Prevatt, Glen L.

Pfc. Glen Prevatt L. (December 1, 1921 – September 21, 1944)

314^th Infantry Regiment, 79^th Infantry Division

by Samantha Dettman

Early Life

Glen L. Prevatt Jr. was born in St. Petersburg, FL, on December 1, 1921.¹ His parents, Glen Sr. and Maude, married on July 31, 1918, in Michigan.² Glen had an older brother, Mort (1912), from his mother’s first marriage to Omar Fuller.³ His father, Glen Sr., enlisted into the US Army Coast Artillery Corps in 1914 and transferred to the Hospital Corps in 1915.⁴ He worked for a time as a mechanic in Flint, MI, then moved to Indiana to work in real estate, where Glen Sr. and Maude’s second child, Phyllis Evelyn, was born in 1920.⁵ Shortly before Glen’s birth in 1921, the family moved to Tampa, FL. Mort lived with his mother in Michigan after his parents divorced, but it appears he stayed with his father or another family when his mother and siblings relocated, as Mort did not move from Indiana to Florida with the rest of the family.⁶

In the 1920s, the mass introduction of automobiles and new railroad lines made travel over longer distances accessible for a growing number of Americans, specifically the ever-increasing middle class.⁷ These technological advances encouraged Floridians to build houses on land once considered inconvenient for city-working populations, leading to a real estate boom. This made it possible for Glen Sr. to run his business in the Tampa area.⁸ The family lived in Tampa until around 1930, when they moved to Largo, FL. Glen Sr. continued to work in real estate during the first years of the Great Depression, which began after the Stock Market crash in October 1929. During the worldwide economic crisis, thousands of Americans who owned homes lost them or risked defaulting on their mortgages.⁹ Glen Sr.’s continued employment in such a turbulent economy must have been essential for the family.

Sadly, tragedy struck the Prevatts on September 22, 1933, when Glen Sr. passed away due to illness.¹⁰ The death of his father must have been exceedingly difficult for Glen Jr., who was only eleven years old at the time, and the rest of the Prevatt family. Maude remarried in 1936, but her husband, James McCarthy, passed away two years later.¹¹ After losing not one but two breadwinners during the Great Depression, it is not surprising that Glen stopped attending school after the eighth grade as he likely worked to help the family survive.¹²

Like millions of Americans who suffered during the Great Depression, Glen Jr. worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) sometime between December 1939 and 1940. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CCC as part of the New Deal to assist young people and their families by offering work to anyone between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. The CCC helped to lift American families out of the Great Depression and gave young Americans a chance to be employed outdoors, working to conserve and add infrastructure to the national parks. By 1941, Glen had left the CCC and moved back to his family home, where he found work as a gas station attendant.¹³ A year later, at the age of twenty, Glen registered for the draft on February 15, 1942. Glen’s sister, Evelyn, continued her schooling and became a nurse. She married Elbert Cluster in 1942 and had a son, Elbert Cluster Jr., in 1944.¹⁴

Military Service

Around eighteen months after registering for the draft, Glen began his service in the US Army on August 28, 1943, at Camp Blanding, FL.¹⁵ Sometime later, he trained at Camp Phillips, KS, briefly visiting home while on leave in March 1944.¹⁶ One month later, the US Army assigned Glen to the 314^th Infantry Regiment, part of the 79^th Infantry Division. The 79^th Division was composed of multiple regiments, including the 313^th and 315^th Infantry Regiments, which Glen’s regiment worked alongside throughout the war. The 314^th arrived in the United Kingdom on April 17, 1944, training there before crossing the English Channel for combat in France. The 79^th arrived in France on June 14, 1944, and officially entered combat five days later.¹⁷

The 79^th Infantry Division’s first objective was Cherbourg, France, a port city about fifty miles northwest of the Normandy landings. Allied planners realized prior to the landings that any occupied territory in Normandy would initially be exceedingly vulnerable to German counter-attacks originating from the German garrison at Cherbourg. Cherbourg also had strategic importance as it gave the Allies much-needed access to the deep-water port to bring in supplies and improve logistical operations.¹⁸ The VII Corps, containing the 79^th, 4^th, 90^th, and 9^th Infantry Divisions, moved into Cherbourg on June 19, 1944. The 79^th took the high ground, spreading out its regiments as it progressed up the roadways. The 313^th Infantry Regiment shielded much of the 79^th by defending its right flank, allowing the 314^th and 315^th to continue their push north toward the city. By June 23, the 314^th reached Crossroads 177, a strategic intersection of roads just south of Cherbourg, keeping logistic routes clear and allowing efficient resupply for the ever-shifting front lines as seen in this map of the 79^th Infantry Division’s movements in Northern France.¹⁹ 

Fort du Roule, meant to repel a British attack, served as Cherbourg’s last significant German defense. To weaken the reinforced steel fortifications and machine gun emplacements, the Allies launched an aerial attack on June 25, immediately followed by an Allied ground attack on the fortress. Despite German efforts, the 314^th and other Allied infantry captured Fort du Roule by the next day. Directly after Allied forces seized the fort, the 313^th and 315^th Infantry Regiments fought and cleared out German soldiers in Cherbourg’s neighborhoods north of the fort. By nightfall on June 26, the German garrison surrendered, with Allied forces taking 6,000 prisoners and liberating Cherbourg.²⁰ After securing the city, the 314^th Infantry Regiment moved south about twenty-seven miles along the Douve River toward the town of La Haye du Puits, liberating the settlement on July 9, the 314^th spent much of July securing the hills and roads within the vicinity of La Haye du Puits.²¹

Then, on July 24, 1944, the 79^th Infantry Division joined Allied forces involved in Operation Cobra, a US Army offensive launched seven weeks after the initial D-Day landings with two main objectives: send troops westward into Brittany and eastward towards Paris.²² The 314^th participated in the Allied movement eastward. It followed the 8^th Infantry Division as it advanced rapidly away from the coast, reaching Lessay, further south in Normandy, by July 26.²³ Sometime in July, Glen suffered an abdominal injury from an artillery shell, with the military hospital discharging him before the end of the month.²⁴

After the capture of Lessay, on August 2, the Army attached the 79^th Infantry Division to the XV Corps to occupy Laval, an important urban center along the Mayenne River, about 130 miles south of Cherbourg. While marching towards Laval, Allied High Command ordered the infantry regiments of the 79^th to secure bridges crossing the Mayenne River. The 313^th Infantry Regiment discovered that the Germans or the French Resistance had already destroyed most bridges by the time the 314^th arrived about two miles north of Laval. By August 7, the 313^th, later with assistance from the 314^th, liberated the town of Laval.²⁵

The XV Corps continued advancing forty-six miles east to seize Le Mans. The 79^th Division captured the city on August 8, with the 313^th and 315^th Infantry Regiments occupying the city until August 10. The 314^th Infantry Regiment did not stay in the city, instead continuing its advance eastward. Orders to move to Versailles and Paris came on August 14 but quickly changed the next day to capture the high grounds of Mantes-Gassicourt. Located on the Seine River, about forty miles northwest of Paris, Mantes-Gassicourt’s highly defensible, central location could be used by Allied forces to block a potential escape route for the remaining German forces in Normandy.

Upon the 314^th Infantry Regiment’s arrival on the south bank of the Seine in Mantes on August 19, the men reported the area clear and destroyed any remaining dams. Engineers from the 313^th Infantry Regiment crossed the Seine River near the town of Dennemont, becoming the first Allied force to do so and establishing the first Allied bridgehead over the Seine. Destroying bridges and constructing new crossings is crucial for two reasons: control over where armies can cross rivers and establishing Allied bridgeheads, defensible positions used as points of invasion further into enemy territory. The 314^th followed, crossing over to the northern bank of the Seine River overnight using the newly built catwalk, catching the German forces by surprise. Despite the surprise attack, it took the 314^th five days to rout the Germans in Dennemont.²⁶

On August 30, after a few days of rest, the Army tasked the 79^th Infantry Division with a mission to quickly advance eastward towards Belgium and transferred the 79^th to the XIX Corps. The 79^th marched 180 miles in just seventy-two hours, crossing the Belgian border by midnight on September 2. Again, they caught the Germans off-guard with their swift arrival, only possible because Allied engineers sent in advance rebuilt bridges along the way. As a result, the 79^th became the first American unit to cross into Belgium during the war.

Legacy

The 79^th Infantry Division continued to push the Germans further east, eventually crossing the Rhine River into Germany on March 24. The division took part in the Allied maneuver known as the Ruhr Pocket, which encircled and captured more than 300,000 German soldiers. The 79^th rapidly advanced through the countryside during the encirclement, capturing any Germans the division came across.³² Near the end of the war in Europe, the Army stationed the 79^th in Cheb, Czechoslovakia, where it processed German prisoners of war and accommodated thousands of displaced refugees. After the Allies defeated Germany, the military ordered the 79^th to occupy Northern Bavaria, where the men of the 79^th resided until December 10, 1945, when the men returned to the US.³³

The 79^th Infantry Division suffered 23,457 total casualties, 4,174 of those killed or missing by the time it had left combat on February 22, 1945.³⁴ A memorial in La Haye, France, honors the 79^th Infantry Division’s efforts in liberating the cities and towns of the Cotentin Peninsula, including La Haye du Puits and Cherbourg.³⁵ Similarly, the town of Luneville commemorates the sacrifices of the 314^th Infantry Regiment with two monuments for the battles along the Meurthe River.³⁶

Three battalions of the 314^th Infantry Regiment received Presidential Unit Citations after the war. The First Battalion received one for their efforts in liberating La Haye du Puits, the Second Battalion for taking Fort du Roule in Cherbourg, and the Third Battalion for action along the Meurthe River.³⁷ Glen L. Prevatt received a Purple Heart for abdominal injuries suffered in July 1944 and an Oak Leaf Cluster for his fatal injuries in the line of duty on September 21, 1944. Glen was survived at home by his mother, Maude, half-brother, Mort, sister, Phyllis, and nephew, Elbert Cluster Jr.³⁸ Glen L. Prevatt is buried in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Saint-Avold, France, where he may forever rest in peace.³⁹

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¹ “1930 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 11, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, Tampa City, Hillsborough County, Florida; “U.S. World War II Draft Registration Card,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 11, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, serial number 1077.

² “Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Maude Fuller.

³ “U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed February 3, 2023), entry for Mort Fuller; “Indiana, Divorce Records, 1867-1952,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Maud Fuller. Maude married Omar Fuller in 1912 but divorced in April 1918.

⁴ “Returns from Regular Army Coast Artillery Corps Companies, 1901-1916,” database, Fold3.com (www.fold3.com: accessed September 17, 2022), entry for Glenn Prevatt; “U.S., World War I Draft Registration Card,” database, Fold3.com (www.fold3.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, serial number 32. Needing a force capable of defending the nation’s coastlines, the US formed the Army Coast Artillery Corps in 1907. The Corps served in both World Wars but ceased to exist in 1950 after the Army restructured. The Hospital Corps, established in 1898, offered medical care aboard US  naval vessels. For more see “U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps 1901-1950,” Coast Defence Study Group, accessed March 31, 2023, https://cdsg.org/u-s-army-coast-artillery-corps-1901-1950/; “Hospital Corps and Pharmacist’s Mates,” National Museum of the United States Navy, accessed March 31, 2023, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwi/wwi-aef/personnel/corpsmen.html

⁵ “Michigan, Marriage Record,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Glenn Prevatt; “Indiana, Birth Certificate, 1907-1944,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Phyllis Evelyn Prevatt.

⁶ “U.S., WWII Draft Registration Card,” database, Fold3.com (www.fold3.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Mort Robert Fuller, serial number 1369.” “1920 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 17, 2022), entry for Mort Fuller, South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana; “1930 U.S. Census,” entries for Glen and Maude Prevatt.

⁷ “Progressive Era to New Era, 1900 to 1929,” Library of Congress, accessed May 5, 2023, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/progressive-era-to-new-era-1900-1929/overview/.

⁸ Michael Brocker and Christopher Hanes, “The 1920s American Real Estate Boom and the Downturn of the Great Depression: Evidence from City Cross Sections,” NBER Working Paper (February 2013): 2-4; “1930 U.S. Census,” entry for Glen Prevatt.

⁹ “Americans React to the Great Depression,” Library of Congress, accessed April 3, 2023, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/americans-react-to-great-depression/.

¹⁰ “G. L. Prevatt Dies At Home in Largo; Funeral Saturday,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), September 24, 1933.

¹¹ “Florida, Marriage Records, 1823-1982,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: access October 29, 2022), entry for Maude Prevatt; “James McCarthy, 68, Largo Visitor, Dies,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), January 1, 1938.

¹² 1940 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 17, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, Largo, Pinellas County, Florida.

¹³ “1940 U.S. Census,” entry for Glen Prevatt, Largo, Pinellas County, Florida; “Florida, City Directories, 1822-1995,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 11, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt; Joseph Speakman, “Into the Woods: The First Year of the Civilian Conservation Corps,” Prologue 38, no. 3 (2006).

¹⁴ “U.S., WWII Draft Registration Card,” entry for Glen Prevatt; “Largo High 1937 Queen Is Crowned At Banquet Here,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), May 22, 1937; “Unknown Title,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), July 22, 1941; “Florida, Marriage Records, 1823-1982,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed October 29, 2022), entry for Evelyn Prevatt; “1945 Florida Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed October 29, 2022), entry for Evelyn Cluster, Largo, Pinellas County, Florida.

¹⁵ “Electronic Army Serial Number,” entry for Glen Prevatt; “14 Upper Pinellas Men Are Accepted,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), September 9, 1943.

¹⁶ “Pfc. Glenn L. Prevatt Expressed His Views on Military Life,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), March 26, 1944.

¹⁷ “Headstone Inscription and Internment Records,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 11, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, service number 34792463; “79th Infantry Division,” U.S. Army Center of Military History, accessed March 31, 2023, https://history.army.mil/documents/eto-ob/79id-eto.htm.

¹⁸ Gabrielle M. Maddaloni, “Liberation and Franco-American Relations in Post-War Cherbourg” (Master’s thesis, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2008), 9-12, 31-34.

¹⁹ Roy Morris, Jr., “Race to the Rhine: In World War II, the U.S. Army’s 79th Infantry Division–the famed “Fighting 79th”–slugged its way through one Nazi stronghold after another,” MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military 33, no. 3 (Spring 2021); United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine: A Combat History of the 79^th Infantry Division (Baton Rouge: Army & Navy Publishing Co., 1946),18-22. Map is taken from The Cross of the Lorraine, i.

²⁰ “Forgotten Fights: Assault on Fortress Cherbourg, June 1944,” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, published September 2020, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/assault-on-fortress-cherbourg-june-1944; Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 24-27.

²¹ United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 35-36.

²² Ulick M. Hallinan, “From Operation COBRA to the Liberation of Paris: American Offensive Operations in Northern France, 25 July-25 August, 1944” (Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University, 1988), 14.

²³ Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 32-37.

²⁴ “U.S., WWII Hospital Admission Card Files,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed October 29, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, service number 34792463.

²⁵ Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 37-39.

²⁶ United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 42-49; “Thinking beyond the Beachhead,” Marine Corps Association, accessed April 3, 2023.

²⁷ United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 56; Reuters, “France: US President Woodrow Wilson Visits Reims,” British Pathé, accessed April 2, 2023, https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/138646/.

²⁸ Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 56-61.

²⁹ Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 62.

³⁰ Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 62-64.

³¹ “U.S., WWII Hospital Admission Card Files,” database, Fold3.com (www.fold3.com: accessed September 15, 2022), entry for Glen Prevatt, service number 34792463; “Headstone Inscription and Internment Records,” entry for Glen Prevatt; “Pfc. Glenn Prevatt Killed in France,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), October 9, 1944.

³² United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 131- 133; “Death in the West: The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket,” The National WWII museum, accessed April 2, 2023, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/ruhr-pocket-offensive.

³³ United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 137-139; “79^th Infantry Division,” Mémoire & Database, accessed November 14, 2022, database-memoire.eu/prive/en-us/12-present-us/191-79-infantry-division-us.

³⁴ “79th Infantry Division.” U.S. Army Center of Military History, accessed January 22, 2023, https://history.army.mil/documents/eto-ob/79id-eto.htm.

³⁵ “79^th Infantry Division,” Mémoire & Database; “79th Infantry Division Obelisk,” American War Memorials Overseas, accessed April 2, 2023.

³⁶ “Resistance Memorial Lunéville/Plaque 79^th US Infantry Division,” Traces of War, accessed November 14, 2022, https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/113903/Resistance-Memorial-Lun%C3%A9ville—Plaque-79th-US-Infantry-Division.htm; “314^th Infantry Regiment and 749^th Tank Destroyer Battalion Monument,” American War Memorials Overseas, Inc., accessed November 14, 2022, https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=473&MemID=734.

Special thanks to Jennie (BamaKnight) on Ancestry for providing important family information and connections.

³⁷ Morris, “Race to the Rhine;” United States Army, The Cross of the Lorraine, 25, 35, 64.

³⁸ “1945 Florida Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed October 29, 2022), entry for Elbert Cluster Jr., Largo, Pinellas County, Florida.

³⁹ “U.S., WWII Hospital Admission Card Files,” entry for Glen Prevatt; “Headstone Inscription and Internment Records,” entry for Glen Prevatt.