Obituary: Arthur (Otto William) BEYER -

Item #1 of 6 items:

Former St. Ansgar Man Given Medal of Honor St. Ansgar, Iowa — Sgt. Arthur Beyer, formerly of St. Ansgar, was one of a group of 26 servicemen, who has been awarded the congressional medal of honor by President Truman. Mrs. Lloyd Hansen, St Ansgar, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Beyer, Manchester, and Mrs. Thomas Zitnak of Austin, Minn., were present when the president presented the medal to their brother Aug. 23 at Washington D. C. [ Mason City Globe-Gazette - Monday, August 27, 1945 ]

Item #2:

Medal Winner From St. Ansgar Takes Own Life BUFFALO, N. D. - The body of Arthur Beyer, 55, a Medal of Honor winner in World War II and native of St. Ansgar, was found hanging in the garage of his farm late Wednesday. Dr. D. H. Lawrence, Cass County Coroner, ruled the death a suicide. President Truman presented the Medal of Honor to Beyer on August 27, 1945. A member of the 603rd Tank Destroyer Unit when it went to the aid of the 101st Airborne Division trapped at Bastogne, Beyer was cited for wiping out several enemy machine gun emplacements. He captured at least 18 prisoners. [ Waterloo Daily Courier - Thursday, February 18, 1965 ]

Item #3:

Medal of Honor winner, ex-North lowan takes life BUFFALO, N.D.—The body of Arthur Beyer, 55, a native of St. Ansgar and a Congressional Medal of Honor winner in World War II, was found hanging in the garage of his farm home near here Wednesday. Dr. D. H. Lawrence, Cass County coroner, ruled the death a suicide. President Truman presented the Medal of Honor to Beyer on Aug. 27, 1945. Beyer was citedfor wiping out several machine gun emplacements and capturing at least 18 prisoners whilefighting with a tank unit during the Battle of Bastogne. Beyer was born and reared at St. Ansgar. He has lived in North Dakota since returning from the service. He, is survived by his widow, five stepchildren, a brother, Edwin, Cedar Rapids, and two sisters, Mrs. Lloyd Hansen, St. Ansgar, and Mrs. Thomas Zitnak, Austin, Minn. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 3 p.m. at Valley City, North Dakota. [ Mason City Globe-Gazette - Thursday, February 18, 1965 ]

 

Item #4:

603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion. The 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion was a tank destroyer battalion of the United States Army active during the Second World War. M18 Hellcat, formerly of the 603rd Battalion, now in a museum. The M18 was actively used from 1941 to 1945 by the United States Army. The battalion was formed in March 1941 as the 3rd Infantry Division Provisional Antitank Battalion, and on 14 December was redesignated as the 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, in line with the reorganization of the anti-tank force. It remained in the United States until 1944, when it was moved to the United Kingdom, deploying into Normandy in late July equipped with M18 Hellcats. The battalion was attached to the 6th Armored Division, with which it would serve for the duration of the campaign in North-West Europe. It first saw action on 28 July during Operation Cobra, and advanced west into Brittany during the breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, arriving at Brest and moving south to Lorient; it was then ordered east to join Third Army, on the Moselle during the Lorraine Campaign. It fought near Nancy in October, moving up to the Saar in November. It moved north during the Battle of the Bulge, and fought in the counterattack in January 1945, where Corporal Arthur Beyer of C Company won the Medal of Honor for a solitary action on 15 January, near Arloncourt. The battalion crossed the Siegfried Line in February, reached the Rhine on 21 March, and crossed it on the 25th, moving into Germany through the Fulda Gap. The battalion was present at the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp on 11 April, halting its advance that week - after elements had pushed as far forward as Tannenberg, on the Czech border - to be deployed in Zeitz as a garrison unit until the end of the war, some weeks later. Source: Wikipedia.com

 

Item #5 - Facsimile of Medal of Honor Award, presented to Arthur by President Truman:

The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to ARTHUR O. BEYER Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company C, 603d Tank Destroyer Battalion. Place and date: Near Arloncourt, Belgium, 15 January 1945. Entered service at: St. Ansgar, lowa. Born: 20 May 1909, Rock Township, Mitchell County, lowa. G.O. No.: 73, 30 August 1945. Citation: He displayed conspicuous gallantry in action. His platoon, in which he was a tank-destroyer gunner, was held up by antitank, machinegun, and rifle fire from enemy troops dug in along a ridge about 200 yards to the front. Noting a machinegun position in this defense line, he fired upon it with his 76-mm. gun killing 1 man and silencing the weapon. He dismounted from his vehicle and, under direct enemy observation, crossed open ground to capture the 2 remaining members of the crew. Another machinegun, about 250 yards to the left, continued to fire on him. Through withering fire, he advanced on the position. Throwing a grenade into the emplacement, he killed 1 crewmember and again captured the 2 survivors. He was subjected to concentrated small-arms fire but, with great bravery, he worked his way a quarter mile along the ridge, attacking hostile soldiers in their foxholes with his carbine and grenades. When he had completed his self-imposed mission against powerful German forces, he had destroyed 2 machinegun positions, killed 8 of the enemy and captured 18 prisoners, including 2 bazooka teams. Cpl. Beyer's intrepid action and unflinching determination to close with and destroy the enemy eliminated the German defense line and enabled his task force to gain its objective.

 

Item #6:

Grave Stone Grave marker at Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery, rural St. Ansgar, Iowa.

 

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COUNTY'S MEDAL OF HONOR MAN REMEMBERED Of all the soldiers honored in a myriad of Memorial day services around the country, one of those who stand out tall among men is Arthur Beyer, a St. Ansgar native who is the only known Mitchell County native to receive the Medal of Honor, this country's highest honor. Beyer was 36 years old when he received the medal from the hand of President Harry Truman in a ceremony in the White House in 1947. His sister, Wilma Hansen of St. Ansgar, was at the ceremony. The then Cpl. beyer was in an infantry unit north of Bastogne, Belgium on Janaury 15, 1945, when he took up his carbine rifle and eliminated a German machine gun nest in enemy territory, "cleaned out six foxholes and took 18 prisoners," he was quoted in one newspaper account. "For that," he said in an interview with the Minneapolis Tribune in 1949, "they gave me the medal of honor." Arthur Beyer has since gone on to his eternal rest. A war hero, but a troubled one. His sister Wilma recalled that Arthur was a "usually jovial type" until the war was mentioned. "The war bothered him. "He never wanted a lot of publicity," Wilma said, "He was just an ordinary kid." The war continued to plague Beyer for 20 years. He was naturally a "loner type" and his recollections of the war and desire for privacy led him residing in a cabin by himself in Minnesota. He joined th eArmy from Ogema, Minnesota. When he was discharged he returned to Ogema, and eventually moved to Buffalo, North Dakota. He married Marian Hicks on March 3, 1965 (SIC) in Buffalo. Wilma said the family didn't get to see much of Arthur during his years in North Dakota. Then on February 17, 1965 (SIC) Arthur took his own life and he was found dead in his Buffalo, North Dakota. Perhaps the things he had to do, and things he had to see as a younger man were too harsh on him. Beyer said, in the Minneapolis paper interview, that he went against his friends advice to kill the Germans, which included SS officers, Because, "I wanted to give them a chance to live." Source: Mitchell County Press-News, May 27, 1987