Thank you Marion. Norman Allport's father was a Kiwi and his mother was a Canadian. They immigrated from Canada to CA in 1919, but Norman's mother traveled back to Canada to give birth--then came home to CA. The family thought they had been naturalized, but found out otherwise when Norman tried to enlist in the Army after Pearl Harbor. He tried to enlist in the Marines and the Army again, but was always turned down. Meanwhile, his younger brother enlisted in the Navy, in June 1942. Later in the year, Norman was drafted (he told my father he knew it would happen) and the Army did not discover the mistake until he was shipped to North Africa. The Pentagon arranged to have Congress grant him citizenship, so he remained in the 125th Engineer Battalion.
I learned not to ask my father about Norman's military career because Dad was too upset about his death. In 2002, I inherited a history book about the 14th Armored Division and found the battle report with some details about his death---mentioned above. None of the men listed in the account who knew Norman were still alive, but I did interview Sgt. Charles F. McClure. He was a replacement sergeant who joined Company C just a couple of days before that battle in Neustadt. The 14th was leading the American forces and Norman was manning the 50 caliber machine gun in his platoon's half track. The seargent makes the assignments and usually takes the machine gun, but since Norman had been the interim seargent, he was told to take the gun out of respect.
There was a tower straddling the road into town and a German sniper shot the machine gunners in the first two half tracks. Norman was able to fire just one round, but the gun jammed because it had been fitted with airplane ammo. Sgt. McClure told me the airplane ammo was loaded to fire clockwise (or counterclockwise)which was opposite of the ground machine guns. So, the gun jammed and Norman was shot in the head. The rest of the crew jumped out of the half track into ditches on either side of the road. A wounded corporal, Lawrenc, called out to Sgt. McClure to toss his BAR to him. Lawrence shot the sniper. Then the tower was blown up by tank fire.
My mother told me their CO felt very bad about Norman's death so late in the war and
that he wrote several letters to my grandparents. Thereafter, he sent them Christmas cards for several years. So, I know the beginning and the end, but nothing particular about Norman's life in the army. Nothing about his friends or what they thought about him.
One of my sister's hired an artist to make a shadow box with memorabilia of Norman's and his brother's WWII service. It contains his dog tag and a bracelet listing 7 battles or campaigns: North Africa, Rome, Naples, Sicily, Cassino, Anzio, and Casserta. The Naples tag is larger than the others and has an inscription, "Do Not Forget Me". Norman had fiance named Pat.
Joe