Winston Fisher

9Feb1918 – 29Aug1944

Edison Days

Winston graduated with the Class of January 1937. He was very active in school.

Several months after graduating, Winston made the local paper when he was struck by a car in NE Minneapolis, Minnesota. The driver of the car was eventually arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Winston was 18 years old, not 28 years old.

Military Service

Rank: 1st Lieutenant

Branch: United States Army

Unit: K Company – 13th Infantry Regiment – 8th Infantry Division

Winston enlisted in the Army on 10Jan1941. It is unknown where he attended basic training or what unit he was assigned to after completing basic training.

Just 13 months later, Winston had received several promotions and was stationed at Fort Lenord Wood, Missouri. On Valentine’s Day 1942, Technical Sergeant Fisher married Dorothy Kujawa, Edison Class of June 1938.

After the wedding, Winston was sent to Officer’s School in Fort Benning, Georgia. After 3 to 4 months of additional training, Winston was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in December of 1942.

It is likely that Winston joined the 13th Infantry Regiment after he was commissioned. The 13th spent most of 1943 training for deployment. Starting the year at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, moving to the Desert Training Center near Yuma, Arizona from March to August, and then finally to Camp Forrest, Tennessee. On November 22, the unit moved to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey for final preparations before leaving for Europe.

On December 5th the Division boarded ships in New York harbor for their trip across the Atlantic. 11 days later the troop ships anchored in the harbor at Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Winston would spend the next 6 months in final preparation to join the war in France. On 29Jun1944 the Regiment boarded a Liberty ship bound for France. Landing at Utah Beach on July 4. Damaged ships and destroyed landing craft and vehicles from the D-Day invasion a month early were easy to see for Winston and the other men of the division.

As a 2nd Lieutnant, Winston was 1 of 6 officers in K Company. In addition to the 6 officers, there were 187 enlisted soldiers when manned at full strength. K company was 1 of 4 companies that made up the 3rd Battalion of the Regiment.

5 days after landing, Winston likely got his first taste of combat. The following excerpt is from a unit history of the 13th Infantry Regiment.

The remainder of July was mostly uneventful as the unit assumed a defensive position on the North side of the Ay River. On August 3, the 3rd Battalion was scheduled to participate in the attack on Rennes, France. The German Army abandoned the town before the attack began, and the following day the Regiment entered the town. From the unit history.

Rennes, the first large inland city of France to be captured. The populace of the once beautiful capitol of Brittany greeted the entering troops with unrestrained demonstrations of joy. Throngs of civilians surged through the streets to cheer and shake hands with the American Soldiers. Women, young and old alike, showered them with flowers and kisses, and bedecked the vehicles with flowers.

Next up for Winston and the 13th Regiment was to be an attack on Brest, France.

Winston and the 3rd Battalion were spared the heaviest fighting during the initial attack on Brest. That would be borne by the 2nd Battalion against intense German resistance at a place identified Hill 88. Starting early on August 25th, until the hill was captured late on August 26th, the fight for Hill 88 cost the 2nd Battalion 2 officers and 37 enlisted men killed, and 174 officers and enlisted men wounded.

On August 27th Winston and the 3rd Battalion would see the fierce fighting they had avoided days earlier.