Honoring my grandfather's cousin 1LT. Roger G. Bissmeyer, KIA 16 April 1945.
Roger Bissmeyer graduated from Xavier University in January 1943, one of the members of the 1943 class which graduated a semester ahead of normal due to the oncoming war effort.
Upon graduation Bissmeyer was sent to Ft. Sill, OK for Field Artillery Officer Basic. He graduated in May 1943, was commissioned under the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) as a Second Lieutenant and was assigned to the HQ Battery of the 494th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, US 12th Armored Division. His unit arrived in Le Havre, France on 11 November 1944. His unit, nicknamed the Hellcats, would spend the next six months fighting in France and Germany. On one occasion, when a tank column was halted by anti-tank fire, Bissmeyer dismounted his vehicle with a portable radio and worked his way to a house within 200 yards of the enemy gun emplacement. Despite concentrated fire on the house, he remained at his post until the enemy guns were silenced.
On 16 April 1945 in southern Germany, just three weeks before the Germany surrender, Bissmeyer was killed in action by a sniper while performing his duties as a Forward Observer. According to the National Archives & Records Administration 1Lt. Bissmeyer may have posthumously been awarded the Silver Star for his outstanding work during which he constantly disregarded his own safety by exposing himself to enemy fire in order to direct fire on the enemy's positions. According to Honor State he was also awarded the Purple Heart.1Lt. Bissmeyer's remains were repatriated to the USA in 1948 and his final resting place is in the Saint Mary Cemetery in Saint Bernard, Ohio.
Ironically, among my grandfather's possessions, I also found a prayer card for another of his cousins, Johannes Albers, a 21 year old private in the Wehrmacht, KIA in the Battle of the Bulge. His death was never mentioned; my mother didn't know who he was, but he was important to his aunt, my great grandmother, who lost two nephews in the same war.
