Robert Benedict Whealon

September 7, 1914 – June 9, 1988

Robert was the fourth child of Michael and Elizabeth "Eliza" Whealon of New Haven, Connecticut. He had two older brothers and  a sister,  and one  younger brother.  There is no record of his attendance in school beyond 8th grade. He apparently went to work as a messenger for Winchester Repeating Arms. At the time of his registration for the draft (October 16, 1940), he had worked his way up to  office clerk. [1]

He enlisted in the US Army on November 27, 1942. After basic training, Robert was assigned to the 30th Infantry Division, and first saw action in Operation Cobra.  As part of Company "F" of the 120th Infantry Regiment, he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for Exemplary Conduct Against the Enemy by Colonel Hammond Davis Birks. During the Saint-Lô break-through, he was struck in the shoulder with shrapnel during an artillery barrage.  This wound happened on July 14, 1944, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart. [2] 

Robert was hospitalized for a month but returned to the front lines in August just in time for the fiercest fighting since Normandy. Robert was assigned to the staff headquarters for the Second Battalion. This group of 29 men were overrun and surrounded. A few of the officers and at least one private was captured immediately. Some of the men slipped though the enemy lines at night. Robert and three enlisted men hunkered down in wheat field, believing the Germans were about to move move on from the area in the direction of the position of the US 117th Infantry Regiment (also 30th Infantry Division), which was dug in on a hill about a mile away to the north. The four men hid for four days. On August 12, 1945, hunger got the best of them and the were captured attempting to sneak food out of a local French larder. 

The three American POWs spent nearly two weeks in the back of an old Ford truck and in train boxcars, until they pulled into the station at Moosburg, Germany.

Robert's parents were notified that he was Missing in Action in Germany on August 13, 1944. Then, on January 13, 1945, the War Department updated Robert's status as a "captured prisoner of war in Germany." [3]

After a month-and-a-half at Stalag 7-A, Robert was assigned to crew work in Munich and the vicinity. He ended up at Work Camp 4055 in Parsdorf (Kreis Ebersberg).  Potato farming was hard work but the extra food and better shelter was an upgrade. From October 2, 1944 to November 3, 1944, he worked side by side with local German farming families whose fathers, husbands, and sons were at the front or who had been killed in action. There were about a dozen guards but the entire atmosphere was more relaxed.  Fellow American POWs, Armando Uva and Frank Hickey, worked alongside of Robert at Camp 4055, although he remained distant and almost never talked to them. Unfortunately, their time in Parsdorf was short-lived and they were sent back to Stalag 7-A for the coldest winter they had ever experienced. [4]

When an opportunity arose for a 20-man crew to do farm work outside of Stalag 7-A in late February, Amando Uva put Robert and Frank's names on the list. That's how all three men ended up in Nussdorf am Inn for the last three month of the war.

In the last year of his life, Robert gave the following account:

"When I was a prisoner of war in Stalag 7-A during World War II, I noticed that getting captured made most prisoners feel ashamed. We were okay with the idea of dying or getting hurt, but we never thought we'd get caught. It felt awful and embarrassing to me. A lot of guys got really sad. Some stopped washing themselves. Some didn’t talk anymore. Others kept talking about how they got captured, making up stories to sound tough. For most, this sadness didn’t last long, but for me, it did. There were lots of good guys in Stalag 7-A who tried to make the best of a bad time. I didn’t have friends or chat much about home. Two guys that I worked with on commando duty were nice to me. One was from Providence and the other from Brooklyn. I don't remember their names. I was sick a lot and had a hard time getting up every day until I got a job outside the camp in a nice little farm town called Nussdorf. The family I worked for was kind. They saved me because I could work in peace every day and didn't understand most of what they were saying. They mostly just pointed and tried their English on me, and sat with me in their home to eat egg and cheese sandwiches and sometimes potato soup. After a week there I started to feel normal." [5]

After the war, Robert returned home to East Haven, Connecticut, and continued working as a retail clerk and office manager for Winchester Repeating Arms in New Haven, Connecticut, until he passed away at the age of 73. He never married. 

[1]  NARA:  1920 US Federal Census for New Haven, Connecticut; 1930 US Federal Census for New Haven , Connecticut
[2] (Basic Training) NARA: RG 64: Morning Reports for January 1940 - July 1943: Roll 1705; (Combat Infantry Man Badge for Exemplary Conduct Against the Enemy): NARA: Fiche-1243: CIB for Exemplary Conduct Against the Enemy as part of "Company F of the 120th Infantry Regiment" awarded Aug. 1, 1944;

 (Wounded)NARA: Hospital Admission Card Files, ca. 1970 - ca. 1970; NAI: 570973; NARA: Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775-1994; Record Group Title: 112; (Purple Heart) NARA: RG 64:, Fiche 812: Headquarters 30th Infantry Division: Award of Purple Heart of July 25, 1944, p.3:  Robert B. Whealon, Service Number 31249528 "for wounds received in action on 14 July 1944, in France.

[3]  U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946/ Soldier, Veteran & Prisoner Rolls & Lists; "Prisoners of War," Hartford Courant, Jan. 13. 1945, p. 5.

[4] Arolsen Archive: Signatur: DE ITS 2.1.1.1 BY 033 AME ZM, Anzahl Dokumente: 29; Note: Whealon and Hickey's names are misspelled on the documents, as "Robert Wehalon" and "Frank Hicken".

[5] From an unpublished letter, dated March 12, 1988, addressed to VFW Magazine and intended for publication in the "Mail Call" section. Apparently, it was never published because Robert exceeded the 100 words maximum.