Paul J. Kostalik (36697857)

Rank - Private First Class

Kostalik worked as a stock boy and sales clerk for almost three years until he was drafted into the Army in October, 1943. He received his basic training at Camp Grant, which was located on the southern outskirts of Rockford.

Camp Grant was established in 1917 as an 18,000 acre facility that served as an Army operation during World War I. It was a civilian conservation camp in 1933 until it was re-activated as an Army induction center in 1940.

According to Ken McClory, historian for the American Legion Central Park Post 1028, Camp Grant served as a prisoner of ward detention center holding 2,500 POWs.

Kostalik went through extensive training and found himself a member of th 751st Field Artillery Battalion as a field lineman. The field artillery unit was one of three major army branches, alongside the infantry and armor divisions.

He helped operate a weapons system to deliver surface-to-surface long range indirect fire. Its mission, according to Kostalik, was to destroy, neutralize or suppress the enemy with cannon fire.

A field lineman’s job was to install and maintain wire or cable communication systems. However, where he was headed, his job would have to be accomplished in a combat zone.

Kostalik would have to confront the enemy during battle. The 751st FA BN knew where they were headed due to the fact they were part of the joint training exercises, along with the Navy and Army Air Corps rehearsing timing routes of advance and contact points in preparation for D-Day.

The 751st FA BN landed at Utah Beach in Normandy, France on Aug. 30, 1944, 84 days after D-Day.

This was Kostalik’s first experience to observe the “spoils of war, the carnage of battle and the overwhelming mass of battle-scorched debris.”

The 751st marched on to Dinard, France with its mission to hold siege on the Isle De Cezembre, a tiny island where a well provisioned garrison of German took the offensive position that had to be eliminated.

On Aug. 31, 1944, the 751st fired the Battalion’s first rounds in its European Theater of Operations.

On Sept. 1, the battalion opened fire from their position, Kostalik recalled, in Dinard.

“(They) fired up everything up to eight-inch artillery and dive bombing P-38s and pounded the German garrison until it surrendered,” said Kostalik.

During combat with the 751st, the communication lines went down between units and Kostalik was ordered to trouble-shoot the problem and make necessary repairs. Linemen regularly requested volunteers to accompany them on these missions but usually handled the mission alone.

The 751st FA BN marched and engaged the enemy in Northern France, Belgium, Holland, Central Europe and finally, Germany.

On May 7 and 8, 1945, Germany surrendered and the war in Europe was

over.

Kostalic was the recipient of four Battle Stars for Campaign Action inNorthern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. He was also decorated with three overseas Service Bars with four Bronze Battle Stars, Eastern African Middle Eastern Theater Ribbons, Good Conduct Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

Kostalic was honorably discharged on Jan. 29, 1946.

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