Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Days after the German Army surrendered ending combat operations in Europe during World War II, a Wilkes-Barre native was among the first to occupy the Nazi mountain top retreat known as the Eagle’s Nest.
Harry F. Welsh, a 1937 Meyers High School graduate where he was a state champion in diving, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 and volunteered for the paratroopers assigned to the 504th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division as a sergeant. He would later attend Officers’ Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga., graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant.
Upon his promotion to lieutenant, Welsh was awarded a 10-day furlough spending time with his parents who lived on Academy Street in Wilkes-Barre. While he was in the area, Welsh learned he was assigned to Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles, which was highlighted in the award winning 2001 HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” and is mentioned several times in the book of the same title written by Stephen E. Ambrose.
“Lt. Harry F. Welsh who is stationed in England with the 506th Parachute Infantry wrote recently to his dad, who is none other than Sportscaster Effle Welsh, to tell that his outfit on March 24 put on a demonstration for plenty of big shots, among them the King and Queen of England, Princess Elizabeth, General Mark Clark, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, General Ike Eisenhower, General Montgomery and about a hundred others,” the Times Leader reported April 10, 1944.
Less than two months after their jump demonstrations, Welsh and the 101st Airborne Division took part in the D-Day Invasion, landing in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, about three miles inland from Omaha Beach with the task to secure the French village of Carentan, according historical reports from the National Archives and Record Administration.
Welsh would be promoted soon after D-Day.
“Second Lieutenant Harry F. Welsh has been promoted to first lieutenant and executive officer with a paratroop regiment which has been on the front line in France since D-Day, June 6,” the Times Leader reported July 21, 1944.
Welsh and the 101st Airborne were heavily involved in battles in the Netherlands, Holland and the month-long Battle of Bastogne in Belgium.
A story in the Wilkes-Barre Record on Jan. 18, 1945, reported Welsh was injured at Bastogne on Dec. 25, 1944. A letter Welsh wrote to his parents was published in the Record.
“I am now recovering splendidly from a wound received in action. I suppose the newspapers have told you all about the stand we made. Sure was great while it lasted. I received my Christmas package from the krauts on Christmas Day. Never have passed a Christmas yet that I didn’t get a gift from someone. My record is still intact. Will have no after effects and expect to be back in line in a couple of weeks. Rather, I know this hospital business drives me nuts,” Welsh wrote to his parents.
As World War II in Europe ended, Welsh and the 101st Airborne were assigned to occupy Berchtesgaden in Germany, where they seized the Nazi mountain retreat known as the Eagle’s Nest.
A famous picture of the 101st Airborne Division at the mountain retreat includes Welsh, then a lieutenant colonel, sitting in a chair on the far right taken May 17, 1945.
Shortly after Welsh returned home in October 1945, he married Kathryn G. Grogan of Luzerne, and had one child. Having earned a master’s degree in education from Bucknell College, he taught at Coughlin and GAR high schools and eventually became director of pupil services. He retired in 1983.
Welsh died Jan. 21, 1995 and is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hanover Township.
During his World War II service, Welsh earned the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, a Presidential Unit Citation, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal and a Combat Infantry Badge.
