Harold C. Skipton

Harold C. Skipton

Submitted by his niece, Shannon Skipton Pendergraff

My uncle is Harold C. Skipton, PFC, 101st AB, 502nd PIR, 3Bn, HQ Co. He was most likely called Skip. We did not know any details of his WW2 service until recently. He died of wounds sustained in the Bulge on January 21st, 1945. While Harold was in Europe, my grandfather was in the Pacific. (Both of my grandfathers were in the Pacific). My grandfather passed not knowing what really happened to his only brother.

In the attached photo of 3 soldiers, Harold is on the far right. I have no idea when or where that photo was taken and there are no marks on the back. My best guess is that it was taken in the States early in training, well before deployment as those young men look fairly well fed and rested. One of the single photos show how lean and chiseled Harold was just before deployment.

In the photo of 2 soldiers, Harold is on the left. This photo was taken in Los Angeles, California, at my great-grandparents residence. I estimate it was taken in the late summer or early fall of ’43, shortly before the 101st deployed to England. My Great grandmother had the photo developed in Jan of ’44 with some other photos of Harold with family.

There are 2 single photos of Harold, and the last one is Harold and his brother, my grandfather, before my GF was old enough to enlist.

Harold was first in combat when he jumped in Normandy during the wee hours of D day. He was seriously wounded on June 10th on the Carentan causeway when he took a bullet to the groin when the causeway was strafed by a German stuka. He was patched up in at tje 307th Station Hospital in England and returned to camp Chilton Foliet in time to jump into Holland. He survived Holland to get a short breather at Camp Mourmelon, France before being hastily hauled into Bastogne in the back of an open cattle truck. I don’t know how any of these great men survived the freezing weather and conditions in which they lived. My uncle almost made it out of Bastogne. He was wounded on January 16th and died of wounds on January 21st, 1945 in Mourmelon, France. I believe the 502 was dismissed from Bastogne on January 17th.