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last updated
6 July 2003

Paul Theophane Boyle.

One such common man was Paul Boyle, a machinist from East Cleveland , Ohio , who was drafted in October, 1942. Paul had just turned 22 years old when he was inducted into the Army at the East Cleveland Recruit Depot.

Paul and many other men were put on a train and sent to Camp Atterbury in southern Indiana. He was assigned to the 331^st Regiment of the 83^rd Infantry Division. Infantry soldiers are foot soldiers, the men who fight with small weapons near the front lines. In World War II, the infantry soldiers generally carried rifles, machine guns or mortars.

At the camp, the men were trained to drill, fight and live outdoors. After about a year, the soldiers moved to Camp Breckinridge, in Kentucky. At Breckenridge, and at other locations in the South, the soldiers had field exercises that simulated war.

“We had our first week’s training this last week and, boy, they sure work (the heck) out of you. We have the worst Staff Sgt. in the company so we have to work that much harder, but I think I will live,” Paul wrote to one of his brothers.

                Not everything was work at the camps, though. Like other young men, the soldiers made great friendships, wrote letters to their family and girls back home and tried to figure out the best ways to do things.

                “One of the fellows that I pal with got a job in the kitchen because he could cook,” Paul wrote to his mother. “I know just what we are having for all our meals. He tells me what is good and what isn’t so I know just what to eat.”

                The men were sometimes able to get passes to leave to base for a weekend. The men absolutely lived to get these chances to get out of the camp, and when it didn’t work out, they were really depressed.

                “They are starting to crack down on the weekend passes and we only get one every two weeks,” Paul wrote to his mom. “Some one here doesn’t like us too well.”

                In April 1944, after Paul had been in the Army about a year and a half, his unit got transferred to New York. In New York, the men were put on ships bound for England. In England, the division was trained even more.

                On June 6, 1944, the invasion of Europe began on the beaches of France’s Normandy region. Thousands of American, English and Canadian men were killed in the first days of the invasion.

                Just 10 days later, Pvt. Paul Boyle and the 83^rd Infantry were sent into the fight, landing at Omaha Beach and quickly fighting their way into the country. The soldiers fought toward the city of St. Lo, which was an important communications place for the German Army.

                The region they fought in was known as the Norman Bocage, or the “hedgerows.” Hedgerows were mounds of dirt from three to seven feet tall that were earthen fences around cow pastures. There weren’t many good roads through the hedgerows, so the Allies had to fight their way over the earthworks.

                Fighting through the hedgerows was difficult, because German riflemen found it easy to defend the mounds. The Germans could sit close to the ground with machine guns on one of the mounds and look down into the pasture area and shoot lots of American soldiers before they could get close enough to threaten the Germans. Paul’s unit was assigned to fight through the hedgerows. After just 30 days fighting, Paul was promoted to Sergeant, because so many men in his outfit had been killed.

                On July 20, Paul wrote his last letter to home. Having been in battle for a little more than a month, Paul had seen the horrible costs of war.

                “I had a letter from John and he said he was going on furlough. I think those days are gone for me until after the war. I just hope your prayers and mine are answered because I have been really lucky,” he wrote to his mother. “There isn’t much I can say but I do hope this war ends soon.”

                Six days later, Paul was helping his troops set up a machine gun in one of the hedgerows. As they were working on it, a German sniper of the 17^th SS Panzer Brigade shot Paul through the shoulder. As he turned around to crawl back to safety, he was shot again and killed.

                Paul is buried in the American Cemetery at Pointe-du-Hoc in France.