William Craig George

Bill was the eldest son of William F. George and Margaret Craig George, born in the Delaware County suburb of Prospect Park. They moved to Philadelphia by the time his brother, Robert, was born in 1916. Their father was a salesman at Jackson & Moyer clothing store, 1610 Chestnut Street, and remained there as manager for 30 years. 

Home for the boys was always in the Cobbs Creek section of Philadelphia, and they continued to live there long after they dropped out of West Philadelphia High School. At age 24, Bill moved out when he married Eleanor Wiltbank, moving a few blocks south to the corner of Wilton and Kingsessing Streets.

Eleanor took a part-time job as a waitress and Bill became a salesman for Philadelphia Electric  (now called PECO Energy Co.). He also joined the National Guard, which gave him a taste of military life. When the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 became law, he registered for the draft on October 16. Then Bill and his relatives had to deal with the death of his mother four months later.

He was called up on October 29, 1941 and served with the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Division. They were off to invade North Africa, landing at Casablanca in French Morocco in late 1942. Bill faced some trouble at home, though. Whether she didn’t care for the present circumstances or just no longer cared for him, Eleanor got a divorce in 1943 and promptly married someone else.

By this time Bill was busy with liberating the island of Sicily from the Axis powers of Italy and Germany. Then it was time to prepare for the June, 1944 invasion of France. The 2nd AD landed at Omaha Beach three days after the first Normandy landings. 

They earned the name, “Hell on Wheels” as their Sherman tanks raced across France. On September 2 they became the first Allied unit to enter the Nazi-occupied country of Belgium. Bill had already been awarded the Purple Heart twice for wounds suffered in action.

The “tankers” rolled into combat in the Dutch town of Geleen on September 18. Townspeople  heralded the beginning of Holland’s liberation, despite the destruction caused in order to rout the enemy. Sixty years later they unveiled a memorial there, fashioned in the shape of the letter H. It is inscribed with the names of 61 American soldiers who died to free The Netherlands. 

Bill’s is one of the 61 names on that memorial because he was mortally wounded by artillery fire on the previous day, September 17. He was originally buried in the US Military Cemetery in Belgium. His father was notified that a third Purple Heart medal would be posthumously awarded him because he was killed in action. His remains were reburied here after a funeral service on June 4, 1949, but no other family members are known to have joined him.