10 November 1944, two kilometers west of the village of Hurtgen, Germany.
As the vanguard of the 4th Infantry Division, the 12th Infantry was committed to
relieve the 109th Infantry of the 28th Infantry Division, which had been mauled after a
week’s fighting in the Hurtgen Forest as it attempted to pierce the Siegfried Line, the
fortifications along Germany’s western border. The 1st Battalion of the 12th Infantry
was to reduce an enemy salient in the line, but after a slight advance, it ran into
minefields, booby-traps, concertina wire, automatic weapons from the front, left,
and right, as well as heavy mortar and artillery fire.
In C Company, Sergeant Russell ‘Pete’ Holcomb was knocked off his feet by
machine-gun fire, tearing through his right arm and into his chest. A medic rendered
first aid and Staff Sergeant Harry Vandercar helped carry him off the line to a road
where stretcher bearers could evacuate him.Â
Within minutes artillery shells began falling around them. Knowing Pete Holcomb
was helpless, Harry Vandercar threw himself atop him, shielding him with his own
body. Two rounds nearest them were duds, but a third detonated, throwing
Vandercar about 30 feet away, killing him. Severely wounded again by the same
round, Holcomb was eventually evacuated and never returned to the unit, and as the
only survivor of that action, he was unable to report the circumstances of
Vandercar’s death to C Company. Likewise, as the only person present, he would
provide details about how Vandercar was killed to his mother in 1947, information
his widow and children would not learn until nearly 50 years later.
Given the nature of the battle, Vandercar was listed as MIA on 12 November
and finally declared Killed in Action a year later. His body was eventually recovered,
identified, and interred in a temporary U.S. cemetery in Germany, and subsequently
moved to the Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold, France. His remains were
repatriated in 1949 and interred in Jersey City, New Jersey at the request of his
mother and sisters.
A 28-year-old railroad car inspector from Jersey City, Harry R. Vandercar had
joined the Army National Guard in 1938, serving in the 113th Infantry Regiment.
When the unit was federalized in 1941, it was assigned to the Eastern Defense
Command, protecting the northeast and mid-Atlantic coast from potential enemy
action. As the threat to our coasts diminished, soldiers were made available as
individual replacements for the theaters of war. Sergeants Vandercar and Holcomb
met upon entering Normandy two weeks after D-Day when they were assigned to C
Company of the 12th , becoming fast friends. They fought through France, Belgium,
and into Germany until the action described above. Evacuated from the theater after
his wounding, Holcomb would spend 15 months in hospitals until his discharge in
1946.
Meanwhile in New Jersey, Vandercar's wife Ida and her infant daughters
received the bad news. Ida would subsequently marry a good man named Dovey
Ziegler who would raise the girls as his own, along with step-brothers Roy and
Kenny who would come along later. Although they had no personal memory of him,
Elaine and Lois grew up knowing that their father died in his Nation’s service.
As mentioned earlier, in 1947 Pete Holcomb wrote Harry's mother to let her
know that he had been with Harry at the time of his death, but it wasn't until 1995
that the letter containing the circumstances surfaced and the now-grown daughters
learned that someone had been with their father on that fateful day. That knowledge
started a dogged search by older daughter Elaine Vandercar Broderick to find Pete
Holcomb, ultimately locating him in Alabama. In 1996 Ida and Dovey Ziegler visited
the Holcomb's, and Ida learned the details of Harry's death from the man whose life
he had saved at the cost of his own. With the help of a local VFW Post, Ida initiated a
request for the awards and decorations to which Harry was entitled, and petitioned
her Congressman to ask the Army if his sacrifice warranted a more significant
recognition.
The Congressional inquiry went to the Department of the Army, but
unfortunately Ida died in 1999 before the Army responded in the negative.
Jump forward two decades and because of an intense interest in learning
more about their biological father, younger daughter Lois Vandercar Ciccone
traveled to western Germany with her daughter in April, 2018 to visit the now
peaceful lands on which Harry Vandercar, Pete Holcomb, and the 12th Infantry had
fought so many decades before. Their guide was a most knowledgeable WW II
historian and retired German Army soldier named Volker Lossner who took them to
that battlefield west of Hurtgen, undoubtedly an emotional journey for Lois. That
trip led to a question: Could Harry Vandercar's remains be transferred to Arlington
National Cemetery to repose among his brothers and sisters in arms? Lossner later
contacted several U.S. Army veterans from New Jersey, and asked if they could assist
the Vandercar daughters in that quest, a task they were happy to take on. And in
May, 2019, the family received news they had been hoping for; Staff Sergeant
Vandercar’s burial has been approved.
At 1 p.m. on October 11th, 2019, S/Sgt. Harry R. Vandercar of the 12th
Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division completed his 75 year journey when his
remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery. His urn was brought to the
gravesite, where an Army Chaplain offered remarks and a prayer, after which a 21
gun salute and playing of Taps preceded the folding of a U.S. Flag over his urn; it was
presented to S/Sgt. Vandercar's eldest daughter, Mrs. Elaine Vandercar Broderick
of Waldwick, NJ. A second folded flag was presented to his younger daughter, Lois
Vandercar Ciccone of Lakewood, NJ. Elaine and Lois's brother, U.S. Army veteran
Kenneth Ziegler was also in attendance. At the conclusion of the service, an
Arlington Lady offered the condolences of the Chief of Staff, U.S. Army. Â
Numerous family members, friends, and Army veterans were in attendance.
Three people who assisted the family in having S/Sgt. Vandercar's
remains re-located to Arlington also attended; the German Army officer mentioned
above, Captain Volker Lossner, who today lives on the Hurtgen battlefield on which
Vandercar fell, and is an expert on the fighting; U.S. Army veteran Tom McArdle of
Summit, NJ, another expert in small unit actions in the European Theater; and
retired U.S. Army soldier Bob Leicht of Delaware. Lastly, four members of a living
history group from Pennsylvania named the Furious Fourth attended in period
uniforms to represent that earlier generation of soldiers, and to bridge the gap
between 1944 and 2019.
So Harry Vandercar’s voyage is at an end, and he will now rest in peace for all
time in the company of heroes.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends
(John 15:13)
Â
Actions of the 12th Infantry Nov 7-21 44
Account Written for his Personal File by Colonel James S. Luckett, Inf. (C. O. 12th Infantry, June 15 to November 21, 1944)