Wilfred Nelson Provost PVT US Army 31341506 Killed at Ensdorf, Germany

3rd Army 95th Division Company A 378th Infantry

Wilfred N. Provost was born on 29 Oct 1907 in Medway, MA, the son of Joseph Seraphine Provost and Rose Alma Dufresne. Some of his documents have his birth year as 1908 in error. I found his birth certificate in Medway, MA and it was definitely 1907.In the 1920 census they lived at 109 Intervale Ave in Burlington with 6 children and Joseph was a letter carrier or postman. However, in the 1930 census they lived at 50 No. Champlain Street in Burlington and they had 11 children, of which Wilfred was the 2nd child. Joseph was still employed in the Postal Service. In 1926 Wilfred was employed at the Burlington Drug Company at age 18 and living at 50 No. Champlain St. He attended Nazareth school and Cathedral High School in Burlington.

Wilfred married Dorothy La Mott (Lamothe) Collins at St Josephs in Burlington on 9 Jul 1931. They had 3 children, George in 1932, Jacqueline in 1935 and Wilfred in 1937. Sometimes the mother was LaMott and sometimes it was Collins. They were divorced on 28 Sep 1931.

On his draft registration form on 16 Oct 1940 he was age 32, 5 ft 4 inches tall, 130 lbs, light complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His wife was living at 157 No. Ave in Burlington and he was working in Flushing, NY.

He enlisted in the US Army on 16 Mar 1943 or 1 Apr 1943 at Hartford, CT while being employed for Pratt & Whitney. He went overseas in December of 1943. He served in England, France and Germany. Wilfred was Killed In Action (KIA) on 6 Dec 1944 in Ensdorf, Germany

Source for the following info: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Lorraine/USA-E-Lorraine-13.html

The fighting on 6 December gave the troops of the 95th Division a real taste of the difficulties attendant on forcing a way through the West Wall. In Saarlautern-Roden, Fraulautern, and Ensdorf, the enemy contested every yard of ground, every house, and every street, filtering behind the American lines in small groups each time a pillbox or a block of houses was taken, and forcing the American infantry to turn back and fight for each strong point two or three times.

The two battalions of the 378th Infantry in the Ensdorf sector also found the going slow and the enemy determined. While the 3d Battalion hammered away at strong points within the town the 1st Battalion reduced fourteen pillboxes in the zone south of Ensdorf. Here the flat, open terrain was barren of cover and the 1st Battalion found that all movement in daylight was answered by sharp fire and led to high losses. As a result, the gains made by this battalion were confined to the hours of darkness, when the German pillboxes could be engaged without incurring needlessly heavy losses. The 2d Battalion of the 378th had not yet been able to cross the river, because the enemy gunners had brought the Lisdorf crossing site under extremely heavy fire.

His body arrived in Burlington on 2 Aug 1948. His funeral was on 3 Aug 1948. On 3 Aug 1848 the day he was buried, his headstone application was filed. After the funeral, Wilfred was interred at Lakeview cemetery in Burlington on 3 Aug 1948.

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.

Wilfred N Provost