Sergeant Alfred “Tommy” Weekley (November 27, 1919 – April 19, 1945)
180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division
by Nathan Kelley
Early Life
Alfred Weekley was born November 27, 1919, in Baldwin County, AL, to Theodore B. Weekley (October 1872) and Rose Weekley (December 1879), who already had eight other children, all boys, at the time of his birth.1Alfred’s parents, both grew up in Alabama and married on April 21, 1898.2 Sometime before May 19, 1903, Theodore purchased a parcel of land, likely leaving his job as a turpentine dipper to begin farming on the family’s new property.3 By 1920, his two oldest sons, Fitzhugh and Guy, worked the farm with him. The other sons attended school, save for one-year-old Alfred and two-year-old Tunstall.4
Rosa Weekley passed away from cancer on September 20, 1929; Alfred was only nine.5 While Alfred lived with his father and two of his brothers, Vernon and Tunstall, for a few years and completed grammar school, by 1930, everything in his life had changed.6 At the start of the Great Depression, his father likely felt unable to care for the younger boys, so Alfred moved in with his uncle and aunt, William F. Weekley and Rebecca Pearl Weekley. They resided in Bay Minette, AL, where Alfred’s cousins helped with work on the family farm. While there, Alfred took a liking to an old tomcat, and the two quickly became friends. Their relationship led the family to give Alfred the nickname “Tommy.” This nickname stuck with him for the rest of his life, including during his military service. Despite the turmoil in his life, Alfred remembered his time living with his uncle fondly. Years later, Alfred’s daughter would recall stories he had shared:
When Sunday mornings came, Uncle Willie would wake them as he fastened his Sunday-go-to-meeting suspenders and softly call them through his long white beard in a slow sing-song drawl to get ready for church.7
At the age of twenty, with the nation still in the grips of the Great Depression, on a friend’s tip, Alfred moved to Tallahassee, FL, to find work. At first, he lived as a lodger with the Rudolph family, where in May of 1940 he had “nothing to do,” according to the census taker.8 Not much time passed before Alfred got a job at Elberta Crate & Box factory on Lake Bradford Rd.9 One day, while Alfred went to the store, he bumped into Anna Lee Oliff as they attempted to walk through a doorway at the same time. Anna remembered that once he flashed his smile in her direction, it was love at first sight.10 Not long after their chance encounter and subsequent marriage, the two married on November 23, 1940, and subsequently moved into a rented home.11 In 1941, they welcomed their first child, Theodore Wayne Weekley.12
After the Japanese attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbor, HI, Alfred felt the same urge many Americans felt and wanted to fight for his country against Axis aggression. At the time of the attack, at least one of Alfred’s brothers had already been called to service; Elmer Weekley was drafted on April 7, 1941.13 Their daughter has shared in a personal account that Anna begged Alfred to wait until the draft board called his number, to which Alfred acquiesced.14 While awaiting his call to serve, Alfred and Anna welcomed Janie into the family on April 2, 1943.15
Military Service
On April 25, 1944, at the age of twenty-four, Alfred Weekley began his service in the US armed forces at Fort McPherson, Atlanta, GA.16 He joined the 180th Infantry Regiment, Company L, of the 45th Infantry Division. The 45th ID was originally an Oklahoma National Guard unit but became a part of the Army’s Personnel Replacement System. The Personnel Replacement System – which traces its origins back to the thirteen colonies – sought to bolster troop numbers as the bloody war dragged on.17
Alfred went to Camp Wolters, TX, a training base primarily used for training infantrymen to replace those injured or killed on the front lines. He completed training sometime before September 1944, when he was granted a ten-day leave to visit his wife and two small children.18 While on leave, the Weekleys sat for a family portrait, pictured here.19 Afterward, he went to Fort Meade, MD to train before joining his unit in Europe.20
The 45th ID had already fought its way from Sicily to Naples, and on to the battle of Anzio culminating in the Allied liberation of Rome. The unit then enjoyed a brief period of rest and recuperation before participating in the second massive Allied amphibious landing, known as Operation Dragoon, along the southern coast of France in August 1944. Between August and September of 1944, the men of the 45th ID traveled north roughly 400 miles (644 kilometers), regularly skirmishing with German units and methodically pushing them back. In a hard-fought battle, the 45thID defeated the Nazi occupiers in Epinal, a town in the Lorraine region of the Vosges mountains. The battle in Epinal proved to be pivotal in the Allied campaign to liberate eastern France.21
When Alfred reached the front, likely in early October 1944, he was met by more experienced troops who had recently fought their way across the Moselle River. By Alfred’s arrival, the veteran members of the 45th would have experienced the harsh realities of combat and the physical extremes of mountainous warfare. They had probably just taken the city of Rambervillers, near Epinal, when he arrived. Not looking to break their streak, the men of the 45th ID continued pushing through the dense, unforgiving terrain of the Vosges Mountain range. The unit met tough German resistance as they fought through the Saverne Gap and pushed toward Strasbourg and the German border, in the Alsace valley. Over the following weeks, Alfred and the men of the 45th ID proceeded north along the border, liberating a series of cities and villages in their path.22
On December 3, near the Northern Alsace town of Mertwiller, an artillery shell struck Alfred, causing injuries that required hospital care. He recovered quickly and rejoined his comrades by the end of the year, likely after the Thunderbirds had already pushed into Germany.23 On December 15, Alfred’s company became the first unit of the Seventh Army to cross the border into Germany.24
In the early days of January 1945, the men of the 45th were ordered back into France to repel a German counter-offensive. The tactical withdrawal of the unit played an instrumental role in defending small villages including Wingen, Wimmenau, Wildenguth, and Reipertsweiller in the rolling, forested hills north of Alsace. The constant ebb and flow of the battle lines would have been crushing to morale as Allies fought to reclaim ground they had once taken. Ultimately, the Germans were pushed out of French territory in a decisive victory for the Allied forces. Operation Nordwind, as it was called, marked the Nazis’ final offensive attempt on the Western Front.25 In January during this prolonged period of combat, Alfred, took grenade shrapnel to the buttocks and hip. The injury hospitalized him until sometime in February 1945.26
For most of February 1945, the soldiers of the 180th regiment bivouacked away from the front lines. This period of rest afforded the soldiers a well-earned reprieve from the dangers and uncertainty of the front, but it was not all relaxation. While the men recuperated, the regiment also trained extensively for tactical river crossings, in preparation for the missions ahead.27 Alfred’s battalion settled in Metting before moving to Wimmenau and, finally, to a position southeast of Luneville. By March 13, the 45th moved north into the Sarreguemines area on the German border, a prime checkpoint before their next assault into the Siegfried Line, the final series of fortifications protecting the heart of the Rhineland.28
On March 17, 1945 the Allies smashed through the Siegfried Line, and by March 20, they took Homburg and Nieder-Wurzbach.29 Alfred sent a letter back home to his wife, Anna on March 22, discussing his distaste for war. In the letter, he explained, “the roads over here are choked with slaves from Russia that the Germans were working. Unless you see some of this war, you can’t believe it. I hope it will be fixed by our leaders so our sons won’t have to come over here and fight.” He also mentioned his Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster in a lighthearted way, comparing himself to the German Reich Marshal Hermann Goering: “If I keep receiving medals, I’ll look like Goering soon.”30
In the weeks that followed, Alfred’s unit continued their fierce fighting, crossing the icy Rhine near Worms, Germany, on March 26. They pressed forward, taking Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria, on April 3 and reaching Nuremberg by April 16.31 Allied forces rapidly advanced into German territory, fighting hard along the way, particularly in Nuremberg where urban combat made every city block a battle of its own.32
By this time, Alfred had reached the rank of sergeant and led a group of soldiers in house-to-house fighting in small towns, utilizing tactics still common among twenty-first century infantry fireteams. They fought in close quarters combat scenarios, raiding buildings to rid them of enemy soldiers while ensuring the safety of civilians. Allied forces used artillery and bombs to push the German defenders into any remaining structures before entering each new town. On April 19, 1945, Alfred led his team’s effort to clear buildings near the German National Museum in Nuremberg when he and Anthony Jozaitis, a private also in Company L, spotted a cellar across the street where the Germans held a strong point. Acting quickly, the two crossed the street with their squads. They led their teams into the cellar, revealing a series of tunnels and eventually killing many Germans and taking sixty-five prisoners.33
According to Jimmie King, a surviving member of Alfred’s unit, after they took the tunnels, Alfred cleared a tower that held Germans firing down upon the American troops. Not long after securing the tower, a German sniper shot Alfred in the back.34
Legacy
When Alfred Weekley died, his family received a telegram which stated:
The secretary of war desires me to express his deep regret that your husband, Sgt Alfred Weekley, was killed in action in Germany April 19, 1945, confirming letter follows. The Adjutant General.35
Anna’s family likely received the message, which they withheld from her until she recovered from an illness in the hospital. Likewise, at the request of the family, the local paper did not report Alfred’s death until Anna had regained her health. On May 9, 1945, only one day after Victory in Europe (VE) Day, the Tallahassee Democrat announced the soldier’s death.36
The 180th continued the fight, liberating the city of Nuremberg on April 20, one day after Alfred’s passing. They crossed the Danube River on April 26, taking Munich by April 30 and liberating the concentration camp at Dachau before the war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945.37 Alfred was laid to rest in the temporary St. Avold Cemetery before reaching his permanent interment at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in the years following the war. He now rests at Block D, row twenty-nine, grave thirty-two within the Lorraine American Cemetery alongside his comrades.38
Sergeant Alfred Weekley and the men of the 45th Infantry Division are commemorated as liberators on monuments in Epinal, and Mertzwiller, France.39 In the continental US, two monuments are dedicated to the 45th ID: a plaque dedicating a highway to them in Atoka, OK, and a memorial to them in Alva, OK.40
In a photograph seen here, Alfred’s son Wayne received the Bronze Star his father earned on that fateful day in Nuremberg.41 Anna believed it important to include her four-year-old son at the ceremony led by Colonel Samuel Brown at the Finney General Hospital in Thomasville, GA. The Bronze Star citation reads:
Sergeant Weekley and another soldier led a squad of riflemen in clearing a group of houses in Nuernberg. Under enemy sniper fire, they ran across a street and into a cellar that was an enemy strongpoint. Leading their squad through a series of tunnels, they succeeded in overrunning two enemy positions, taking sixty-five prisoners and inflicting numerous casualties on the enemy.[42]
Sergeant Weekley and another soldier led a squad of riflemen in clearing a group of houses in Nuremberg. Under enemy sniper fire, they ran across a street and into a cellar that was an enemy strongpoint. Leading their squad through a series of tunnels, they succeeded in overrunning two enemy positions, taking sixty-five prisoners and inflicting numerous casualties on the enemy.42
The Bronze Star affirmed Alfred’s heroism and honor in battle, while his Purple Heart, with its oak leaf cluster, demonstrated courage and integrity in the face of great adversity.43 One soldier from Alfred’s unit, Edwin Zawpieri, wrote to Anna, saying of his lost comrade: “For a man who hated war, he was a great soldier and above all, a still greater man. There isn’t a man who fought with him and relaxed too in between campaigns who didn’t think the world of him.”44
In 1949, Anna remarried Chalmer Watkins, who had been with the United States Army for the past five and a half years.45 They had two more children, Paula and Benny, but divorced after five years. Anna never remarried and raised her four children. She held throughout her life that Alfred Weekley had been the love of her life. Anna passed away in 2015 after a long illness during which her children helped in taking care of her.46 Before she passed away, she arranged for her obituary to read, “Anna was preceded in death by her beloved husband Tommy Weekley, who was killed in action during World War II.” In a loving tribute to her beloved father, Janie Weekley McPherson, who grew up without him, named her son Tommy, a likely reference to the nickname her father had as a boy.47
1 “1920 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061/records/1110230: accessed November 13, 2023), entry for Alfred Weekley, Baldwin, Alabama, USA.; “AWON Fathers/Weekley Page,” database, awon2.org (https://www.awon2.org/fathers/awweekley.html: accessed November 13, 2023) This source claims his birth was November 22nd.
2 “Theodore Benjamin Weekley”, Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21509612/theodore-benjamin-weekley.: accessed November 13, 2023); “Rose Woods Weekley”, Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21509616/rose-rosa_rosie-weekley: accessed November 13, 2023); “Alabama, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1805-1967” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/116288:61365?tid=&pid=&queryId=f31f851b8a4ca2bb2a9c77c722756fcc&_phsrc=TAU20&_phstar. :accessed November 13, 2023), entry for Theodore Weekley and Rose Weekley, Baldwin, Alabama, USA.
3 “Alabama, U.S., Homestead and Cash Entry Patents, Pre-1908” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/247049:2069?tid=&pid=&queryId=4edfe3a560d26cfb17981acd4c01f77a&_phsrc=eAs183&_phsta: accessed November 13, 2023).
4 “1920 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com: accessed November 13, 2023).
5 “Certificate of Death” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2543/records/230907?tid=&pid=&queryId=efd605ea-7042-47fd-a595-34807a01597b&_phsrc=qFr131&_phstart=successSource: accessed November 13, 2023).
6 1930 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/120481347:6224 : accessed November 13, 2023), entry for Alfred Weekley Baldwin, Alabama, USA.
7 “AWON Fathers/Weekley,” awon2.org (https://www.awon2.org/fathers/awweekley.html.: accessed November 13, 2023). Special thanks to Janie and Wayne Weekley for their contributions to the awon2 website, allowing a more personal story for Alfred Weekley.
8 “1940 U.S. Census,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/records/133304452: accessed November 13, 2023), entry for Alfred Weekley, Leon, Florida, USA; “AWON Fathers/Weekley,” awon2.org.
9 “WWII Draft Registration Card,” database, Fold3.com (https://www.fold3.com/image/607477075/weekley-alfred-page-1-us-wwii-draft-registration-cards-1940: accessed December 20, 2024), entry for Alfred Weekley.
10 “AWON Fathers/Weekley.”
11 “Marriage Announcement,” Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida), Nov 24, 1940, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/244764397: accessed November 13, 2023).
12 “1945 Florida State Census,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1506/records/687070?tid=&pid=&queryId=974445e8-7546-4416-8f36-1903636424b6&_phsrc=qFr155&_phstart=successSource: accessed December 20, 2024), entry for Theodore W. Weekley, Leon County, Florida.
13 “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2244993:8939:accessed November 13, 2023) entry for Elmer Weekley; “Ten County Draftees to leave on Wednesday,” The Baldwin Times ( Bay Minette, AL), 10 April 1941, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/537724522/?match=1&terms=Ten%20County%20Draftees%20to%20leave%20on%20Wednesday: accessed December 20, 2024).
14 “AWON Fathers/Weekley.”
15 “New Arrivals,” Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida), Apr 7, 1943, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/244626352: accessed November 13, 2023).
16 “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946” database, Fold3(https://www.fold3.com/record/88529758/alfred-weekley-wwii-army-enlistment-records?print=true :accessed November 13. 2023) Entry for Alfred Weekley.
17 Leonard L. Lerwill, The Personnel Replacement System in the United States Army, (U.S Army, 1954).
18 Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida), Sep 28, 1944, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/244474831: accessed November 13, 2023).
19 Photograph graciously provided by the Weekley family.
20 “Weekley Dies in German Area,” Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida), May 9, 1945, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/244206578: accessed November 13, 2023).
21 “WWII: Sicily and Italy.” Oklahoma Historical Society. (https://www.okhistory.org/learn/45th2#:~:text=The%2045th%20Infantry%20Division%20was: accessed December 1, 2023).
22 Norbert Salpeter, Carl Salter, and United States Army, “180th Infantry: a regiment of the 45th Infantry Division,” World War Regimental Histories, (1945), 29.
23 “US, WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954” database, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/record/705592266/weekley-alfred-us-wwii-hospital-admission-card-files-1942-1954?print=true: accessed November 13, 2023) entry for Alfred Weekley, Leon, Florida, USA; “Weekley Dies in German Area,” Tallahassee Democrat.
24 Salpeter, “180th Infantry,” 29.
[25] Salpeter, “180th Infantry,” 30.
26 “US, WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954” database, Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/record/702068645/weekley-alfred-us-wwii-hospital-admission-card-files-1942-1954?print=true: accessed November 13, 2023) entry for Alfred Weekley, Leon, Florida, USA; “Our Men… In Service,” Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida),Dec 19, 1945, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/244180383: accessed November 13, 2023). This newspaper claims that Alfred Weekley was injured in February, whereas the Hospital record shows that he was admitted in January.
27 Salpeter, “180th Infantry,” 30.
28 George A. Fisher, The Story of the 180th Infantry Regiment, (San Angelo, TX, Newsfoto Publishing Co., 1947), 321.
29 Fisher, The Story of the 180th, 340.
30 “Alfred Weekley,” Thepurpleheart.com (https://www.thepurpleheart.com/roll-of-honor/profile/default?rID=b5b8ffe7-70f0-4360-97d8-71bd61ad31bc: accessed November 13, 2023).
31 Fisher, The Story of the 180th, 352-355.
32 Salpeter, “180th Infantry,” 35.
33 Fisher, The Story of the 180th, 359-367.
34 “AWON Fathers/Weekley.”
35 “Alfred Weekley,” Thepurpleheart.com.
36 “Weekley Dies in German Area,” Tallahassee Democrat.
37 Fisher, The Story of the 180th, 370.
38 “U.S., Headstone Inscription and Internment Records,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9170/records/23175?tid=&pid=&queryId=87f23e22-b36b-4e8c-b0b9-f7138c4aa4a2&_phsrc=qFr189&_phstart=successSource: accessed November 13, 2023), entry for Alfred Weekley.
39 “Epinal – Patch Bridge” database, US War Memorials (https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/site_details.php?SiteID=2738&keyword=epinal: accessed November 13, 2023); “Mertzwiller” database, US War Memorials (https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/site_details.php?SiteID=1893&keyword=45th%20infantry: accessed November 13, 2023).
40 “45th Infantry Division Memorial Highway, Atoka, Oklahoma” Legion.org (https://www.legion.org/memorials/united-states/oklahoma/united-states-oklahoma-45th-infantry-division-memorial-highway-atoka-oklahoma:accessed Dec 1, 2023); “45th Infantry Division – Thunderbird’s Memorial,” Legion.org (https://www.legion.org/memorials/united-states/oklahoma/united-states-oklahoma-45th-infantry-division-thunderbirds-memorial: accessed Dec 1, 2023).
41 “Our Men… In Service,” Tallahassee Democrat.
42 “AWON Fathers/Weekley.”
43 “Our Men… In Service,” Tallahassee Democrat.
44 “AWON Fathers/Weekley.”
45 “Wedding Announcement,” Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida). Mar 18, 1949, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/244200090: accessed November 13, 2023).
46 Email correspondence with Janie Weekley McPherson, April 14, 2025. daughter of Alfred Weekley.We would like to thank Ms. Weekley McPherson ; we are grateful for her assistance with this project.
47 “Anna O. Watkins,” Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida). May 31, 2015, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/108198466: accessed November 13, 2023).