Roy Booher Memorial (119th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division)
)
Details:
Off the side of the road, next to a set of hedges. Marker
An inscribed granite marker with an information sign.
The memorial remembers Staff Sergeant Roy L. Booher of the K Company, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th "Old Hickory" Infantry Division. SSG Bother was killed while liberating Noorbeek on September 12, 1944 and he is considered the first of ground forces KIA in WW2 liberating the Netherlands. His twin brother Ray, also served in the 30th Infantry Division (120th Infantry Regiment) during WW2.
Roy Boother is buried in the Henri Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial, Plot E Row 15 Grave 76.
The memorial was dedicated in 2006.
Monument Text:
The memorial marker reads:
Symbol of the 30th Infantry Division
SSG
Roy L. Booher
KIA Sept 12, 1944
K Co, 119th Reg
30th Inf Div
The information sign is written in Dutch and English. The English reads:
On Tuesday September 12 1944, around 5:00 PM units of the 119 Infantry
Regiment or the 30 "Old Hickory" Division, crossed the Dutch-Belgium
border near Noorbeek. Their objective to capture the main road near the hamlet of
Terlinden. They arrived at the center or the village between 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM, and encountered no resistance. Suddenly a German truck approached; a fire fight ensued and a German driver was killed instantly.
The American troops moved on, with K Company leading the way via the Dorpstraat and Bovenstraat, and headed in the direction of Onderschey. Around 6:30 PM, they came under fire from Germans, who were inprocess of retreating. It
was during this short fire-fight, Staff Sergeant Rov L. Booher was
killed in action, just nine days short of his twenty-fourth birthday
making Roy the first American soldier to be killed in Holland during its liberation. The troopers of K Company halted and ordered L Company to
move on a flanking mission at Bergenhuizen. They
closed the main road in Terlinden that evening and the objective
was complete. The Germans, who were hiding in Wolfsberg
were attacked by Allied fighter planes on the same day he tol-
lowing day, two dead Germans were discovered in the woods
Roy Booher was born on September 21, 1920 in Burkesville Kentucky. In 1940
Roy and his twin brother Ray moved to Anaheim, California and entered the service.
Roy and Ray joined the 30th Infantry Division, with Roy serving with the 119th Regiment, and Ray with the 120th Regiment. During the fighting in Europe, they would encounter each other once in France, and would be the last time
of his would ever see each other. Ray would later learn of his orothers
death from fellow troopers.
Commemorates:
People:
Units:
119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division
120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division
30th Infantry Division
Wars:
WWII
Other images :
)