutian Island chain. He was a passenger on an Air Force cargo plane – a C-47 Skytrain, serial number 41-38635, from the 54th Troop Carrier Squadron. They were on the last leg of their journey – a flight from an airport in Naknek Alaska to Elmendorf Army Airfield, near Anchorage, Alaska. True to form, the weather was cold and stormy, the winds were severe, and contact with the aircraft was lost 30 minutes after departure. When the flight failed to arrive at Elmendorf, the airplane was declared missing. The Eleventh Air Force launched a one-month search, but frequent snowstorms made the search difficult.
Searching resumed on Aug. 19, 1943, when sufficient snow melt revealed the mountainsides. The wrecked Skytrain was located later that month at about the 2,000 foot elevation level on a mountain to the south of Lake Iliama, Alaska. The airplane had apparently crashed at full power. All eight Air Force personnel aboard were killed instantly by the impact – including Colonel Davis.
Colonel Davis was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during WWII.
He was born in Melrose, Mass., on May 25, 1898, the son of Everett and Emily Davis. He was raised in Putnam, graduating from Putnam High School in 1916. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as an aviator during WWI. He was a career Air Corps officer and aviator with a long and distinguished service record. He left behind a wife Esther, and two children - a son Threlkeld and a daughter Harriet. The heartache for his widow was compounded by the later loss of their only son, Private 1st Class Threlkeld Davis who was killed in action on Jan. 1, 1945 while serving with the US Army’s 100th Infantry Division along the Maginot Line near Bitche France. Everett Davis and his son Threlkeld are buried at the Grove St Cemetery in Putnam.
Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.
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