SGT William Collins Wessels

courtesy of Corey & Douglas Marshall-Steele

SGT William Collins Wessels was born 5 May 1914 in Newstown, Virginia. He was the only child of William Herbert and Ethel Pauline (Collins) Wessels. His father was a farmer but died in May 1917 of pulmonary tuberculosis. Ethel remarried 5-years later. Step-father Dorsey Bundick was also a farmer. However the Great Depression was hard on everyone and in 1940 both Dorsey and William were working on the state road crew as laborers earning a total income in 1939 of $920. William had managed to complete high school.

William was drafted in April 1941. After completing his basic military training he was assigned to Cannon Company 116th Infantry and trained with that unit in the United States and in England after the regiment went to England in September 1942. William was eventually promoted to SGT and landed with the unit on D-Day, 6 Jun 1944. SGT Wessels was reduced in rank to PVT on 5 Jul 1944. Whether or not this had anything to do with being wounded by an artillery shell at about the same time is unknown. While he was treated there is no record of PVT Wessels being evacuated.  He continued to fight with the unit and was again promoted to SGT on 15 Sep 1944. SGT Wessels continued to fight with Cannon Company until killed in action on 22 Nov 1944. 

SGT Wessels was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Parksley Cemetery in Parksley, Virginia.