After 14 years of training, local officer killed on his first day of WWII combat

This story is part of Mon Valley Sons of World War II, a series about our sons who lost their lives in service to our country during the war.

1st Lt. Charles “Cy” Carpenter

By JOHN J. TURANIN
For the MVI

After 14 years of military training, 1st Lt. Charles “Cy” Carpenter finally found himself face-to-face with an enemy. His unit had just arrived after the start of World War II’s invasion of France at Normandy. On June 12, 1944, they were confronted by stiff resistance from the German Army.

The fighting between the combatants that day was fierce and deadly. Lt. Carpenter did not live to see the end of his first day in combat. Was his loss due to accurate enemy gunfire as reported in the formal records, or from friendly fire as recalled by an eyewitness?

The Carpenter family

Charles Corneilius Carpenter was born on Dec. 10, 1914, to Chester Arthur and Jean Murphy (née Weygandt) Carpenter in Monongahela, Pa.

Chester and Jean had married in Mahoning, Ohio, in 1907, before settling in Mon City by 1909. Chester worked as a lineman for West Penn Power Company while Jean managed the Carpenter family household.

The Carpenter family heritage traces back to the British colonies of Massachusetts, Maryland and New York prior to the American Revolutionary War, and to Ireland. The Weygandt family roots are from the pre-war British colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia and from Germany, Scotland and Ireland.

Charles, nicknamed “Cy”, was the fourth of five children born to the couple. Edward Stanley (1909) arrived first, followed by his sister Mavin Virginia (1911) and brother William Lyman (1912). A sister Jean Murphy was born in 1917, but pneumonia claimed her life in 1919.

In 1918, Cy’s mother Jean contracted tuberculosis and succumbed in January 1919 just before her 31st birthday. By 1920, Chester and his children moved into the home of his in-laws at 128 Rear Church St. in Mon City. In 1924, the playful Cy severely injured his hand playing football, requiring a specialist to treat it.

William Lyman’s life was cut short when he was struck by a truck in 1928 at the age of 15 when visiting his grandparents in Coatesville, Pa.

By 1930, Edward and Mavin had moved away to begin their adult lives, and Chester had taken a job as a lineman at Annapolis, Md. Cy moved with him briefly, but returned to Mon City to live with his now-widowed grandmother at 128 Chess St. He resumed his education at Monongahela High School, where he was a manager on the football team.

Cy, inspired by his brother’s service with the Pennsylvania National Guard from 19261931, volunteered for the Citizens’ Military Training Camp at Fort Monroe, Va., in the summers of 1930, ’31 and ’32. CMTC was a federal government-authorized military training program held annually each summer from 1921 to 1940, allowing male citizens to obtain basic military training without incurring an obligation to be called up for active duty.

Cy also served as a mascot for Company A of the 110th Regiment, the local unit of the National Guard.

Despite the ongoing Great Depression, the 1930s was a decade of ambition and advancement for Cy Carpenter. After graduating high school, he enlisted with the Pennsylvania National Guard on April 10, 1934, as a private and was assigned to Company A, 110th Regiment.

His training and his leadership skills combined to accelerate his rank to Private First Class in 1935 and then corporal in 1936.

It was in 1936 that his unit was called to support a civilian disaster, a flood at McKees Rocks, for which they received a service award. In 1937, Cy was promoted to sergeant and as a civilian took a job as a clerk at William McGregor’s Clothing Store in Mon City. That year he married stenographer Dora Aida Riva of nearby Charleroi. In 1939, he was accepted into the community-service organization the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks.

April 4, 1940, was a happy day for Cy and Dora as they welcomed the birth of their son, William “Billy” McGregor Carpenter. Little did they know that Cy would never see his son grow up.

Global war brewing

The citizens of Mon City monitored the burgeoning wars overseas. Germany had long been executing the “Third Reich” political- military strategy of its Fuhrer Adolph Hitler. They entered alliances with the like-minded leaders of Italy and Japan. By the end of 1940, Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, France, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands.

Pursuing its own empire-building aspirations, Italy had expanded into Ethiopia, Albania and was invading France by 1940. Japan had assumed control over Korea from the Russians in 1905, but by 1940, Japan had invaded China and French Indochina.

Cy registered for the U.S. armed forces draft on its first day, Oct. 16, 1940, as a 5’9”, 190-pound, 25-year-old with brown hair and blue eyes. Dora, Cy and Billy were living at 225 Union St. in Monongahela. He was honorably discharged from the Pennsylvania National Guard in December 1940 so he could focus on his career, family and community obligations.

The year 1941 was a busy one for Cy as he began a new career as an agent for Prudential Insurance Company. He was also appointed to the Mon City Local Defense Council, chaired the city’s Flag Day ceremonies and assumed a leadership role as 1st Lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Reserve Defense Corps, Company G, 3rd Regiment, in nearby Monessen.

The PRDC (later named Pennsylvania State Guard) was created in March 1941 after Congress passed the State Guard Act. The U.S. government recognized that the federalizing of state National Guards to prepare for the looming war had removed local resources for addressing disasters and other emergencies. The act gave individual states the ability to create and maintain their own military forces independent of the federal government.

The U.S. enters World War II

Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on the U.S. military bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941. The U.S. declared war on Japan, and as an ally of the Japanese Empire, Germany declared war on the U.S.

The following year, Carpenter was promoted to captain and became fully responsible for PDRC’s Company G. However, he was eager to join his compatriots in the war, and he resigned from the PRDC in June 1942 to enlist with the U.S. Army as an officer candidate.

Before departing, Cy Carpenter was honored by the community with a banquet dinner that drew 50 attendees.

Carpenter’s many years in the National Guard and the PRDC gave way to success in officers training school at Fort Benning, Ga., where he earned his commission as 2nd Lieutenant on Feb. 4, 1943. He was promoted on June 11, 1943 to 1st Lieutenant with Company B of the 405th Infantry Regiment, 102nd Division, at Camp Maxey, Texas, where Dora and Billy joined him as residents.

In September 1943, Lt. Carpenter was detached to Camp Polk, La., to participate as an umpire with Company A of the 333rd Regiment in 3rd Army training maneuvers. In November came the first concrete step toward deployment to the war when Lt. Carpenter was transferred to Fort George Meade, Md., and into Company C, 4th Battalion, 1st Replacement Infantry Regiment.

In December 1943, it was time for Carpenter to be deployed overseas, and he transferred to Camp Shanks, N.Y., where he joined “Shipment No. GK-830-A” for Europe. Meanwhile, Dora and Billy moved in with her parents in Charleroi.

Life in the European Theater of WWII

During his 18 months of U.S. Army service, the sociable Cy Carpenter rarely came into contact with his military colleagues from the Monongahela River Valley. When the U.S. Army transferred him between several stateside units, he only met strangers along the way. In letters home to Dora, he described being a stranger-among-many as a “deplorable situation.”

So Cy was joyous upon arriving in England in December 1943. The first person he saw was his second cousin, fellow National Guardsman from Mon City Maj. James C. Ford. They enjoyed their first Christmas Eve in England by dining together.

In England, Carpenter was first assigned to Company C of the 110th Regiment at Pembroke Dock, Wales, where he also did some duty with the regiment’s 109th Artillery Battalion in March 1944. On May 10, 1944, Lt. Carpenter was transferred to Company C, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division (the “Indianhead” Division) as rifle platoon leader in the Llanion Wales Barracks.

The Indianhead Division had arrived in Northern Ireland in October 1943. During the winter and early spring of 1944 they engaged in intensive training on the Irish coastline in preparation for the invasion of France. In April, they moved to South Wales for additional training and began staging for the upcoming Allied offensive, Operation Overlord.

The very day that Lt. Cy Carpenter joined the 23rd, they were put on alert for imminent departure with Operation Overlord. It wasn’t going to be long now.

The invasion begins

The 23rd Regiment boarded the Army Transport Service ship Exchequer on June 4 to transport them to the beaches of Normandy, France. They were planning to land on June 6, the day after the initial landings of the Allied forces on June 5. However, foul weather caused a day’s delay to the invasion, so the 23rd Regiment rode the heavy waves for a day awaiting their turn to land.

As the infantry in the first invasion waves girded themselves for their landing, the men of the 23rd felt the roar of naval gunfire overhead as gunships behind them unleashed a barrage to ‘soften’ the German defenses. The regiment had front row seats as they watched the first wave of troops land on the beaches ahead. They marveled at the armada of Allied warships and landing craft crowding the sea, and cringed at the scenes of destruction occurring on Normandy, knowing that their turn in battle was soon to come.

Upon landing on Normandy at Omaha Beach, the 23rd Regiment assembled near the town of St. Laurent Sur-Mer. While awaiting the arrival of additional weapons and armor, the regiment was designated as Division Reserve to be called up when needed.

The 23rd was soon ordered to advance toward Saint-Georges-d’Elle and marched about 15 miles south from the beach. On June 11 the regiment’s commanders were informed that they were going to get into the battle the following day, June 12.

The regiment was to move out at 4:30 a.m. and cross the Line of Defense at 0530. According to the June 12 morning report of 23rd Regiment’s Company C: “No resistance of note encountered during first mile of attack other than occasional sniper fire. Stronger enemy elements gradually contacted and engaged but continued the advance to a point near Brian France. At this point, resistance was met of such strength as to not permit further movement. At this point the company engaged in fierce combat. Enemy forces of considerable strength. This engagement lasted all afternoon and evening, ending about 2200 where this unit dug our positions in and held this ground until relieved.”

Three officers, including Carpenter and 43 enlisted men, were reported missing in action in the battle that day. Two days later, Carpenter was determined to have been killed in action by a gunshot wound to the head, according to his Report of Burial dated June 20, 1944.

Or was it friendly fire?

But 1st Battalion’s Maj. Henry G. Spencer recalled the situation differently in his book “Nineteen Days in June 1944” and in correspondence with Lt. Carpenter’s family, reprinted here: “It was the afternoon on June 12, 1944, when the men of Company C were just averting an attack by German paratroopers. Your grandfather (Lt. Cy Carpenter)’s 1st Battalion was stationed along Elle river near Saint-Georges-d’Elle. Lt. John McCutchen adjusted the elevation of 60mm mortar of Company C and fired three rounds on advancing German troops. Unfortunately, they were too short, 2 of the shells came down and burst right on the positions of your grandfather and his men. These two shells from friendly fire killed your grandfather and wounded his men who had been on the line firing at the enemy. When Lt. John McCutchen saw what he had done, he went berserk. Lt. McCutchen was killed by Germans fire only a few hours later on the very same day as 1st Lt. Carpenter.”

Charles ‘Cy’ Carpenter, remembered

First Lt. Charles “Cy” Carpenter was initially buried at American Military Cemetery No. 3 in La Cambe, France, on June 16, 1944. His cousin, Maj. James C. Ford lost his life in Germany on Nov. 8, 1944.

Both were posthumously feted by the Monongahela Elks with the Elks Medal of Valor that December. Lt. Carpenter was eventually transported back to Mon City for final burial at Monongahela Cemetery in February 1948 under the federal government’s Return of the War Dead program.

Lt. Carpenter’s last correspondence home dated June 2, 1944, included a separate letter to his 5-year-old son William: “To My Son Billy from his Daddy in the Army: Billy dear, I just finished writing your mother a letter, and I have something to tell you.

You’re only a little boy now, and daddy has been away from you for a long time. I’m sorry, son, but you see Daddy’s a soldier and we are in a war. So Daddy has to fight.

When I will be back only God knows. But until I am, be a good boy. Listen to your mother. Get as much education as you can, and don’t ever do anything wrong.

Have Mother keep this and as you go thru life, whenever you have a tough problem, read this, and maybe it will help.

I love you, Son, and you are just the kind of a son I always wanted.

Daddy “Cy” His son, William “Billy” McGregor Carpenter would grow up to earn a degree in dentistry and serve in the U.S. Army for 21 years. He retired with the rank of colonel in 1985 and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, the Order of Military Medical Merit and the nation’s second-highest peacetime award, the Legion of Merit. William Carpenter went on to academia, where he was a university professor and lecturer on dental medicine. He passed away in January 2025 in San Francisco, Calif., at the age of 84.

No doubt his father would have been proud.

John J. Turanin is a retired Western Pennsylvanian and grandson of the Mon Valley. His new book is “Tin Men Steel Soldiers: The price paid in WWII by a Pennsylvania mill town: True stories of the lives and losses of 82 men is about Monessen, PA.” John is one of hundreds of volunteers with the nonprofit organization Stories Behind The Stars who are writing memorial stories for every one of the 421,000 U.S. service members and 31,000 Pennsylvanians who lost their lives during WWII. Those interested in joining the effort are encouraged to visit www.StoriesBehindTheStars. org.