Prewitt, Clinton

S. Sgt. Clinton Prewitt (November 5, 1923 – October 8, 1944)

179^th Field Artillery Battalion, 177^th Field Artillery Group

By Adam Rees

Early Life

Clinton Prewitt Jr. was born November 5, 1923 in Virginia, to Julia and Clinton Prewitt Sr. Julia, his mother, was born in Georgia in 1896, and his father, Clinton Prewitt Sr., was born in South Carolina in 1889.¹ Clinton Sr., a musician, joined the US Army in 1910. He played in various Army bands, eventually becoming a band leader. While he served during World War I, we are not certain if he deployed overseas or served in the US. He retired from the Army in 1932 with the rank of Band Sergeant.² As a career soldier, Clinton Sr. and his family moved frequently around the American South.³ Starting in 1915, the Prewitt family had eight children as they moved through South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida. Clinton Jr. was the fourth oldest of the eight, which included: Emily (1915), Dorothy (1916), Helen (1919), Mary Louise (1926), Charles (1927), Julia (1929), and Jannette (1933).⁴ For a time, the Prewitts made their home at Fort Eustis in Newport News, VA. On base, the family shared their home with two soldiers, Private August Meritz and Private Andrew Truhan.⁵ Residing on the base meant that the Prewitt children lived alongside garrisoned infantry and artillery units, introducing Clinton Jr. to military life as a child.⁶ When their father retired from the military, the family moved to Jacksonville, FL.⁷

Clinton Jr. and his siblings went to Landon High School in Jacksonville. While at Landon High School, Clinton Jr. served as a member of the school’s Library Council and the Senior Fellows’ Club, as seen here.⁸ He graduated in the spring of 1942 and found work with the Department of War as a stenographer and typist for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).⁹ The USACE is part of the US Army, traveling alongside the military and constructing valuable infrastructure in combat zones. In peacetime, the government utilizes the USACE to build and maintain infrastructure relevant to the prosperity and security of the nation. Though based in Washington, D.C., the USACE positioned offices nationwide. Clinton Jr. worked in the Jacksonville regional office, most likely transcribing and typing communications relating to their efforts across North Florida.¹⁰

Military Service

Clinton Prewitt Jr. registered for the draft on June 30, 1942. Less than a year later, he joined the US Army on February 16, 1943, at Camp Blanding, near Starke, FL. Camp Blanding served as one of the country’s most extensive Army training facilities. During World War II, Camp Blanding, became an Infantry Replacement Training Center (IRTC), where 800,000 troops learned to fight. After training at Camp Blanding, the Army sent soldiers to units and bases around the country for further training before deploying.¹¹

Sometime after his initial training, Clinton joined the 179^th Field Artillery (FA) Battalion.¹² Formerly the 122^nd Infantry Regiment of the Georgia National Guard, the 179^th FA reorganized and transferred to Camp Blanding in March 1941. The Army moved the 179^th FA to Camp Shelby, MS, one year later, in March 1942. The battalion moved a third time in March 1943 to Fort Sill, OK. While stationed in Oklahoma, the 179^th FA participated in a military exercise known as the Tennessee Maneuvers.¹³ Between 1942 and 1944, around one million servicemen moved through Central Tennessee. Soldiers conducted combat exercises as fictitious Red and Blue armies fighting over strategic resources, preparing them for environments and situations that they would experience during the war.¹⁴

The 179^th FA Battalion sailed to Scotland in July 1944. While in Scotland, High Command assigned the battalion to the 177^th Field Artillery Group, XII Corps, Third Army shortly before moving to Continental Europe. The battalion entered combat on August 9, 1944, arriving in Normandy, which had become a significant landing zone in the months after D-Day. The Allied push into Europe out of Normandy began just two weeks before the arrival of the 179^th; therefore, the battalion needed to move further south to link up with the rest of the XII Corps.¹⁵ At the time, the XII Corps, led by Lieutenant General Manton S. Eddy, was located in the French City of Le Mans, about one hundred miles south of Normandy Beach. The 179^th linked up with XII Corps and prepared to move east, further into German-occupied France.¹⁶

Shortly after grouping with the rest of the XII Corps, Clinton and the 179^th FA Battalion marched eastward towards the city of Pont-à-Mousson in Eastern France. As part of Patton’s Third Army, the 179^th FA participated in the fast and efficient march across Central France.¹⁷ In only sixteen days, the XII Corps had traveled 250 miles eastward through Central France. Along the way, the XII Corps engaged in minor skirmishes with the enemy. They first encountered significant German resistance as they approached the city of Nancy, found around 175 miles east of Paris.¹⁸

At the end of August, Clinton and the 179^th FA found themselves in Lorraine, a region of France which Germany annexed after the fall of France in 1940. Allied troops reported fierce German resistance. On September 5, 1944, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commander of the Third Army, ordered the XII Corps to cross the Moselle River and capture the city of Nancy. Engineers from the XII Corps planned to traverse the river at its two shallowest and least treacherous points, north and south of Nancy. Once on the opposite side of the river, Allied forces were to converge on the city of Nancy, attacking it from both sides.¹⁹ The plan needed to happen quickly as the 134^th Infantry Regiment, part of the 35th Infantry Division, had already traveled across the Moselle River and became trapped without Allied reinforcements taking heavy losses. Utilizing the fire support provided by Allied artillerymen, such as Clinton, Army engineers constructed bridges, allowing the Allies to establish two river crossings.²⁰

Throughout Patton’s campaign in Lorraine, artillery battalions and groups proved vital for Allied success. The wet season in Lorraine begins in September; it got progressively wetter and cloudier over the next few months, with the wind blowing eastward.²¹ Artillery units, such as the 179^th FA Battalion, had difficulty determining that ordinances landed where they intended; the eastward wind restricted their ability to utilize sound ranging.²² Sound ranging is a technique that artillerymen use that employs acoustics to determine the location of artillery round impact.²³ These restrictions led to imprecise gun targeting; the German determined the advancing Allied troops were not a major threat and did not call for reinforcements.²⁴ The XII Corps fought the Germans in and around Nancy from September 5-15. Throughout the battle, the Allied forces relied heavily on artillery to suppress the enemy through the use of smoke rounds. Artillerymen, such as Clinton, favored smoke rounds during this stage of the operation, as they limited the Germans’ visibility at their observation posts. This effective screening restricted German troops of valuable information regarding Allied troop movements. The Allies liberated Nancy on September 15  when German soldiers withdrew from the city and retreated further east.²⁵

Following the liberation of Nancy and some rest, General Patton ordered the XII Corps to secure and remove German forces from the towns and communes northeast of Nancy on October 8, 1944. Elements of the XII Corps rushed to confront and take the communes of Moivrons, Jeandelaincourt, and Létricourt, all located halfway between Nancy and the city of Metz. The XX Corps, which was running low on supplies, found itself under siege near Metz.²⁶ As part of the effort to rush towards the front lines to deploy artillery, equipment, and troops for the operation, tragedy struck. On October 8, 1944, Clinton Prewitt Jr. died in a vehicle crash.²⁷ Given the state of the roads, it was not uncommon for vehicle-related, non-battle deaths to occur. France’s roads, which faced aerial bombings, artillery fire, and increased wear due to the constant troop movement, deteriorated throughout the war. French roads in the countryside were also relatively narrow compared to the width needed to sustain a sizable logistical operation of military vehicles.²⁸ In addition, a number of roads had washed out when the Moselle River flooded just a few months prior. This forced Allied forces to utilize rural, often dirt roads.²⁹ Some of all of these factors may have played a role in the accident that killed Clintion Prewitt Jr.

Legacy

After Clinton Prewitt Jr.’’s death, General Patton ordered the artillery battalions of the XII Corps to continue north to assist in the XX Corps’ task of capturing Metz. Allied forces finally liberated Metz on December 4, 1944.³⁰ The XII Corps based their headquarters in Nancy for the rest of the Lorraine campaign in Eastern France. The closer the US Army came to the border between France and Germany, the more brutal the German resistance became. The XII Corps experienced extreme fighting but held its sector’s line partly due to support from artillery battalions such as the 179^th FA.³¹ Beginning on December 19, 1944, the 179^th FA participated in the Battle of the Bulge. From Bastogne, Belgium, it provided men and resources to support the Allied fight against the enormous German counter-offensive. From mid December until the end of January 1945, supporting the 4^th Armored Division, the artillerymen of the 179^th fired 1,000 rounds daily.³²

After the Battle of the Bulge concluded, the Army stationed the 179^th FA at Bockholz, Luxemburg, from February 1 to February 24, 1945. Throughout the rest of the war in Europe, the 179^th FA supported various infantry divisions and tank battalions as it pushed further into Germany and, finally, Czechoslovakia at the war’s end. While the battalion officially discharged at Fort Bragg, NC, on May 2, 1945, many of the men of the 179^th FA remained in Europe to assist in the occupation of Germany. Some even operated in Soviet-controlled zones, where they transferred German prisoners out of Eastern Europe.³³

The 179^th received the French Croix de Guerre with a bronze palm for its actions in the fighting around and the crossing of the Moselle River, in which Clinton participated. The 179^th FA also received a presidential citation, along with the 4^th Armored Division and all of its attached units, fortis efforts during the Battle of the Bulge.³⁴

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¹ “U.S, World War II Draft Cards,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr.; “1940 US Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr, Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida; “US, World War I Draft Registration Cards,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton Jones Prewitt.

² “U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 19, 2023), entry for Clinton Jones Prewitt; “U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1965,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 19, 2023), entry for Clinton J. Prewitt.

³ “1935 Florida State Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr., Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida.

⁴ “1935 Florida State Census, entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr..

⁵ “1930 Census, Fort Eustis, Warwick, Virginia,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: Accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr, Fort Eustis, Warwick, Virginia.

⁶ James H. Clifford, “Fort Eustis, Virginia,” On Point 24, no. 1 (2018): 46-49, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26920994.

⁷ “1935 Florida State Census”, entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr..

⁸ “Landon High School 1942 Yearbook” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr, Landon High school, Jacksonville, Florida.

⁹ “U.S, World War II Draft Cards”, entry for Clinton Prewitt Jr.

¹⁰ United States Army Corps of Engineers, “About Us,” United States Army Corps of Engineers, accessed June 6, 2023, https://www.usace.army.mil/about/.

¹¹ “History of Camp Blanding,” Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, accessed December 6, 2022, https://fl.ng.mil/Camp-Blanding/Pages/History.aspx#:~:text=It%20was%20originally%20established%20as,converted%20to%20a%20federal%20reservation; “US, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1937-1946,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 8, 2022), entry for Clinton J. Prewitt Jr., service number 34543824.

¹² “Clinton Prewitt,” American Battle Monuments Commission, accessed November 8, 2022, https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/prewitt%3Dclinton.

¹³ William Carraway, “Historic Georgia Guard Units Join the Fight in France: The 179th and 945th FA Battalions Enter the ETO August 12, 1944,” GeorgiaGuardHistory, published August 24, 2019, http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/08/historic-georgia-guard-units-join-fight.html.

¹⁴ Frank Burns, “Second Army (Tennessee) Maneuvers,” Tennessee Historical Society, accessed June 6, 2023, http://tnency.utk.tennessee.edu/entries/second-army-tennessee-maneuvers/.

¹⁵ Rick Atkinson, “Operation COBRA and the Breakout at Normandy,”  U.S. Army, published July 22, 2010, https://www.army.mil/article/42658/operation_cobra_and_the_breakout_at_normandy.

¹⁶ Carraway, “Historic Georgia Guard Units Join the Fight in France”

¹⁷ George Dyer, XII Corps: Spearhead of Patton’s Third Army (Washington D.C.: The XII Corps History Association, 1947), 56.

¹⁸ Hugh M. Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, The European Theater of Operations (Washington, D.C: Center of Military History, US Army, 2007), 57-62.

¹⁹ Cole, the Lorraine Campaign, 57-70.

²⁰ Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 71-75.

²¹ Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 29.

²² Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 77.

²³ Lester L. Miller, Sound and Flash Ranging in Artillery Observation: A Bibliography of Book and Military Periodical Articles (Fort Sill: U.S. Army Field Artillery School, 1977).

²⁴ Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 77.

²⁵ Boyd L. Dastrup, King of Battle: A Branch History of the U.S. Army’s Field Artillery (Fort Monroe, VA: US Army Training and Doctrine Command and Center of Military History, 1992), 221; Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 77.

²⁶ Dastrup, King of Battle, 222; Anthony Kemp, The Unknown Battle, Metz, 1944, (New York City, NY: Stein and Day, 1981), 127.

²⁷ “U.S., WWII Hospital Admission Card Files,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 18, 2023), entry for Clinton J. Prewitt, service number 34543824.

²⁸ “The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum,” The National WWII Museum, accessed June 14, 2023, https://www.ww2online.org/search-page?f%5B0%5D=field_tgm%3ADirt%20roads–France.

²⁹ Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 423-424.

³⁰ Dastrup, King of Battle, 222; Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 252.

³¹ Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, 253.

³² James McCabe, “179th Field Artillery Battalion- James McCabe,” Battle of the Bulge Association, accessed June 21, 2023, https://battleofthebulge.org/2013/01/07/179th-field-artillery-battalion-james-mccabe/.

³³ McCabe, “179th Field Artillery Battalion.”

³⁴ McCabe, “179th Field Artillery Battalion.”

³⁵ “U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed September 19, 2023), entry for Clinton J Prewitt Jr., service number 34543824; “Combat Awards,” Marines, accessed March 14, 2024, https://www.marines.mil/Combat-Awards/Article/1831640/bronze-star/.

³⁶ “Lorraine American Cemetery,” American Battle Monuments Commission, accessed June 21, 2023, https://www.abmc.gov/Lorraine; “U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949,” entry for Clinton J Prewitt Jr.