Charles Lawrence Schmollinger

The Youngest of Eight

Charles Schmollinger was born in Greenville, Illinois, two days before Christmas, on 23 December 1923. The youngest of eight children born to Charles and Victoria “Mae” (Johnson) Schmollinger, Charles grew up with seven older siblings—six brothers and one sister.

By 1930, the Schmollinger family was living in LaSalle, Illinois, where they rented a home on Seventh Street. Charles’ father worked at the local silica works. Charles later attended LaSalle-Peru Township High School, where he played on the Lightweight Football team.

By 1940, the family had moved to a rented home at 2707 Seventh Street in Peru. His father was then working on the McCormick farm west of Peru. Charles’ older brother Eldon worked as a delivery man, while his sister Valeria worked at Westclox, the area’s large clock factory.

War would soon touch the Schmollinger family deeply.

In June 1941, Charles’ brother Harry became the first married man from Peru to be drafted. Eldon followed, entering the Navy on 27 February 1942 and eventually serving in the South Pacific. Another brother, Forrest, also enlisted that February but in the Army Air Forces.

Charles registered for the draft in LaSalle on 30 June 1942. Just 18 years old, he was working at the Green Ordnance Plant in Amboy and living at 909 Plain Street in Peru. His registration described him as 5 feet 9 inches tall and 140 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Draft Registration Card for Charles Schmollinger — WWII Draft Registration Card for Charles Lawrence Schmollinger

On 20 January 1943, Charles entered the U.S. Army at Peoria.

By that October, he was training at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, with the 541st Parachute Infantry. He was granted a 12-day furlough that month, giving the young paratrooper an opportunity to return home before his journey eventually carried him overseas.

In January 1944, Charles was among about 80 men from his battalion sent to Fort Meade, Maryland. That same month another Schmollinger brother, Lester, entered the Army. Five brothers from one family would serve their country during the war.

By February, Charles was at Camp Glandeboye in Northern Ireland. From there he went to England and joined Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

He would soon go into combat with one of the most famous airborne divisions of the war.

Normandy and Market Garden

In June 1944, the 101st Airborne Division participated in the invasion of Normandy. Charles was wounded during the campaign but survived. After recovering, he received a seven-day furlough to visit London and was ordered to report back to his regiment on July 21^st.

There would be little respite.

Less than two months later, Charles and the 101st Airborne were preparing for another major airborne operation—this time in the Netherlands.

On 17 September 1944, Allied forces launched Operation Market Garden, an ambitious attempt to seize a series of bridges through the Netherlands, cross the Lower Rhine, and bypass Germany’s formidable Siegfried Line. American, British, and Polish airborne troops were dropped behind German lines while British ground forces attempted to advance northward and link up with them.

Charles parachuted into the Netherlands with his battalion.

The following day, September 18^th, he and several fellow soldiers found themselves under heavy enemy fire near Best, Holland.

One of the men with Charles that day, PFC Guy C. Whidden, later described the scene in his memoir Between the Lines and Beyond. Whidden remembered four young privates together in a closely cut field: himself, Charles “Chuck” Schmollinger, George Lineberry, and Ira Brookings. German mortar rounds were falling around them as the men pressed themselves against the ground and searched for some indication of where they should move next.

Chuck was kneeling nearby, talking with Whidden.

Then a mortar round exploded beside them.

Whidden remembered looking toward his friend and seeing blood appear from Chuck’s nose and ears, although he could see no other obvious wound. He believed the concussion had killed Chuck there in the field.

Chuck had, however, survived the immediate blast. Seriously injured by the concussion, he was evacuated to a hospital. For eleven days, he held on.

PVT Charles “Chuck” Schmollinger died of his wounds on 29 September 1944. He was 20 years old.

Operation Market Garden had ended only four days earlier. Although Allied forces captured several important bridges, they failed to secure the final bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. The operation therefore did not achieve its larger objective of establishing the desired bridgehead into Germany. The area would remain contested for months before Allied forces finally liberated Arnhem in April 1945.

A Final Resting Place

Charles was initially buried in a temporary cemetery near Son, Netherlands.

In 1945, Charles’ parents received their youngest son’s personal belongings from the Army. Among them were his military ribbons, parachutist wings, a ring, wristwatch, fountain pen, and a foreign coin.

Small possessions were all that could be sent home of a young man who had crossed an ocean and jumped from an airplane into occupied Europe.

The Schmollinger family had already given much to the war. Harry served in Iceland. Eldon served with the Navy in the Pacific. Forrest served in the Army Air Forces, and Lester served in the Army. Eldon was able to take leave in November 1944 and fly home to see his parents, although it is not known whether his visit was prompted by the death of his youngest brother.

Charles remained overseas.

Nearly five years after his death, on 29 April 1949, PVT Charles “Charles” Schmollinger was reinterred at the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten, where he rests in Plot B, Row 10, Grave 198.

For his service, he was awarded the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster and posthumously would have been eligible for the Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, WW2 Victory Medal, and European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal.

Guy Whidden never forgot the young paratrooper who had shared that field with him in Holland. Years later, he remembered Charles not simply as another casualty of a vast military operation, but as his friend and as a “fearless young soldier.”

Behind the military terminology—Normandy, Market Garden, the 101st Airborne, the 502nd Parachute Infantry—was a young man from the Illinois Valley. He had played football at LaSalle-Peru, worked at an ordnance plant, trained to become a paratrooper, survived wounds in Normandy, and returned to combat.

Charles Schmollinger was 18 when he registered for the draft, 19 when he entered the Army, and only 20 when he died in the Netherlands.

He rests there still.