2nd Lt. Guy William Gowen

Guy William Gowen was born on March 21, 1919 in Hardwick, Vermont to Elroy H and Maude A Estell Gowen. Guy was the fifth of six children, four boys and two girls. At some point between 1920 and 1930 the family moved to Merrimack, New Hampshire. Guy completed four years of high school and attended the University of New Hampshire.

The draft registration card for Guy was signed on October 16, 1940. He is listed as being 5’10” tall, 158 pounds with brown eyes and hair and a light complexion.

Guy joined the Army with service number 0-1307152. He was a member of the 325th Glider Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division where he worked his way up to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant

“The 325th Glider Infantry Regiment was formed and given the task of arriving into battle by glider. Parachutes could, and often did, wind up scattered for miles on a drop zone. The same held true for equipment and supplies. The glider was the answer to all these problems. As long as a glider stayed in one piece, the items inside it would too. This meant no more searching through the swamp looking for the missing barrel to a Howitzer. Jeeps could also fit into a glider. Best of all, troops could be put into a glider and land as a coherent fighting unit.

“Gliderborne assaults, however, were not without their risks. Gliders and their low planes were slow, fat targets. They had no armor to protect the men inside. Landing in a glider was also an adventure and little more than a controlled crash….Ditches, wire, fences, tree stumps or a host of other possible ailments could flip, twist, or gut an unfortunate glider….As long as a glider stayed in one piece, the items inside it would too.

“According to a veteran paratrooper who had to ride a glider into Normandy, ‘These people don’t get paid enough.’ In fact, it would not be till after Normandy that the glider riders would receive hazardous pay and have the privilege of wearing the same uniforms as the paratroopers.”

“The glider casualties for the 82nd were heavy. Of the 957 men who went into Normandy that night, twenty-five were killed, 118 wounded, fourteen missing (a 16 percent casualty rate). Nineteen of 111 jeeps were unserviceable, as were four of seventeen antitank guns.”

2nd Lieutenant Guy W Gowen was one of those brave men who lost his life on D-day, June 6, 1944. For his service he was awarded with a Purple Heart.

2nd Lt. Gowen was buried in Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France, Plot C, Row 28, Grave 15.

Sources:

US, World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas

honorstates.org

US, World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

US, Headstone and Interment Records for US, Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949

1920 US Federal Census – Bakersfield, Franklin, Vermont

1940 US Federal Census – Concord, Merrimack, New Hampshire

US, Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945

ww2-arborne.us/units/325/325.html

abmc.gov/decedent-search/gowen%3dguy

“325th GIR: Regimental History”, allamericans.wordpress.com/325th-g-i-r/325th-g-i-r-2/

Ambrose, Stephen E, ++D-Day, June 6, 1944, The Climactic Battle of World War II, ++Simon &

Schuster Paperbacks, 1994, p. 221-222.

Newspapers.com (Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, New Hampshire) 30 June 1944, 1 September 1944

findagrave.com

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story