Courtesy Photo | Soldiers of the 143d Infantry board a British landing craft near Naples in August...... read more read more
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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
On 15 August 1944, Pfc. Stephen Weiss landed on the shores of southern France with the 143d Infantry, 36th Infantry Division. The next two months proved an adventure as Weiss evaded the Germans, traveled with the French Resistance, and joined an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) team before being reunited with his unit in October.
Stephen Weiss enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately following high school, much to the displeasure of his father, a World War I veteran. Only seventeen years old, the Brooklyn native wanted to join a psychological warfare unit. Instead, he was assigned as first scout in a rifle squad with the 143d Infantry, 36th Infantry Division, a Texas National Guard unit that deployed to North Africa in early 1943. After several bloody battles in Italy, the division began preparing for Operation DRAGOON, the invasion of Southern France.
On the morning of 15 August 1944, the 143d Infantry disembarked under fire on the shores near Saint-Raphaël. As enemy defenses fell, the regiment moved inland. Within a week, it reached the town of Grenoble and celebrated with the liberated French citizens. On 24 August, the regiment moved into the Rhône River valley, where German forces decided to make a stand. Weiss remembered, “we were surprised and badly mauled.” Under withering enemy crossfire, he and seven other soldiers became separated from their retreating unit. They took shelter in a ditch overnight and, the next morning, fled to a farm where the owner hid them in his hayloft.
Later that day, with the help of the French Resistance (the Maquis), the eight American soldiers dressed in French police uniforms and were spirited through German lines to the town of Alboussière. There, Private Weiss met François Binoche, a one-armed French Foreign Legion officer and commandant of the resistance fighters in the region. Weiss, whose three years of high school French helped him communicate, accompanied Binoche’s troops as they harassed German forces in central France for the next week.
In early September, Weiss had left Binoche’s group and joined OSS Operational Group (OG) “Louise,” led by Lts. Roy K. Rickerson and W.H. McKenzie III. Rickerson’s group had parachuted into Southern France in July to support the Allied landings. While with OG Louise, Weiss assisted in cutting telephone lines, recovered airdropped supplies, destroyed bridges, and stood guard to protect OSS radio operators while German tracking vans prowled the region hunting for signals. Weiss enjoyed the OG’s guerilla tactics and volunteered to remain with the unit, but by early October, he was ordered to rejoin his unit.
Later in the fall, after months of constant combat, beset by anxiety and depression, Weiss left his unit without permission twice. He was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to prison. A knowledgeable psychotherapist recognized his symptoms as “combat fatigue” and helped him clear his name. Weiss spent the remainder of the war as a photographer in liberated France and returned to the United States in the fall of 1946.
Postwar, Weiss spent several months in intensive treatment for what is today called post-traumatic stress syndrome. He earned several college degrees, including one in psychology, and worked closely with other affected veterans. In addition to the American Bronze Star, Weiss received the French Medal of the Resistance, two Croixs de Guerre, and in 2013 was made a commander of the Légion d’honneur. Weiss passed away in February 2020 just a week after attending the 75th anniversary celebration of the OSS in Paris.
| Date Taken: | 08.15.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.15.2022 18:46 |
| Story ID: | 427311 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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