RED BULL This monument was created to honor and recognize all military veterans from Hamilton County and specifically those citizen soldiers from its Iowa Army National Guard Company, who were a part of the Red Bull 34th Infantry Division from the division’s formation in 1917 until the Webster City Armory closed in November of 1980. The Red Bulls from Hamilton County are representative of all of this county’s citizens who have answered the call to action. The county has a long history of volunteers, militias and National Guard stretching back to 1857 and the Spirit Lake Massacre Rescue Expedition. Company E, 133rd Infantry Regiment, whose WWII combat history is portrayed on these panels, was the essence of friends, family and neighbors engaged in combat, shoulder to shoulder, for months on end. And although a similar story was played out by National Guard companies across the country during WWII - this is our story. Company E Combat History WWII The time between WWI and WWII was filled with training for Hamilton County’s National Guard company. Company C had been reorganized into Company E during this time. In 1920 the Armory on Second Street in Webster City, was gutted by fire and rebuilt. Field training was often conducted on the Webster City Country Club golf course and according to Homer Ankrum in his book, “Dogfaces Who Smiled Through Tears”, “most of the men were indeed proud to report to their families they had again spent the day at the country club”. In January of 1941, National Guard units across the country were federalized as the war in Europe was spreading and U.S. involvement appeared inevitable. The only surprise would be the action that would draw them into the Second World War. Art Philbrook, of Webster City, was the last living member of the WWII On Feb. 26, 1941, Capt. Eugene Meller and 1st Lt. Mathias House, along with 2nd Lt. Donald Andrew and 2nd Lt. Kenneth Company E and was in attendance at the dedication ceremony. In the Nichols formed up the 92 men of Company E and marched them down Second Street to the Webster City train depot where a above picture Art is flanked on the left by Colonel Donahoe and on the right by Supervisor Bailey. Art passed away on December 27, 2014. coal fired locomotive was waiting to take them to Louisiana for advanced combat training. Camp Claiborne, LA was a 30,000 acre training facility built on the edge of a swamp, that in the rainy season flowed into the camp. It would be Company E’s home for most of 1941. In June, Company E would lose its first soldier, Emmet Harris of Webster City, who died after an his monument was dedicated on May 23rd, 2014 by T emergency appendectomy. Hamilton County Supervisors Doug Bailey, David Young and Wes Sweedler. Col. Damian Donahoe, Commander of the 2nd unday, December 7, 1941 would bring everything into focus for the boys in Company E. As the news of the Japanese attack Brigade Combat Team, represented the 34th Infantry Division S on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor spread through the division, trucks and supplies were assembled. That night at the ceremony. Rev. Mike Willer, a Chaplain with the 34th Company E was moved out to handle security for potential domestic targets. After Christmas they left Camp Claiborne for Infantry Division and a former Webster City minister, provided Ft. Dix, NJ to prepare for deployment in Europe. The subzero temperatures and sleeping in summer camp tents at Dix made the invocations for the ceremony. Both Willer & Donahoe were the mud of Claiborne look like paradise. recent veterans of the conflict in Afghanistan. Webster City American Legion Post 191 presented the colors. While training in New Mexico in 1918 an insignia for the 34th Division was created by Marvin D. Cone, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa artist turned Guardsman. The red buffalo skull with a black Native American olla as a background caused German troops in WWII Italy to refer to the Americans who wore that shoulder patch as “Red Bulls”. Before the end of WWII the division nickname was made official and to this day Guardsmen from Hamilton County continue to be a part of the historic “Red Bull Division”. Before dawn on Feb. 19, 1942, on board the USS Barnett, Company E, along with 1700 other soldiers of the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, slipped out of New York Harbor for Belfast, Ireland. Their first of many camps in the European Theatre would be in the serene Irish countryside where much time would be spent in additional training. On September 22, 1942, Roland Silvers of Webster City, is officially listed as suffering a non-battle related death in the British Isles. He would be Company E’s second soldier lost. In November, the 34th would enter the war in North Africa with Company E assigned to guarding the headquarters and other critical assets. On December 6, 1942 Company E recorded its only casualty in the North African Campaign, with Pvt. Charles H. Harris of Webster City being initially listed as missing in action. He was later declared killed in action in a combined British and American Commando raid on Bizerte, Tunisia. The fledgling Col. William Darby’s Rangers and U.S. Army Commandos recruited heavily out of the Red Bulls and received advance training with the British while they were in Ireland. Volunteers to both units, including Charles H. Harris, came out of Company E. March of 1944 found Company E on its way out of North Africa and headed for Italy to rejoin the rest of the 34th, which had been fighting its way up the Italian peninsula. After a short period in Naples, the company departed for the Anzio Beachhead at the end of March. The invasion of Anzio had been launched on January 22, 1944, with fierce fighting up and down the beachhead. By the time that Company E arrived the Germans had been pushed out of the city itself but remained in the hills and mountains above to bombard shipping in the harbor with two long range guns. The guns could also drop shells into most of the city and throughout the hillside. Company E remained in the Anzio Beachhead reserve area until mid -April, when they moved out to replace the 168th Infantry in the hills above the beachhead. It was during this time above the Anzio Beachhead, that Pvt. Edwin Lemke, who grew up on an acreage outside of Webster City and spoke fluent German, began his behind the lines exploits that made him a 34th Division Legend. Private First Class Edwin J. Lemke, DSC On November 16th, 1944 at a rest area near Montecatini Terme, Italy, just outside of the Po River Valley, 5th Army General Mark Clark presented PFC Lemke with the U S Army Distinguished Service Cross, our nation’s second highest military Private Lemke, bottom left corner, reported award. It was reported at the dinner held that evening to honor Lemke and two that shortly after this picture was taken, other soldiers from the 133rd, who were also awarded the DSC, that when Private Private Sharkey, top center, was shot and Lemke was introduced to the General’s staff and a host of reporters assembled to killed by a German sniper, just as he reached hear the soldiers stories, he merely thanked General Clark and the reporters for the top of the stone wall. September 15th, having him to dinner, then promptly sat down and remained silent for the rest of 1944, between Pisa and the Futa Pass. the evening. Private Lemke’s silence along with the fact that many of his behind the lines exploits were conducted alone and the death of Company E Commander Kenneth Distinguished Service Cross Nichols, confounded the later efforts of Company E comrade Homer Ankrum and high school classmate and Pulitzer Prize winning author Clark Mollenhoff to secure for Lemke the nation’s highest military decoration - the Congressional Medal of Honor. Their efforts did result in a new Army Reserve Center in Ft. Dodge, Iowa being named for him and dedicated on September 20th, 1997. His Distinguished Service Cross is displayed there along with his other awards. He passed away quietly in Webster City on September 26th, 1989. The Distinguished Service Cross citation for Private First Class Edwin J. Lemke reads as follows: “The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Private Edwin J. Lemke, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Company E, 133rd “Brothers in Arms” Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, in action against enemy forces on 28 June 1944, near Castogneto, Italy. During a company advance, a leading squad was Company E suddenly fired upon from the right rear by a strong force of Germans. In the subsequent fire fight, the enemy succeeded in cutting off the squad from the remainder of circa. 1943 - 1944 the company. The company commander prepared to send a patrol to relieve the surrounded squad, but Private Lemke sought and obtained permission to attempt the task alone. Making his way along a dry river bed and through a series of ditches, he suddenly spotted a German soldier armed with a machine pistol. Private Lemke killed the German and took his weapon. Continuing his advance he observed another German and shot him with the machine pistol. Skillfully maneuvering toward the beleaguered squad, he located and killed three more enemy soldiers, to clear all enemy resistance from the rear and right rear of the squad.