COLONEL HARRY ARTHUR BERGER.

Please note: If you have any additional information about Harry, please contact Dr. Ed Berger in Prescott, Arizona.

A man is remembered through his family, friends, and deeds. Sadly, some men are lost to us because what they accomplished is not carried in living memory. Harry’s friends are long gone. Only a few family members who knew him remain. Without the records of his deeds, his life would remain unknown.

The discovery of Harry’s military records long after his death, reawakens him for us to meet. The files bring Harry’s great contributions back into time. They allow us a glimpse into his life – who he was and what he was like.

His story emerges as we read his military files and discover his career and contributions. We are made aware of his WWII service in the South Pacific, and later experiences in Japan as part of the Korean Campaign. This is where we begin. In time, we share the essence of the man as we learn more about his life.

Overview: What we learn from his military records.

Service: Chicago National Guard. U.S. 5^th Army 132^nd Service Division, Americal Division.

Born 112 years ago in Chicago on 10 October 1902. High School graduation 1920. Course work at Crane College and Metropolitan Business College 1921. Worked as office manager and building maintenance for State of Illinois 1928 -1941. Federally recognized as Second Lieutenant, Infantry reserve, Illinois National Guard February 28, 1933. Federally recognized as First Lieutenant, infantry, Illinois National Guard July 5, 1935. Appointed Captain, Infantry Illinois National Guard 1937. Federally recognized as Major, Infantry, Illinois National Guard, December 26, 1940. Appointed Major, Infantry, National Guard of the United States, March 5, 1941. Entered on active duty March 5, 1941. 1942. Solomon Islands Campaign starting with Guadalcanal. Released from active duty 1946. Recalled 1946 to General McArthur’s staff, Japan. Heart attack November 1951. Released from service due to heart condition. Died 9 years later in Denver, Colorado on May 9, 1960.

What we are able to learn from his medals and letters of commendation:

To accompany the announcement of THE BRONZE STAR MEDAL AWARD.

“Harry A. Berger, 0-305287, Lieutenant Colonel (then Major), Infantry, United States Army, for performance of meritorious service while serving as a regimental S-4 in the South Pacific Area from March 1942 to April 1943. Colonel Berger was responsible for the planning and execution of three inter-island movements of the regiment, each of which, in spite of numerous obstacles, was marked by a highly exceptional degree of efficiency. His superior military ability and devotion to duty were responsible for the rapid landing of men and supplies during the combat on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. To find short, adequate supply routes over hazardous jungle trails, Colonel Berger undertook many personal reconnaissance missions which frequently brought him under heavy enemy fire. His efficient handling of supplies contributed materially to the successful operations of the regiment.”

By command of Lieutenant General Harmon.   29 June, 1944.

Harry went on to win/receive two more Bronze Star Medals as Oak Leaf Clusters on his first medal.

An interesting connection we learned about was that the 132^nd also provided logistics, planning, and supplies for the U.S. Navy (Marines) during the invasions and battles.

THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

Washington

4 February 1943

LT COL HARRY A BERGER 0305287

Cited in the name of the President of the United States

THE FIRST MARINE DIVISION, REINFORCED

Under the command of

Major General Alexander A. Vandergrift, U.S.M.C.

CITATION:

“The officers and enlisted men of the First Marine Division, Reinforced, on August 7 to 9, 1942, demonstrated outstanding gallantry and determination in successfully executing forced landing assaults against a number of strongly defended Japanese positions on Tulagi, Gavutu, Tanambogo, Florida and Guadalcanal British Solomon Islands , completely routing all the enemy forces and seizing a most valuable base and airfield within the enemy zone of operations in the South Pacific Ocean. From the above period until December 1942, this Reinforced Division not only held their important strategic positions despite determined and repeated Japanese naval, air and land attacks, but by a series of offensive operations against strong enemy resistance drove the Japanese from the proximity of the airfield and inflicted great losses on them by air and land attacks. The courage and determination displayed in these operations were of an inspiring order.”

Other insights into Harry’s service come from a partial list of his medals:

American Defense Service Medal; American Campaign, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal Unit Citation with Bronze Battle Stars for participation in Guadalcanal and Northern Solomons campaigns; Presidential Unit Citation (Navy) with star; Combat Infantry Badge and World War II Victory Medal; Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters for meritorious service in combat; Army Commendation Ribbon for outstanding performance of duty.

We also learn that he was an Infantry Unit Commander (Lt Colonel) for 16 months. A Unit Officer, Non Tactical (Lt Colonel) for 15 months. A supply and Evacuation Staff Officer (rank Major) for 27 months.

As Infantry Unit Commander, he was executive officer for the 132^nd Infantry Regiment, officer was responsible for the administration, training, supply and operation of an infantry unit consisting of 150 officers and 3200 enlisted men engaged in combat activities against the enemy. Officer commanded a battalion of the 132^nd Infantry in the South Pacific Campaigns. Officer was responsible for the security, training, welfare, transportation, supply and tactical employment of the unit. Officer made tactical decisions, coordinating the activities of the battalion with adjacent units.

As a Unit Officer, Non Tactical, Officer commanded the 10^th Battalion, Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot #1, Ft Meade, Maryland and Camp Pickett, Virginia. In this assignment, officer supervised 25 officers and 125 permanent enlisted cadre engaged in training and processing groups (averaging 3500 men monthly) of Ground force Replacements for overseas duty. Officer was responsible for such administrative duties as were necessary for the efficient operation of the unit.

Remembering and searching for information:

I’m his nephew. I’m 75, writing this in 2014, 112 years after his birth. 54 years after we lost him. I recently came into possession of military records, ribbons, and medals belonging to my uncle – my father’s brother – who was born in 1902. I was a junior in college when word came in May 1960 that he was dead at 57. I recall my pain and yet I hardly knew him. What I remember was a man my father revered as older brothers do, but failed to connect with because of reasons I could not comprehend. I had no understanding of what a stroke did to him. To me, Uncle Harry was a 5’7” solid man with a short temper and very intense manner. “Very smart,” everyone said. “All military.” “From Chicago.” A man who tried to help me with my homework, but became impatient (I thought with me) because he could not find the words he needed.

Sometime in ’43 his wife Claire had the 8” x 10” photograph (top photo) made of Harry taken at Denver’s Union Station on the day he left to go back to the Solomon Islands and the hell of Guadalcanal. He had been with us to visit his beautiful wife who came to live with us in Denver when he left for the Pacific shortly after they were married. Claire was like our second mother. We loved her. Through her, we were aware of the man called “Harry” whom she loved. My sister Lois and I formed our own mental pictures of Uncle Harry, but it was not until after the war that we were old enough to communicate with him.

I was too young to understand. I was 6, almost 7 when he came home from the war. That was in 1946. I learned that he was a Colonel and commanded the 132^nd. Service Battalion during the fight for the Solomons. I didn’t know what that was, where that was, or what he did. I’m not certain anyone in the family but his wife Claire, his sister Faye, his younger brother Julius (whom we lost in 1957), and maybe my parents knew. Aunt Claire and my mom put up a map of the Pacific and marked his locations when they knew them. I remember that. Then he came home and we celebrated. In 1948, my sister Lois and I went for a two-month visit with Harry and Claire in Chicago. I do not have memories of him when we were there. I didn’t get to know him. I’m not sure he could forget the horrors of war and connect. In Colorado, he gave me a ceremonial sword, some horse-cavalry leather leggings, and riding pants from his service in the Illinois National Guard before the war. Then he was called back into service and Aunt Claire left to join him in Japan where he served on General MacArthur’s staff and later helped support the UN Police Action in Korea.

In November 1951, word came that Harry had a major heart attack while serving in Japan. In time, he was transferred to Fitzsimons Hospital in Denver and was recovering his ability to speak. He recovered enough and Claire and he moved into a house in Denver. I saw Claire and Harry a few times, but his intensity and, I guess, impairment-caused anger, kept us distant. Dad tried to explain what was limiting him, but I was too young to understand. He died on May 9, 1960.

What could have caused his heart attack? What was it like in 1951 in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur? The tension and bickering must have been unimaginable. General Ridgeway had reversed the Chinese offensive. Truman wanted to negotiate peace. MacArthur knew the president’s intent, but decided to do things his way. On April 5^th he presented a letter critical of Truman and a limited war in Korea to the full House of Representatives. Truman called him home. Ridgeway and Clark took over command of Korea. One can only imagine the frustration and mixed loyalties that conflicted the staff. To most, MacArthur’s plan to use the atomic bomb if necessary and finish off China, was not acceptable, but they had to support their boss. When MacArthur was removed, they had to formulate a new policy for a negotiated peace and a settlement with China and North Korea. I am certain Harry was caught up in these battles and conflicting approaches to the Korean nightmare.

In 1961, a year after we lost Harry, Dad, Aunt Claire, and I drove to Chicago to place the gravestone. I met relatives and learned a little more about Harry and our family. I went back to graduate from college with a great gap in my understanding of a man who died without children and was limited in his ability to communicate. Their sister, my aunt Faye (seen here with her husband Max Egert), seemed to be the only person in the family who really knew him. Even though I had met her in

Chicago, I did not know her. Then, we lost contact.

In time, we learned that Aunt Claire died back East in Boston. Harry’s records went to Faye and would go to her son, Maurice. That was that.

A blank spot in history and family that could never be filled – or so I thought.

Years passed. We grew older and filled our own lives with family and friends. Harry was a nagging memory deep in the soul of my mind. Faye passed. Harry’s records went into storage in the basement of Maurice’s (Mo and Lynn’s) home in Illinois. It seemed that Harry’s memory was in the oblivion of time.

But lives well lived and service given to one’s country cry out to be told. Mo and his wife Lynn purchased a winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona. My wife and I moved from Colorado to Arizona. We were reconnected by my sister Lois, who researches ancestry and family history. We got together often and found love and common experiences. Being several years older Mo, had strong memories of Harry and Claire. We shared what he knew and he told me about Harry’s records. I was working on a new book – this one for family and friends – called Transcending: The Life Of A Twentieth Century Man. It was the story of my father’s life. “When I’m done,” I promised, “if you find Uncle Harry’s records I’d like to tell his story.”

In August 2012, Jo and I were returning from Africa and Europe and we stopped over in Chicago to see Mo, now mourning the sudden loss of Lynn and counting days in a nursing home. His family found Harry’s records and a framed display of his medals. I could keep my promise. Jo and I used Fed X to get the records to our home in Arizona.

I opened the box and found a 2”stack of paper records and boxes of medals and ribbons. (Scanned copies of his most important records are attached).

Who was Harry Berger? Knowing some of the forces that shaped his life, we can start to describe him. As other memories are jogged, others will add more information to this section. There is so much we don’t know.

His mother and father were immigrants from what was then Russian controlled Poland. He had two older sisters both born in Europe, and a brother Ed, born in 1900 in Chicago, Ill. Abraham and Leah had been in America about four years when Harry was born (1902). In two years he would have a younger brother, Julius. Two years later, a sister Faye. For many reasons his father had to leave Chicago and find work in the Eastern shipyards. Harry never got to know his father and the community often spoke negatively about Abraham who was a labor sympathizer fighting to make life better in America. The community feared that Abraham’s actions would bring trouble for them. They called him a “Perfector”.

When Leah, Harry’s mother died in 1916, there was no one to take her place. He and Julius tried to keep connected with their brother Ed, and when Ed went into the Army Air Corps at 18, he tried to send support from his Army pay. The three boys got together when they could. (Photos of Harry and Julius from Ed’s scrapbook).

Julius lied about his age and joined the Navy. In reality, Harry and Faye were alone. The “wise adults” kept them from their father and then from each other. The pain experienced by Harry can only be imagined. Suffice to say, it deprived him of a happy life just as the war deprived him of time with his new wife, and then his life.

This is one of the few photos I have found of Julius, and Agnes, Ed, Claire, and Harry. Photo taken by Marie, Ed’s wife.

 Background: The 132^nd Regiment in World War II

The 132nd Infantry Regiment was inducted into federal service on March 5, 1941, at Chicago, Illinois as part of the 33rd Infantry Division, and participated in divisional maneuvers at Camp Forrest, Tennessee. It was relieved from the 33rd Division on January 14, 1942, and assigned to Task Force 6814, an assemblage of units gathered for immediate transfer to Australia to defend against threatened Japanese invasion. On January 20, 1942, it sailed from New York and arrived in Australia on February 27. On March 6 it sailed again, arriving in New Caledonia, where it became an infantry component of the newly-created Americal Division on May 24, 1942.

The 132nd Infantry arrived on Guadalcanal on December 8, 1942, where it engaged in combat in the Guadalcanal campaign, including fierce fighting to capture Japanese positions in the Battle of Mount Austen. The Regiment was relieved and sent to Fiji with the rest of the Americal Division to rest and refit.

The 132nd next fought in the Bougainville campaign. It arrived at Cape Torokina on January 9, 1944, and relieved the 3d Marine Parachute Battalion, the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, and units of the 145th Infantry, which then reverted to the 37th Division. The 132nd Infantry took over that portion of the perimeter paralleling the Torokina on the extreme right flank and engaged in patrolling and in strengthening defensive positions. On April 5, 1944, after establishing patrols along Empress Augusta Bay, the 132nd successfully launched an attack to capture Mavavia Village. Two days later, while continuing a sweep for enemy forces, the Regiment encountered prepared enemy defenses, where they destroyed some twenty Japanese pillboxes using pole charges and bazookas. Later, the 132nd secured the heights west of Saua River in fierce fighting that lasted until April 18, when the last of the Japanese defenders were killed or driven off.^[3]

In 1945, the 132nd participated in the retaking of the Philippine Islands. On March 26, 1945, preceded by a heavy naval and aerial bombardment, troops of the 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry waded ashore across heavily-mined beaches during an amphibious invasion of Cebu Island, at a point just south of Cebu City. Elements of the 132nd later secured Mactan Island and Opon Airfield in Cebu province.^[4] On November 26, 1945, the 132nd was inactivated at Fort Lewis, Washington.

The 132nd was relieved on July 5, 1946, from assignment to the Americal Division and re-assigned to the 33d Infantry Division. It was reorganized and federally recognized on February 11, 1947 at Chicago as a component of the Illinois Army National Guard. It consolidated on March 15, 1954, with the 131st Infantry and the consolidated unit was designated as the 131st Infantry, an element of the 33rd Infantry Division.

Distinctive unit insignia

• Description

A Gold color metal and enamel device 1¹⁄₄ inches (3.2 cm) in height overall consisting of a shield blazoned: Argent, a pairle Azure between chief an oak tree Proper within a circle of five mullets Gules, a palm tree to dexter and a prickly pear cactus to sinister both of the third. Attached above the shield a wreath Or, upon a grassy field the blockhouse of old Fort Dearborn Proper. Attached below and to the sides of the shield a Gold scroll inscribed “SEMPER PARATUS” in Gold.

• Symbolism

The shield is white charged with the pairle which appears on the shield of the city of Chicago, shield and pairle are white and blue, the Infantry colors. The green oak tree is for Forges Wood and the stars represent the five major operations in which the Regiment took part in France. The palm tree recalls Cuban and the cactus the Mexican border service. The crest is that of the Illinois Army National Guard. The motto translates to “Ever Ready.”

• Background

The distinctive unit insignia was approved on 13 March 1925. It was amended to change the motto to Latin on 16 October 1926. The insignia was rescinded/cancelled on 20 October 1961.

Coat of arms

Blazon

• Shield

Argent, a pairle Azure between chief an oak tree Proper within a circle of five mullets Gules, a palm tree to dexter and a prickly pear cactus to sinister both of the third.

• Crest

That for the regiments and separate battalions of the Illinois Army National Guard: From a wreath Argent and Azure, upon a grassy field the blockhouse of old Fort Dearborn Proper. Motto SEMPER PARATUS (Ever Ready).

• Symbolism
• Shield

The shield is white charged with the pairle which appears on the shield of the city of Chicago, shield and pairle are white and blue, the Infantry colors. The green oak tree is for Forges Wood and the stars represent the five major operations in which the Regiment took part in France. The palm tree recalls Cuban and the cactus the Mexican border service.

• Crest

The crest is that of the Illinois Army National Guard.

• Background

The coat of arms was approved on 15 May 1924. It was amended to include the historical outline on 1 November 1926. The insignia was rescinded/cancelled on 20 October 1961.

A FEW COPIES OF RECORDS FROM HARRY’S MILITARY FILES: (Many more of his records are available).