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Benjamin A. “Ben” Buckley

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Benjamin A. "Ben" Buckley

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    1963
This March 4, 1943, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 2, column 2:

    First Letter Since September

    The Gene Buckleys were made happy last week when they received their first letter from their son, Cpl. Ben Buckley, since last September. He wrote that he was at rest camp at the time he sent the letter, but that he was getting along fine. Outside of having to dodge gunfire and airplanes, Ben said that life at the camp was very quiet. It is not known where his outfit is located, but without doubt they are in the African fighting zone.
The following April 22, 1943, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 3, column 3:

    Writes from North Africa

    The Gene Buckley's have received word from their son, Cpl. Ben Buckley, with the U.S. regulars on the North African front, that the business at hand has been well taken care of for the moment by the U.S. boys, and that he is safe. This was welcome news, indeed.
The following June 29, 1944, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 2, column 3:

    Sends Parents Purple Heart

    After suffering wounds in action several months ago, Sgt. Ben A. Buckley, son of the Gene Buckleys, has been awarded the Purple Heart. The medal was presented him in Italy where he is now stationed. The emblem, of which they are very proud, and justly so, was received by his parents last Friday. Ben, who enlisted in the regular army before war was declared, has been overseas the past 23 months, and has seen service in Africa and Italy, receiving wounds on the Anzio beachhead in Italy. He has entirely recovered, however, and is again back in the thick of the battle with his tank destroyer division.
This January 4, 1945, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 1, column 4:

    3 LOWELL BOYS ARE WOUNDED

    PVT. JOHN CHILDERS, PFC. CHARLES ALM, SGT. BEN BUCKLEY ARE CASUALTIES

    Three more Lowell boys, Pvt. John A. Childers, son of the Andrew Childers, Pfc. Charles Alm, son of the George Alms, northeast of Lowell, and Sgt. Ben A. Buckley, son of the Gene Buckleys, were reported recently by the War Department to have been wounded in action on the German front.
    Pvt. Childers and Pfc. Alm were both listed as "slightly wounded" on December 9th, and although no further word has been received on either, it is presumed that they are making saticfactory recovery. Both boys attended Lowell high school, Alm graduating with the class of 1941, but Childres enlisted in February, 1943, in his senior year.
    Sgt. Buckley, 26, was wounded in action on Dec. 6th according to the telegram his parents received Dec. 28th. The same day the telegram arrived, the Buckleys received a letter from one of their son's buddies who had driven his tank all through the Anzio Beachhead battle in Italy as well as in France, stating that he knew Ben had suffered only a broken arm and was getting along well. No further word of his condition has been received.
    Sgt. Buckley has now been wounded three times in the 29 months he has been stationed in the European theatre. On one occasion, according to a letter Ben wrote his parents recently, his tank was blown from under him, killing three of crew, and wounding one, but he escaped without a scratch. Among his medals are a purple heart which he received for a previous wound, and a bronze star with citation, and an oak cluster. Ben has been in the service five years, enlisting a year and a half before the United States entered the present conflict.
This Lowell Tribune article was found in the January 18, 1945, issue (page 7, column 4-5):

    Lowell Boy Member of Honored Tank Destroyer Group.

    Sixth Army Group, France -- A brilliant record established in North Africa and Italy is being lived up to by the men of a Tank Destroyer Battalion, fighting with the American 7th Army in the southern Saar basin of Germany.
    The battalion came into Southern France on D-Day and took part in the chase of the German 19th army north through the Rhone valley. When the Germans made a stand in the Vosges mountains, the battalion turned the heavy guns of its M-10 tank destroyers against the strong points and played a large part in the drive that smashed the Nazi line and drove them out of Alsace-Lorraine and behind the Siegfried line.
    Elements of the battalion landed on D-Day in North Africa and first established its reputation as a "bulldog" outfit when it played a large part in finally stopping the Germans at Kasserine Pass and then leading the way back when the Yanks retook the lost ground and went on to bottle up the Nazi army in Tunisia.
    D-Day at Salerno found the men again living up to their motto of "Seek, Find, Destroy." When the Anzio beachhead was seized, the battalion again went in on D-Day and held its sector firm for four months. When the breakout finally came, the tank hunters led the way and cut the main German escape route from southern Italy to Rome.
    Evidence of the valor and ability of the men of the battalion is found in the more than 600 decorations its members have received. Included in these are seven Croix de Guerre, and a Legion of Honor, awarded by the French.
    Sgt. Ben A. Buckley, son of the Gene Buckleys of Lowell, is a member of this famous battalion.
This March 22, 1945, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 2, column 2:
    With the Third Infantry Division, Seventh Army, France -- Sgt. Benjamin A. Buckley of Lowell, has been awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster to the Bronze Star for valorous conduct in action against the enemy while fighting with the Third Infantry Division in France. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Buckley, are residents of Lowell.
This April 19, 1945, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 2, columns 2-3:
    S/Sgt. Benjamin A. Buckley, son of the Gene Buckleys, Lowell, a member of the 601st tank destroyer battalion, now "somewhere in Germany," has been awarded his first Oak Leaf Cluster to the Bronze Star Medal for valorous conduct in action against the enemy.
    The citation is as follows:
      Benjamin A. Buckley, 6 669 349, Staff Sergeant, Field Artillery, Co. "C," 601st tank destroyer battalion. For valorous conduct in action against the enemy on 21 August 1944, at about 1600 hours, in the vicinity of _________, France. In an attermpt to obtain better observation and thereby give maximum support to our advancing infantry, Sergeant Buckley dismounted from the safety of his M-10. Spying a force of "Kraut" deploying over the top of a knoll, he took an exposed position on the rear of his destroyer and directed 3" and machine gun fire on these enemy soldiers. Despite small arms fire striking his destroyer and slashing the branches over his head, Sergeant Buckley continued to direct his destroyer's fire for over fifteen minutes with the result that he forced the enemy back over the top of the hill and by deliberate targeting, blasted a mortar observer out of a concrete OP. Upon later investigation, the slope Sergeant Buckley fired on was found to be littered with dead "Kraut."
This August 30, 1945, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 4, columns 1-4:
    Camp Hood, Tex., Aug 28 -- Battering down centuries-old walls of medieval castles proved a tough job even for modern armor and high-velocity guns, a veteran tank destroyer platoon sergeant found out when the cannons of his platoon were turned on the moss-covered ramparts guarding Besancon in France.
    S/Sgt. Benjamin A. Buckley, a 27-year-old returnee from the famed 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion now stationed at the tank destroyer replacement training center, was in the fight for the castles of Besancon with his platoon from Company C of the 601st, supporting the 1st battalion of the 30th United States infantry regiment.
    The retreating Germans, nearing the end of their flight from southern France early in September of last year, determined to make a rear guard stand at Besancon, outpost of the Belfort Gap into the Rhine valley, while their beaten units streamed through the gap. They made the stand for two days.
    "Our three-inch guns made more of an impression in that old masonry at 800 yards than did the HE shells of the 155mm (about 6 in.) howitzers. But it really was the concussion from the 155's which finally drove the krauts out. Those walls were of stone three feet thick, backed by six feet of sod," recalled Sgt. Buckley.
    Buckley's platoon was given the right to wear an Oak Leaf Cluster on its Distinguished Unit Badge--which the entire 601st tank destroyer battalion received for the fight at El Guettar in Tunisia. "When the cluster was presented there were only three of us left in the platoon to receive it," said Sgt. Buckley.
    Seventy-five miles farther along the Bourds Valley the 601st won another of the five decorations worn by the TD Sergeant. The battalion was presented the Croix de Guerre with palm by the French 1st Army which it supported in the reduction of the Colmar pocket. Besides the Distinguished Unit Badge and the fourraguerre of the Croix de Guerre, Buckley wears the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals, each with a silver cluster, for wounds and bravery fighting with a dozen of the "hottest" American, British and French outfits in Tunisia, Italy, France and Germany. Nine battle stars stud his EAME theater ribbon.
    His platoon had another curious but less grim experience in contrast when it was the first armored unit to enter Hallstatt, high in the lake country of the Austrian Alps.
    "We dismounted the AA guns and pedestals from the destroyers and just squeezed through an old stone arch at the entrance to the town. Those people hadn't seen any armor since the knights used to ride around--they just stood there with their mouths hanging open and their eyes popping." related Buckley.
    "We were still fighting two weeks after the end of the war up in those mountains," he continued, "and had to turn into cavalry at that."
    "I took the platoon into the hills to round up stray krauts. The roads were too narrow to turn mounted patrols so we just requisitioned some horses and rode them. We flushed out a few jerries."
    The sergeant was wounded in the leg by a shell fragment at Anzio and shot "right across the rear end" by a German bullet near Les Rouges Eauz in France. He said he "just got too smart" and got out of his destroyer with a machine gun to protect it from the rear from infiltrating Germans when a sniper hit him.
    His first Bronze Star was for action near Conca in Italy when an 88mm shelled one man and injured several others of a destroyer crew. Sgt. Buckley, injured himself, gave medical aid to the crew chief and carried him to the medical station through a hail of artillery fire "landing within 25 yards of him," says the citation. "He then reorganized the remainder of the crew and moved the destroyer into another position where its mission could be accomplished."
    The citation accompanying the Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a second Bronze Star declares:
      "For Valorous conduct in action against the enemy on Aug 21, 1944, near La Begude de Lauzane, France. In attempting to obtain better observation and thereby give maximum support to our advancing infantry, Sgt. Buckley dismounted from the comparative safety of his M10 tank destroyer."
      "Spying a force of krauts deploying over the top of a knoll, he took an exposed position on the rear of his destroyer and directed three-in. machine gun fire on these enemy soldiers. Despite small arms fire striking his destroyer and slashing branches three feet above his head, Sgt. Buckley continued to direct his destroyer's fire for more than 15 minutes--with the result that he forced the enemy back over the top of the hill, and, by deliberate targeting, blasted a mortar observer out of a concrete observation post."
      "Upon later investigation the slope Sgt. Buckley fired upon was found to be littered with dead Germans," the citation concludes.
    Buckley enlisted in the 1st Signal Company of the First Division in 1939 and joined the 601st Tank Destroyer battalion in Feb. of 1942, when it was one of the earliest groups of the new forces organized. He is a resident of Lowell, Ind., where his parents, Mr. and Mrs. F.E. Buckley, now reside.
A September 20 , 1945, Lowell Tribune article (page 4, column 3) listed Ben Buckley as having been recently discharged from the service.

This December 16, 1948, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 9, column 3:

    ON DUTY WITH UNCLE SAM'S FORCES IN JAPAN

    With the Eighth Army in Yokohama, Japan -- Sgt. Benjamin A. Buckley, 519th Military Police Battalion, of Lowell, has been found qualified in the military occupational specialties of auto-mechanic and military policeman. Acquired largely through his army training and experience, these qualifications will aid Sgt. Buckley to obtain advancement under the new Career Plan which is to govern all promotions in enlisted and warrant grades.
    Stationed in Yokohama, Japan's major port city and seat of the headquarters of the Eighth Army, Sgt. Buckley is filling an essential job with the army's occupational forces. To occupy his leisure hours, he has access to theaters, clubs, libraries, evening classes, a gymnasium, bowling alleys, volley ball and tennis courts, a swimming pool, a golf course, as well as the picturesque scenery of this ancient country.
    Entering the army in 1939, he arrived in this theater in February. He attended high school in East Chicago.
This article appeared in the Lowell Tribune January 13, 1949, page 6, column 2:
    NOW SERVING AS MILITARY POLICEMAN IN JAPAN
    Headquarters, Eighth Army, Yokohama, Japan, Dec. 21, 1948 -- Sergeant Benjamin A. Buckley, son of Mrs. Stella Buckley, Lowell, Indiana, is now serving as military policeman with the 519th Military Police Battalion.
    Stationed in Yokohama, Japan's major port city, and seat of the headquarters of the Eighth Army, Sergeant Buckley is filling an essential job with the Army's Occupational Forces here. Operating with the efficiency of a large metropolitan police force, the 519th M.P. Battalion covers the city with foot and jeep patrols equipped with two-way radio contact with headquarters.
    To occupy his leisure time, he has access to theaters, clubs, libraries, evening classes, a gymnasium, bowling alleys, volley ball and tennis courts, a golf course, as well as the picturesque scenery of this ancient country.
    Entering the Army in 1939, he arrived in this theater in Feb. 1947. He is a former student of East Chicago, Indiana, High School.
Last updated on March 28, 2007.

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