Original U.S. WWII 29th Infantry Division Bronze Star Group with Travel Diary German Flag Roundel & Scrapbook - T/5 John Burrows, 175th Infantry Regiment

Original Items. One-of-a-Kind Grouping. This is the tremendous medal & ephemera grouping of Technician Fifth Grade John Burrows, 33612642, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division. Burrows was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious achievement in military operations against the enemy from 20 June 1944 to 11 August 1944 and 14 November 1944 to 4 May 1945 in Western Europe. The grouping includes a fantastic captured German “Swas” Roundel on which Burrows inscribed his service history, battles, and locations visited. Also included are his unengraved medals, his silk “Zones of France” map, and a scrapbook with wartime and post-war material, including many letters, poems, and even a handwritten copy of the SHAEF Eisenhower Letter sent to troops before D-Day.

This fantastic grouping consists of:
- Captured German “Swas” roundel measuring 23¼” in diameter. In the center of the roundel is attached a Kriegsmarine “Funker Matrose” or Radio Operator patch, with a yellow lightning bolt. The roundel is inscribed with Burrows’ service record and travel diary, noting the camps he trained at, the dates he arrived overseas and in France, with lists of the places he traveled to in France and Germany, with his campaigns written in the gaps between the arms of the Swas. This all appears to be written with a laundry marker, and is all of the period. One of the most fantastic captured roundels we’ve seen!
- Large scrapbook measuring roughly 13 x 15” with many pages ripped off, so it’s not entirely in order. The majority of the scrapbook contains newspaper clippings dating from World War II through some of the Korean War. There are letters and envelopes mixed in from Burrows to his wife, which lists his unit as Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment. There is a handwritten copy of the SHAEF Eisenhower Letter sent to troops before D-Day written on a letter. Original copies of this letter sell for $1500 nowadays. There are also handwritten poems, although many are likely copied from existing ones. His original Bronze Star Citation is also in the scrapbook as well, on the proper RESTRICTED Headquarters 29th Infantry Division format, dated May 20th, 1945. There are also some of the 29th Division newspaper, some German & French money, one bill of which is signed by several soldiers on both sides. A tremendous scrapbook.
- Incredibly worn and service-used "Zones of France" D-Day Silk Map. Heavy fraying along the edges but still measures roughly 22 ½” x 24”.
- Burrows’ Bronze Star & Purple Heart Medals, both in their original Presentation cases. Both unengraved, and both with original ribbons.
- A January 1915 copy of the Evening Sun, a New York Newspaper. Unsure why it is in the group.

John Burrows was born on August 29th, 1917 and first entered the service on November 22nd, 1943 in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. He was assigned to the 175th Infantry, 29th ID and arrived overseas on May 12th, 1944, returning to the States on October 10th, 1945. He was wounded overseas and was awarded the Bronze Star medal, the citation for which is in the first paragraph of the description. We found a newspaper article stating that he received the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and CIB, as well as a Presidential Unit Citation for action during the Normandy campaign. 

A fantastic grouping to a 29th Infantry Division Bronze Star Recipient and veteran of D-Day, with an outstanding decorated German “Swas” roundel, ready for further research and display!

29th Infantry Division - "Blue and Gray"
At the outbreak of World War II, the U.S. Army began buildup and reorganization of its fighting forces. The division was called into active service on 3 February 1941. Elements of the division were then sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for training. The 57th and 58th Infantry Brigades were inactivated as part of an army-wide removal of brigades from divisions. Instead, the core units of the division were its three infantry regiments, along with supporting units. On 12 March 1942, over three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent American entrance into World War II, with this reorganization complete the division was redesignated as the 29th Infantry Division and began preparing for overseas deployment to Europe.

The 29th Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Leonard Gerow, was sent to England on 5 October 1942 on RMS Queen Mary. It was based throughout England and Scotland, where it immediately began training for an invasion of northern Europe across the English Channel. In May 1943 the division moved to the Devon–Cornwall peninsula and started conducting simulated attacks against fortified positions. At this time the division was assigned to V Corps of the U.S. First Army.  In July the divisional commander, Major General Gerow, was promoted to command V Corps and Major General Charles Hunter Gerhardt assumed command of the division, remaining in this post for the rest of the war.

Operation Overlord
D-Day of Operation Neptune, the cross-channel invasion of Normandy, finally came on 6 June 1944. Neptune was the assault phase of the larger Operation Overlord, codename for the Allied campaign to liberate France from the Germans. The 29th Infantry Division sent the 116th Infantry to support the western flank of the veteran 1st Infantry Division's 16th Infantry at Omaha Beach.  Omaha was known to be the most difficult of the five landing beaches, due to its rough terrain and bluffs overlooking the beach, which had been well fortified by its German defenders of the 352nd Infantry Division. The 116th Infantry was assigned four sectors of the beach; Easy Green, Dog Red, Dog White, and Dog Green. Soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division boarded a large number of attack transports for the D-Day invasion, among them landing craft, landing ship, tank, and landing ship, infantry ships and other vessels such as the SS Empire Javelin, USS Charles Carroll, and USS Buncombe County.

As the ships were traveling to the beach, the heavy seas, combined with the chaos of the fighting caused most of the landing force to be thrown off-course and most of the 116th Infantry missed its landing spots.  Most of the regiment's tank support, launched from too far off-shore, foundered and sank in the channel. The soldiers of the 116th Infantry were the first to hit the beach at 0630, coming under heavy fire from German fortifications. Company A, from the Virginia National Guard in Bedford was annihilated by overwhelming fire as it landed on the 116th's westernmost section of the beach, along with half of Company A, B, and C of the 2nd Ranger Battalion and the 5th Rangers Battalion which was landing to the west of the 116th.  The catastrophic losses suffered by this small Virginia community led to it being selected for the site of the National D-Day Memorial.

The 1st Infantry Division's forces ran into similar fortifications on the eastern half of the beach, suffering massive casualties coming ashore. By 0830, the landings were called off for lack of space on the beach, as the Americans on Omaha Beach were unable to overcome German fortifications guarding the beach exits. Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commanding the American First Army, considered evacuating the survivors and landing the rest of the divisions elsewhere.

However, by noon, elements of the American forces had been able to organize and advance off the beach, and the landings resumed.  By nightfall, the division headquarters landed on the beach with about 60 percent of the division's total strength, and began organizing the push inland. On 7 June, a second wave of 20,000 reinforcements from both the 1st and 29th Divisions was sent ashore. By the end of D-Day, 2,400 men from the two divisions had become casualties on Omaha Beach.  Added to casualties at other beaches and air-drops made the total casualties for the Normandy landings 6,500 Americans and 3,000 British and Canadians, lighter numbers than expected.

The entire division had landed in Normandy by 7 June.  By 9 June, Omaha Beach was secure and the division occupied Isigny. On 14 July, the division was reassigned to XIX Corps, part of the First Army, itself part of the 12th Army Group.