Veterans Day: Sgt. Alfred Mello, U.S. Army, World War Two

Alfred Mello (1905-1980)

On Oct. 25, 1944, a German infantry unit issued the following warning to its officers regarding the U.S. Army’s 79th Infantry, the famed Cross of Lorraine Division:

The 79th Division is said to  have fought particularly well in Normandy, and is considered as one of the best attack divisions in the U.S. Army.

I don’t know if Sgt. Alfred Mello, my wife’s uncle, ever came across that warning, but he wouldn’t have been surprised by it. Mello knew as well as any German officer how aggressive the Cross of Lorraine Division was; he earned a Bronze Star for his service in it. 

Born in 1905 in Tiverton, R.I., the son of Portuguese immigrants from the Azores, Mello wasn't a young man when he was drafted into the Army during World War II. The 79th Division took its nickname and its insignia from a legendary doubled-barred French cross that Joan of Arc carried in the 15th century. The division trained in the United Kingdom in 1944, landed in Normandy about a week after D-Day and went into combat on June 19, 1944. 

The 79th Division liberated Cherbourg and captured La Haye du Puits in house-to-house fighting. It took Lessay and Le Mans, crossed the River Seine, and captured Charmes on Sept. 12. Then it successfully fought what Wikipedia calls “a severe engagement” in the Foret de Parroy, a large forest in Lorraine. More on that particular engagement in a moment. 

My wife Liz tells me that her uncle, a quiet bachelor and landscaper who died in 1980, didn’t talk about the war, at least not in her presence. But there’s no doubt that he remembered the Foret de Parroy. The citation accompanying his Bronze Star reads as follows:

From Sep. 27, 1944, until the cessation of hostilities, Sgt. Mello, on that date a corporal, discharged his duties as a gunner for a heavy machine gun in Co. M in a superior manner. He has participated in every action that the Third Battalion has been in since that time and his efficient handling of his piece under fire has materially aided the battalion's success. 

At one time Sgt. Mello, during the engagement in the Foret de Parroy, was the only remaining gunner in his platoon, and as such was called upon to place constant fire on enemy positions and at the same time break in another (gunner) so that a second heavy machine gun could be put into action.

With only brief periods of rest, he was on the job steadily for three days and nights. His actions over this period are typical of his entire service and reflect highly upon himself and his organization.

Athough Alfred Mello is no longer with us, his Bronze Star, stored in its original case, sits beside my computer as I write this. The ranks of the Greatest Generation grow thinner by the day, but the legacy of the men and women who stared down evil will never die.