Herman J. Harms was born Nov. 30, 1915 to Ike and Grace Steenhard Harms. He died Dec. 25, 1944 and is buried in Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg.
Pvt. Harms served in World War II with the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division and was KIA in Luxembourg and was awarded the Purple Heart.
Source: ancestry.com
HERMAN HARMS
Herman was married and working in the oil fields when he entered the service in Texas in 1942 where he had moved at age 17 after growing up on the family farm just east of Lakota. Assigned to an Infantry Division his engagements were Normandy, Ardennes, Central Europe and Rhineland. He and Orville Kienitz entered the service about the same time in Texas and went overseas in the Spring of 1944. While overseas, even though they were always in the same area, Herman’s outfit was that much ahead and the two of them never had a chance to get together. On December 24 during the Battle of the Bulge, he was seriously wounded and died on Christmas Day 1944. At his own request he was not brought home but is buried at the U.S. Third Army Cemetery near Hamm, Luxembourg, where General Patton is also buried. Herman would be 76 this year and his family are parents Ike and Grace (Steenhard) Harms, Wife Wynona now remarried and living in Texas, two sons Wayne and Dale, five grandchildren, sisters Elsie Kienitz and Vera Johnson, brothers Ben, Robert Richard, George and Harry.
Source: Jerry Yocum, Historian, Camp Algona POW Museum, Algona, IA (includes two photos)
