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PRIVATE
FIRST CLASS GORDON HENDERSON was born in New Jersey in 1924. After
attending the Harry C. Sharp
School at 32nd Street and Hayes Avenue in the Cramer Hill
section of Camden, he went on to graduate from Woodrow Wilson High
School, on Federal Street, where he was a star basketball
player. After graduation he found work
with the R.M. Hollingshead Corporation in Camden. He lived at 3758 King Avenue in
Pennsauken NJ, before his marriage to his wife Anna Mae. The young
couple made their home at 506 Beideman Avenue, in the then new Westfield
Acres public housing project at Westfield and Rosedale Avenues in Camden.
Drafted on February 8, 1943, he was assigned to the 80th Infantry
Division, training at Camp Phillips KS, Desert Training Center No.
4 in California, and Fort Dix NJ, before going overseas from New York on
July 1, 1944. The 80th Infantry
Division landed on Utah Beach, August 3 1944, assembled near St. Jores
by August 7 , and on August 8 was ordered to stop the German
attack at Avranches. Arriving too late to take part in smashing the
German drive, it turned east to seize Evron and Ste. Suzanne, August 10.
The Division then attacked Argentan, taking it, August 20, and creating
the Falaise Pocket. After mopping up in the area, the 80th took part in
the Third Army dash across France, cutting through St. Mihiel, Chalons,
and Commercy in pursuit of the retreating Germans until stopped by the
lack of gasoline and other supplies at the Seille River. From 25
September to 7 November, the Division maintained an aggressive defense oŁ
positions west of the Seille, and prepared for the Third Army sweep into
the industrially vital Saar Basin. It was during fighting along
the Seille River that Gordon Henderson was killed in action, on October
7, 1944. He was 20 years old at the time of his death. |
