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Note: Name: Robert Barclay Averell Birth Date: 18 Nov 1917 Event Type: Baptism Baptism Date: Mar 1918 Baptism Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Father Name: Robert G Averell Mother Name: Edith I Averell Organization Name: St James Church, Kingsesslng Source Citation: Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 226. Name: R Barclay Averell Gender: Male Spouse: Helen R. Smink Spouse Gender: Female Marriage Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Marriage Year: 1938 Marriage License Number: 695930 Digital GSU Number: 4143591 "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885-1951." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Philadelphia County Pennsylvania Clerk of the Orphans' Court. "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia marriage license index, 1885-1951." Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1940 Census, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, District 23-66, Darby Borough, Page 3B, Roll T627-3490, April 8, 1940 449 Darby Terrace, Family 82, rents Barclay Averell, head, M, W, 22, married, H4, born Pennsylvania, lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1935, filing clerk, bank Helen, wife, F, W, 22, married, H4, born Pennsylvania, lived in Colwyn, Pennsylvania in 1935, clerk Chapter 6 Metz and the Hurtgen Forest, p. 167-8. Just south of Aachen lay the Hurtgen Forest. Roughly fifty square miles, it sat along the German-Belgian border, within a triangle outlined by Aachen, Monschau, and Duren. It was densely wooded, with fir trees twenty to thirty meters tall. They blocked the sun, so the forest floor was dark, damp, devoid of underbrush. The firs interlocked their lower limbs at less than two meters, so everyone had to stoop all the time. It was a green cave, always dripping water, low-roofed and forbidding. The terrain is rugged, a series of ridges and deep gorges formed by numerous streams and rivers. The Roer River ran along the eastern edge of the Hurtgen. Beyond it was the Rhine. First Army wanted to close to the Rhine, which General Hodges decided required driving the Germans out of the forest. Neither he nor his staff noted the obvious point that the Germans controlled the dams upstream on the Roer. If the Americans ever got down into the river valley, the Germans could release the dammed-up water and flood the valley. The forest could have been bypassed to the south, with the dams as the objective. The forest without the dams was worthless; the dams without the forest were priceless. But the generals got it backward, and went for the forest. Thus did the Battle of Hurtgen get started on the basis of a plan that was grossly, even criminally stupid. ... For the GI's, it was a calamity. In their September action, the 9th and 2nd Armored lost up to 80 percent of their front-line troops, and gained almost nothing. In October, the 9th---reinforced---tried again, but by mid month it was dead in the water and had suffered terribly. Casualties were around 4,500 for an advance of 3000 meters. Excerpts from "Citizen Soldiers" by Stephen E. Ambrose, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998 PFC Barclay Averell was one of the 4500 casualties of this ill fought Battle of Hurtgen Forest. He was killed in action on October 19, 1944. He was buried initially in a cemetery near Aachen, Belgium. His body was transferred to Philadelphia after the war and buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery. World War II Army Enlistment Records Name: Averell, Robert B Serial Number: 33773096 Residence: 045, 2 Enlistment Place: New Cumberland, Pennsylvania Enlistment Date: 9 March 1944 Grade Alpha: PV0 Grade Code: Private Branch Alpha: No branch assignment Branch Code: No branch assignment Enlistment Term: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law Longevity: Source: Civil Life Nativity: Pennsylvania Birth Year: 1917 Race and Citizenship: White, citizen Education: 4 years of high school Civil Occupation: Addressing-Embossing Machine Operator or Clerk, General Marital Status: Married Army Component: Card Number: 0706 Box Number: 1.223 Reel Number: 4609181 Name: Robert B Averell Gender: Male Race: White Religion: Protestant Cemetery Name: Pennsylvania Disposition: According to next of kin Service Branch: Army Rank: Private Service Number: 33773096 Ancestry.com. U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: United States. Army. Quartermaster General’s Office. Rosters of World War II Dead (all services). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army.
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