Saving Private Carr
By Jonathan Gawne.
I find estate sales both wonderful and terribly sad. Pawing through someone’s house and catching glimpses into their life. So when one happened down the street I had to go. With my interest n WW2 I quickly spotted a small stack of WW2 Yank magazines on a chair. I snatched them up. All pre-June 1944 edition printed in England. Someone in the house had a connection to the war in Europe.
I searched the place high and low. Nothing else. Normally I can find some minor item no one realized was military in nature. Then as I was leaving, there in the jewelry case was a DI from the 115th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. No, it was a matching pair! And they were the WW2 era version without a motto, and pin back clasps indicating more than likely mid to late war manufacture. I searched the house again, and nothing. I looked for anything that might give me an idea of who this 29er was. So I asked the estate agent who said there had been some kind of banner or flag or something but it had sold as soon as the doors opened. Darn it!
I went back the next day on Sunday when everything was cheap and scoured again. Finally, I hit pay dirt. I found a small Catholic certificate named to John C. Carr. It had inked in “Pvt.” before the name and “R.I.P” underneath. It was dated August 19, 1944. This had to be the 115th man. Looking up “Purgatorial Society” I found it essentially was for someone paying for a mass or series of masses in the name of the dead.
I turned to Steve West of England (overly knowledgeable 29th Historian) who very quickly ID’s him as Pvt. John C. Carr of the 115th. Killed on 17 July 1944 in the Forest ****. Here’s a creepy thing. Years ago I had spent a weird night in that very forest camping with some friends. The foxholes are still there, and ghosts wander the area at night. I bet if Johnny was there he would have been amazed to find someone from Framingham visiting, let alone in a group of Frenchmen.
But to me there is nothing sadder than a soldier killed and forgotten. Who was John Carr? I went to the local library and looked at the newspaper for the period around his death. I found that across the street from my house was a guy in a Naval Beach Battalion that worked on Omaha Beach. Around the corner to my right lived Pfc. Dominic Surro killed on d-day in Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment.
And then I found a mention on 7 July 1944 that Carr was missing somewhere in France . He had been overseas since Sept 1942, and his last letter home had been on 30 May 1944. A shadowed face looked out at me from the microfilm. That was John Carr. A second listing on 31 July mentioned he was finally pronounced killed in action.
So why do I call him Johnny? A while later I had a pipe start leaking in my basement. I called a plumber who was the brother of an old friend of my mom. He had done work for me before and came over and did the job. A minor issue meant he had to come back the next day to finish the caulking, and he sent over his 84 year old father. In talking he mentioned when he was a teenager he was flying over France. What kind of plane? What squadron? What position? (I think he was surprised I not only knew something about the Air Force in WW2, but cared enough to ask questions.
As an afterthought I asked if by any means he knew a kid that lives down the street name John Carr. Of course he said. Johnny. He was in gang of about 8 of us. We used to pal around. The Germans killed him. His name was in the papers.” And so here my plumber’s father used to play with Johnny Carr before the war. It’s a small world.
Was I perhaps the only person to recall his military service? I checked the WW2 memorial Register and found he had been added by Mr. & Mrs. John O'Rourke. I checked the local phone listings, but to no avail.
I finally obtained the Army death records. Listed in his personnel effects returned tot he family are "two insignia" which in all probability mean the two 155th DI's pictured above. I also now know his final place of burial and will soon be making a visit to his grave.