Edward Alven Taylor

Edward A. Taylor

Company C 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry

4th Infantry Division

KIA 02/07/1945

Edward Alvin Taylor was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 22, 1918.

Prior to entering military service he was employed by Chemical Bank & Trust Company
in New York City.

He was drafted into the Army on January 14, 1941, at Newark, New Jersey. He had completed four years of High School,
and listed his civilian occupation as Bookeepers and Cashiers. At the time of induction he was single,
with no dependents. His religion was listed as Protestant.

He was assigned to Company C as a 1st Lieutenant on January 1, 1945.

1st Lieutenant Edward A. Taylor was killed in action during the battle for Prüm, Germany, on February 7, 1945.

The entry for Edward A. Taylor in the casualty lists of the 22nd Infantry After Action Report
for February 1945.

The following passage is from the Find A Grave website maintained by Chris Stout:

Edward A. Taylor

Photo by Chris Stout from the Find A Grave website

The 22nd Infantry Regiment distinguished itself from the time it landed on Utah Beach June 6, 1944 through the
St. Lô breakthrough and the liberation of Paris. They sent the first American patrol to set foot on German soil,
fought the battle of the Hurtgen Forest and helped liberate Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge. It was
the only Regiment to earn two Presidential Unit Citations in the European/African theaters.

An average rifle company went into action with 162 soldiers; a week later they averaged eighty-seven men of which
42% were replacements who had arrived during the battle. By the end of a battle, losses could reach 151% of the
original strength. The practice of replacing casualties while units were still in combat kept them from
ever falling below 75% of original strength. One of those replacements was a Ridgewood lad who joined the 22nd
for Christmas 1944 in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge.

Born October 22, 1918, Eddie Taylor moved to Ridgewood in 1928 and lived at 143 South Maple and later at
111 E. Ridgewood Ave. as the only child of his mother, May Pflieger. Known to some as Knotty, he attended
Christ Episcopal Church where he was active in the Cottage Club. He graduated from Ridgewood High School
in 1936 where he was voted "best natured", helped on various committees, ran track, played basketball, JV football
and intramural basketball. He then went to work for the Chemical Bank in New York City, attending NYU at night.

He was one of Ridgewood's earliest draftees and joined the service on January 7, 1941, entering active duty August 29, 1942
with the 174th Infantry, Medical Department at Camp Dix. He became a second sergeant in the supply department
before going overseas for more than two years on special assignments, stationed in England. He was also the first
Ridgewood draftee to be made an officer. While in England he married an English woman. They divorced in
November 1944 while she was pregnant with their son who was born four days after his father's death.

Taylor went into combat Christmas Day 1944, joining veterans of the D-Day landing, the 22nd Infantry Regiment,
4th Infantry Division, in General Patton's 3rd Army. On June 6, 1944 the 4th Infantry Division was the first allied unit
to assault German forces on the Normandy beaches. Landing on Utah Beach, the 4th pushed forward for 26 days
at the cost of 5,000 killed in action.

During the Battle of the Bulge Taylor's 22nd Regiment stopped the German advance December 27 and liberated
Echternach, Luxembourg - receiving a Presidential Unit Citation and the Belgian Fourragère. Resuming the offensive
in Germany, Taylor suffered a head wound and was killed February 7, 1945 in Prum. Initially listed as missing in action,
his body lay unclaimed and unidentified for a month before evidence sufficient to establish the fact of death was determined
on March 5.

He is buried in Plot A, Row 3, Grave 10 in Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg. At death he was 26 years old.

Grave marker for Edward A. Taylor

Photo by soilsister from the Find A Grave website maintained by: Chris Stout

Top photo of Edward A. Taylor by Edward Eggleston from Ancestry.com

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