William J. Wilner Jr.

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS WILLIAM J. WILNER, JR. was born in England on February 14, 1922 to William J. and Claudia Wilner. His father was a stained glass artist. At the time of the 1930 census the Wilner family lived at 422 Second avenue in Haddon Heights NJ. William Wilner was a 1941 graduate of Collingswood (NJ) High School, and had attended college for two years. Inducted into the United States Army at Camden NJ on January 1, 1943, he was assigned to the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. Private Wilner was killed in action during somewhere between Grosshau and Gey, Germany, during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. 

William J. Wilner Jr. was brought home after the war. He was buried at Hampton National Cemetery in Hampton VA on November 21, 1947. His mother, Claudia Wilner, survived him, passing away in Huntingdon Valley PA in May of 1983.

The 22nd Infantry Regiment's Experience in the Hürtgen Forest

On 16 November 1944, the 4th Infantry Division attacked into the Hürtgen Forest as one of ten divisions participating in a combined offensive by First and Ninth U.S. Armies to close to the Rhine River.

As one of the infantry regiments of the 4th Division, the 22nd Infantry spent eighteen days in November and early December 1944 in the Hürtgen Forest. In a battle many believed mattered little in the big picture, the 22nd suffered 2773 casualties, or 85 percent of its normal complement of 3257 soldiers to take one village and 6000 yards of forest. Each rifle company went into the action averaging 162 soldiers. Seven days later the rifle companies averaged eighty-seven men, of whom 42 percent were replacements who had arrived during the battle. By the end of the battle, losses in the rifle companies reached an estimated average of 151 percent of their original strength. Although the 22nd Infantry suffered these very heavy casualties, the United States Army's practice of replacing casualties while units were still in combat kept the unit from ever falling below 75 percent strength. Total replacements amounted to 1988 soldiers.

The conditions of the battle negated the impact of American superiority in aviation and armor and made the battle an infantryman's fight from beginning to end. Although massive amounts of artillery fire assisted the forward movement of the regiment, the infantry still had to take the ground.

The 22nd was neither poorly trained nor poorly led. Lieutenant General J. Lawton Collins, the VII Corps Commander and later Chief of Staff of the Army, considered the 22nd one of the premier infantry regiments in the ETO. By all accounts, the regiment's commander, Colonel Charles T. Lanham, and his battalion commanders were effective leaders. They did what they could to influence the battle and their attempts to turn the German flanks reflected tactical sophistication. When possible, they alternated battalions and companies leading the attack.

The 22nd Infantry entered the Hürtgen Forest expecting a low cost success. Instead the regiment fought its way through the woods virtually unsupported in a battle of attrition against three German divisions and elements of two others. Although the 22nd suffered more casualties than any other regiment in the Hürtgen, it lost no ground not immediately recovered. The last days of the battle saw fresh German battalions breaking through decimated companies of the 22nd, only to be cut off, killed or captured by other equally attritted companies rushed into the breach. During the battle the 22nd captured 764 Germans. There are no extant casualty figures for the German units, outside those captured, but it must be assumed the German casualties were at least as high if not higher than those of the 22nd. German companies suffered the same fate as the 22nd's, but they lacked the ability to regenerate and were burned in the flame of the Hürtgen.

Although Colonel Lanham's 22nd Infantry Regiment was above 75% in strength when it emerged from the Hürtgen, he considered it fought out. The combat effectiveness of the regiment crumbled when most of the unit's veterans became casualties. The soldiers of the regiment did not quit, but at the end there was no attack left in them.

The evidence suggests the regiment kept fighting as long as it contained soldiers who had trained together in the United States or who had significant previous combat experience within the regiment. These veterans provided a pool of competent soldiers to replace the junior officers and NCOs when they either became casualties or were promoted to higher positions during the battle. As long as there were veterans around whom the replacement could coalesce, the regiment moved forward. The loss of these small unit leaders quite possibly dealt a more deadly blow to the regiments ability to attack than did the loss of the commanders of every rifle company and battalion.

The backbone of the regiment were the soldiers, officer and enlisted, who had trained together in the United States. 

The 22nd Infantry Regiments Experience in the Hürtgen Forest

The information above is extracted from: Paschendale with Treebursts, a history and analysis of the 22nd Infantry Regiment during the battle of the Hürtgen Forest, 16 November through 03 December 1944.                                   By Robert S. Rush