Holzinger, Warner, born as Werner Willi, 31-03-1916 in Rosenthal, Silesia,
to Karl Frederick Holzinger 1871 /1940 and Sofie L Holzinger 1881/ 1937. Warner came to the US with his parents and 3 older siblings in 1921. He was naturalized as a US citizen on 26-09-1940. One book states that he was from Reedsburg, Wisconsin; but every source document that I found has him living in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and he drove a dairy truck before the war.” He joined Troop B of the 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 5th Army
under General Courtny Ricks Hodges
and he would be the first Amis to cross the German border at the Siegfried line.
“Just after six p.m. on the warm, clear Monday evening of September 11, a jeep carrying a five-man American patrol from Troop B of the 85th Reconnaissance Squadron
under command of Lieutenant Colonel Kent Fay,
crept north on the river road from Vianden in northwestern Luxembourg. Lieutenant Colonel Kent Fay was one of the American soldiers who died during the liberation of France in 1944. He is a great-uncle of the famous actor Matt Damon.
Matt Damon came to pay his respects at the commemoration of his great-uncle, Lieutenant Colonel Kent Fay, in Rully (Oise)
to Karl Frederick Holzinger 1871 /1940 and Sofie L Holzinger 1881/ 1937. Warner came to the US with his parents and 3 older siblings in 1921. He was naturalized as a US citizen on 26-09-1940. One book states that he was from Reedsburg, Wisconsin; but every source document that I found has him living in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and he drove a dairy truck before the war.” He joined Troop B of the 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 5th Army
under General Courtny Ricks Hodges
and he would be the first Amis to cross the German border at the Siegfried line.
“Just after six p.m. on the warm, clear Monday evening of September 11, a jeep carrying a five-man American patrol from Troop B of the 85th Reconnaissance Squadron
under command of Lieutenant Colonel Kent Fay,
crept north on the river road from Vianden in northwestern Luxembourg. Lieutenant Colonel Kent Fay was one of the American soldiers who died during the liberation of France in 1944. He is a great-uncle of the famous actor Matt Damon.
Matt Damon came to pay his respects at the commemoration of his great-uncle, Lieutenant Colonel Kent Fay, in Rully (Oise)Damon played the role of Ryan in the movie Saving Private Ryan.
Saving Private Ryan, based on the true story of the Niland brothers,”Niland, Fredrick William “Fritz”
is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on a mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home safely after his three brothers have been killed in action.
Saving Private Ryan, based on the true story of the Niland brothers,”Niland, Fredrick William “Fritz”
is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on a mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home safely after his three brothers have been killed in action.Thickly timbered hills pitched and yawed in all directions, and blue shadows bled into the dells. The jeep lurched to a halt near the jackstraw wreckage of a blown bridge across the narrow Our River. Staff Sergeant Warner William Holzinger, a German-speaker from Reedsburg, Wisconsin, scrambled down the bank, followed by a rifleman and a French interpreter hired by the troop in Paris.
Holzinger’s orders from the 5th Armored Division urged caution, but added, “Should probing indicate great weakness in some portion of the frontier line, penetration may become possible.” The sergeant detected great weakness. With the limpid water barely reaching their foot cuffs, he and his two comrades sloshed twenty yards across the Our to become the first Allied soldiers into Germany.
Up the slope for four hundred yards they trudged to a clutch of houses, where a farmer reported that the German rear guard had scuttled off the previous day. With the man impressed as a guide – “in case he was lying,” Holzinger later explained – the GIs hiked to the crest of a knife-blade ridge half a mile above the river for a panoramic view. Raking the hills with his field glasses, Holzinger counted twenty concrete pillboxes tucked among the glades and brakes, including one with a chicken coop attached.
Up the slope for four hundred yards they trudged to a clutch of houses, where a farmer reported that the German rear guard had scuttled off the previous day. With the man impressed as a guide – “in case he was lying,” Holzinger later explained – the GIs hiked to the crest of a knife-blade ridge half a mile above the river for a panoramic view. Raking the hills with his field glasses, Holzinger counted twenty concrete pillboxes tucked among the glades and brakes, including one with a chicken coop attached.
Death and burial ground of Holzinger, Warner William.
Warner Holzinger was not KIA. He died 05-06-1988, age 72 and is buried on the Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, USA, Section 4N. He was a resident of the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, when he died.
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Jon Fox Rider
Hello! I’ve noticed the picture of church from Rosenthal- Staff Sergeant Holzinger’s place of birth and I need to bring up the fact that it’s not the right Rosenthal… Mr Holzinger was most likely born in (Lower) Silesia, in a town of Rosenthal, which after war turned out to be a part of Peoples Republic of Poland. New Polish authorities changed the town’s name to Różanka (50.17879636667514, 16.635222264427608).