T/Sgt. Willard Harris posing for a photograph, Hanover, 1944

Description: 

Photograph. Technical Sergeant Willard Harris posing in his combat uniform with helmet; his uniform has a 5th Armored Division patch swen onto it. Postwar personal caption on reverse: "Willard Q. Harris." United States Army censor stamps on reverse; includes "Not For Publication" stamp. Hanover, Germany. 1944

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Photographs from the service of Technical Sergeant Willard Quentin Harris, who served with the 127th Armored Maintenance Battalion, 5th Armored Division in the European Theater of Operations. Harris was born on 7 May 1916 in Sioux City, Iowa, to Alice (née Bogacki) and Andrew Harris. By 23, both of Harris’s parents had died. He enlisted in the United States Army on 24 November 1941 at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. By 1942, he had been assigned to the 127th Armored Maintenance Battalion. The 127th trained throughout the United States under the 5th Armored Division command of Major General Lunsford E. Oliver until the unit shipped out to England in February of 1944. On 22 July 1944, the 127th landed on Utah Beach and remained in the European theater until the end of the war, participating in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe campaigns. Harris was honorably discharged on 13 October 1945. On 30 June 1950, he married Ruby Cornelia Hall in Los Angeles, California. The couple then moved to Roseville, CA, where Harris worked at the post office. Harris continued to work as a mail carrier until his death on 4 March 1980 in Citrus Heights, CA. The collection consists of 23 photographs mainly depicting Harris’s time at Camp Cooke, CA, and the Desert Training Center, but also includes a few photographs taken in Germany.
Geography: 
Hannover
Latitude: 
52.367
Longitude: 
9.717
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
United States--Armed Forces--Non-commissioned officers
Soldiers--American--Germany