Received the following. Could not come up with anything in my books or on the site/forum. Sent a request to the Army Corps of Engineers for more info. There was NO DUI in the my reference book either.

Good morning Marion,

 

Have you made contact with any surviving members of the 251st Combat Engineers Battalion in the past? I got the email below from Jelle Nieskens yesterday in regards to one of the men in the unit, John L. Rose, who was killed during WW2. I think what he is doing is just outstanding! I don't have any information on surviving members from this unit. I was hoping you could help.

 

Thank you,

 

Darrell Pace

http://www.1142combatengineers.com/

 

 

Marion Chard's website:

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/

 

 

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: search

Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 17:12:38 +0200

 

 

Good day.

 

I am Jelle Nieskens i am 12 years old. I have adopted a grave of a soldier who has died in WO2. He is buried on the cemetery of Margraten. This is the military cemetery. I am searching for more information about this soldier and his live. When i search on the net i come on your website and now is my question if you can help me?.

 

His name was Private first Class John L Rose.

reg number 33732126

251 engr combat bn

state Maryland.

he died on 23 February 1945.

 

Can you help me of do you now who can.

 

many greetings from

Jelle Nieskens.

Mauritsstraat 24

6006 EK.

Limburg

the Netherlands

I sent a message to a possible family member of Mr Rose on Ancestry.com.

Many thanks. Let's see what we hear.

Received this from the Office of History this morning:

Hi Marion,

 

Our finding aid for unit histories says there are records of the 251st in the

National Archives. We have an oral history transcript of BG William M.

Glasgow who served in the battalion but apparently after the death of Pfc.

Rose. Otherwise we have only the information from Stanton's Order of Battle

book:

 

Unit activated 23 July 1943 at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin; left the New York Port

of Embarkation 27 August 1944; arrived in England 7 September 1944; arrived

in France 29 September 1944; participated in the Central Europe and Rhineland

campaigns; at Schnde, Germany, at war's end (August 1945); arrived at the New

York Port of Embarkation 18 January 1946; inactivated 19 January 1946, Camp

Kilmer, New Jersey.

 

I'm sorry I couldn't come up with more.

 

Mike

Professor Dave from the School of History at Fort Leonard Wood is also looking into info. Said would get back with us by early next week. Cool!

Many thanks to all.

Letter recieved from Laura Rose

Subject: RE: Pfc. John L. Rose

Dear Larry,

I am so honored and touched by Jelle's adoption of John Rose's grave and your assistance for him. Thank you so much for contacting me. John Leroy "Johnny" Rose was my great-uncle and the youngest of 8 children. He was born in Baltimore May 3, 1925 and from what I understand he was in the 251st Engineer's Combat Battalian.

His parents (my great-grandparents on my father's father's side) were Walter Albert Rose and Genevieve Turner Sank Rose. Walter worked as a freight conductor for the B&O railroad in Baltimore.

Of course I never met him as he died well before I was born however one of his sisters, Hazel Madeline Rose Agnuss is still living and I see or speak with her every few weeks. She is the only sibling currently alive and is 94 years of age but she lives at her same home of 50+ years right outside of Baltimore, gets up at 6am every day and takes care of her garden, mows the yard, even drives to the store and her appointments. Her memory never ceases to amaze me so I will be sure to find out more about Johnny (as she refers to him) and I am sure she will be absolutely tickled to know this lovely young person has adopted Johnny's grave.

Please feel free to share my email - (ommitted per board standards) and thanks again so very much for reaching out.

Kind Regards,

Laura Rose

Jelle Nieskens,

First, thank you so much for adopting this grave of PFC Rose!! This is very

kind of you!

Sadly, the U.S. Army Engineer School has no archives on the 251st. We are

dependent on veterans or family members to donate, and no one has donated

for the 251st. I am so sorry!

The is a little of information of PFC Rose at the American Battlefields and

Monuments Commission. Go to this web page:

http://www.abmc.gov/search/wwii.php

Type rose john l into the space and click on "search."

Here are links to what Engineer units similar PFC Rose's did in World War

II... These web pages have nothing on PFC Rose, but they can help give you

the bigger picture/story into which PFC Rose would be placed, what Engineer

like him did, etc.

http://140.194.76.129/publications/eng-pamphlets/ep870-1-42/toc.htm

Click on Section V on the war in Europe...

http://www.327engineer.com/Documents/EngineersinWWII.htm

http://www.300thcombatengineersinwwii.com/history.html

And Mrs. Marion Chard's web page is great for context:

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/

I will keep looking, but I doubt that we will find anything.

Good luck and thank you,

Dave Ulbrich

Larry, once again you have outdone yourself. I am so proud to have you as a member of this forum. Thank you!!!

Kind thanks to all for their help in this matter.

Larry, you will have to send me a private PM with Laura's email addy, so I can send it to Jelle. This is just so wonderful to put people together. It never ceases to amaze me.

After perusing the documents on Darrel Pace`s website for the 1142EC Group, i found the 251st ECB was attached to the 1142nd on 1 Nov 1944 at Sichen, Belgium.

On 7 Nov 44 the 251st was relieved of attachment to 1142D Engr C Grp by attachment to XIII Corps. Auth: Troop assignment 52 HQ, 9th US Army, dtd 6 Nov 44.

XIII Corps was under 9th US Army, 21st Army Group during that period. I have not yet found out if the 251st was still in XIII Corps in February `45 at the time of Mr Rose`s death on 23 Feb.

23 Feb, 45 was the start of "Operation Grenade", 9th Army`s attack across the Roer River.

There is also a copy of the unit history at the Eisenhower Library.

First, I would say it's fantastic that a young boy, make something so beautiful as to adopt a grave of a soldier and especially the tomb of a soldier of WWII, so far far from his age ... This gesture makes him a great honor! Here in Italy, there are no such things, on the contrary here there is not the slightest respect or remembrance of the men died in the war... (only soldiers remember them)

But the most amazing thing is that in addition to this wonderful gesture, the boy also has an interest in knowing who is buried under that stone ... Fantastic ... This guy deserves a round of applause!

Yes, they have a whole different mindset in Holland and the surrounding areas. People are very dedicated to the past and honoring the men who fought to preserve their freedom. It is so refreshing.

Three cheers.

Oh and Larry, thanks again!!!