Hello all, I am looking for information about 1st Lt. Bonnie L. Langnehs, 325th GIR, 82nd Airborne Division. His serial number is 0-1304242. He was K.I.A. On June 9, 1944 which I am assuming was in the La Fiere area? I also believe he was in C Company, 1st Platoon. He was from Louisville Kentucky. Not sure how to take this information and combine it to further my investigation. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Jeffrey
Hi Jeffrey, welcome here- Greetings! With you question about 1st Lt Bonnie L Langnehs I assume you have all the available records from Fold3 or associated official mil web pages from the 82th Division? I searched and found this google preview (in french) in which Bonnie L Langnehs is listed for Co C. Go to page 85 and you can see him listed with the officer's rooster. I found this action report THE FORCING OF THE MERDERET CAUSEWAY AT LA FIERE, FRANCE from Regimental Unit Study No 4 on history army mil documents. Unfortunately 1st Lt Bonnie L Langnehs or one of his Co C mates are not mentioned. Maybe helpful anyways. Here is a link to the thread for the La Fiere bridge in this forum. Hope this helps.
Hi Jeffrey, Its likely, but not certain that Lt. Langnehs was killed somewhere along the line of advance taken by 1/325th on the 9th June. I have seen two maps of the route, one from page 108 of 'No Better Place to Die' by Bob Murphy and the other from page 335 of 'All American All the Way' by Phil Nordyke. Both maps are reproduced below: If my assumption is correct, I would suspect that the most likely part of the route to look at is that of the action involving the German artillery position where PFC Charlie DeGlopper was killed during an action for which he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. However, the movement of Company C was very fluid during the attack and this is by no means certain, no least because there were few survivors to relate the story. This extract from page 333-4 of Phil's 'All American All the Way' relates: It was in this action that most of the C Company losses occurred during the attack, so it is possible that Lt. Langnehs was one of those. I wonder if PFC Raymond T. Burchell was in 1st Platoon? Regards, Pat
One other thing Jeffery, Please see our 'Actions of 1/325 GIR on 9th June 1944' thread for more on the location of the above action. Regards, Pat
Thanks for all the feedback. This was all very helpful. Lt. Langnehs was from my hometown and I will be at the La Fiere Bridge in the middle of September and was hoping to piece together a narrative of his movements and subsequent death on the battlefield for Veterans Day. Many thanks, Jeffrey