1Lt. John K. Butler, Jr.

The date of 1Lt. Butler's death was provided by Jack Cleary from St. John the Baptist Church in Philedelphia, Pa.. Mr. Cleary was in the process of arranging cemetary information and happened upon 1Lt. Butler's death certificate and was kind enough to forward the missing information. My thanks to Mr. Cleary for his assistance.

To provide a narrative to the Lieutenant's death, if he was killed on December 5 then he was most likely killed in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest and most likely in or around the town of Bergstein, Germany. The 5th attacked on the morning of 5 December and took the town and repelled a very heavy German counter attack as well as a second counter attack later in the afternoon. Additional counter attacks were launched over the next few days but they were not nearly as furious as those on 5 December. By 9 December, the 5th Armored had only 8 working tanks left of the original 58 that had led the attack. There were only 70 infantrymen left of the original 750 that had started. The German High Command had offered the Knight's Cross to any unit that retook Bergstein but the 5th Armored was able to hold the town despite the horrible losses they incurred.