Highland man fought from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge, was wounded, then went back to fight again
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 4th of July than giving out my personal Tip of the Hat Award in remembrance of Homer Poss, one of Highland’s World War II heroes.
Poss was born and raised in Lebanon. During the Pearl Harbor attack, Poss was just 16.
“My greatest fear in life was that the war was going to be over, before I could get to it,” Poss told his son Keith and daughter Sherry, who documented their father’s service and supplied the information to me for this column.
Like much of America at that time, Poss felt strongly about the Japanese attack and wanted to do his part.
“I wanted to get my licks in, too,” he said.
When Poss was 17, he tried to enlist, but the enlistments were frozen.
Then, on Feb. 16, 1943, he was drafted. He reported to Scott Air Base on Feb. 23, 1943. He was sent to Camp Walters, Texas for basic training and then parachute school. He then went to Alliance Air Base in Nebraska for additional training. He was part of the original, experimental specialty force, the 507th Infantry Parachute Regiment for seven more months. He then sent overseas as part of the 82nd Airborne.
Poss left New York by convey, staying to the north to avoid German U-boats. On the journey, Poss saw his first icebergs. After 17 days aboard ship, he landed in Liverpool, England, then went to Ireland.
In Ireland the regiment stayed in old hotels for three months, before being sent to Nottingham, England in preparation for D-Day invasion. Here, they made a night jump -- the first night jump every by a group in training. A few days later, the entire division was moved to the airport hangers in anticipation of their invasion orders. But they ended up sleeping on folding wooden cots there, as the weather was not cooperating.
On June 6, 1944, D-Day finally arrived.
Poss recalled the instructions for the D-Day jump: “Keep the German troops, who were back in reserve, from coming to the beachheads. Destroy communications, destroy transportation, destroy the enemy and tear up everything!”
Poss and his fellow paratroopers were to be dropped about 14 miles ahead of Omaha Beach.
“On the aircraft for the jump, we encountered flack, but we jumped at 2:30 a.m.,” Poss said.
But the plane dropped them 30 miles from where we were supposed to be.
“We ended up about 6 miles ahead of Utah Beach and off the map that they had given us, so we could tell where we really were,” Poss said.
During the jump at Normandy, Poss suffered a hairline fracture of his left ankle.
“It was just small injuries that everyone endured,” he recalled. “By daybreak, we had set up headquarters in a small town Catholic church. The observation post was inside the steeple. We sent out patrols to find other American soldiers and locate the Germans. Allied forces were bombing the city of Carentan, the closest city to our location… There was a German garrison just 3 miles away, and they had been waiting for reinforcements.”
Poss remembered the Germans coming up over a slight rise, surprising the U.S. forces, who were hiding in the water and swamps on the side of the road, which was being used by the Germans.
“They passed, and we were able to get out of the swamp and we moved on. Later, we came to a railroad tracks, then met an Allied foot patrol, from the 2nd Armored Division,” Poss said.
They gave Poss and his comrades, food, allowed them to rest and helped them attack the next morning.
Poss had fought from D-Day and through the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans’ last major counter offensive of the war. Poss’s unit was part of a force that was going to relieve the 101st Airborne at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.
“We were flown in, extremely close to the dividing line, between the Allied Forces and the Germans… Our mission was to parachute in and take the airport. It was so close that we didn’t know who would be occupying it at the time we landed. Luckily, we were able to land at the airport, but as soon as we landed, we were fighting the Germans.”
Poss recalls how miserable the Battle of the Bulge was.
“The Germans kept coming,” he said. “There was constant cold, filth and death. No one could get clean and not any sleep.”
Then came Operation Varsity. It was a parachute jump across the Rhine River. The 17th Airborne, relatively inexperienced, had been sent in and were assigned the Rhineland jump.
“Top brass wanted at least one experienced regiment, so our 507th was chosen,” Poss said.
That made Poss’s 507th the only regiment to jump at both Normandy and the Rhine River.
The Rhine River jump, March 31, 1945, almost cost Poss his life. He was wounded by mortar shell shrapnel, which embedded in his skull. He was taken by Red Cross ambulance to the 8th General Hospital in Holland, where, on April 1, 1945, he was awarded the Purple Heart.
Once Poss recovered from his wound, he was back at the front. He fought all the way through to Berlin.
After the war was over, Poss was separated from active duty at Camp Grant in Illinois, on Dec. 27, 1945, after 34 months of military service.
Poss arrived at his parents’ new home in Highland, 808 Washington St., and he went on to be an integral part of his community.
Homer married Colleen Sackett of Highland in May of 1946 and they raised four children.
Homer wore many hats in Highland city government. He served two terms as mayor and 12 years on the City Council. He also served eight years as city magistrate, holding traffic court. Twice he was called on to act as interim city manager.
Then after his retirement, Poss made City Hall his second home, doing custodial, lawncare and landscaping. He loved working with the city employees.
Poss belonged to many organizations, and I’m sure that these three topped his list: the Highland VFW, where he served as commander; the Highland Sesquicentennial, where he was the parade marshal; and the Highland Chamber of Commerce. Poss was honored in 2003 by the Highland Chamber of Commerce with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. The award now bears his name.
Poss died on Jan. 18, 2005 at age 80.
In 2006, Poss’s family installed a granite memorial bench at the entrance to Highland City Hall in his honor.
My Tip of the Hat Award, mid-year 2018, is for Homer Poss — just little more glory, to an already impressive list.
Today, Poss will also have a memorial brick will be dedicated at the new Veterans Memorial Wall in Rinderer Park. I’m honored to say, I also have a brick is at the Memorial Wall for my services in the Philippines during World War II. The ceremony to dedicate the wall is at 10 a.m. I hope to see you there.
Information and many other Highland veterans can be found in the War Veterans Cabinet at the Highland Home Museum.