Staff Sergeant Edd Czarney was assigned to the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 4th Armored Division. In December 1944 the Germans began their offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge. The 4th Armored Division supported by the 37th Armored Infantry Battalion and the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion launched a counterattack from 150 miles away. On 22 December the final push down the last 5 miles to Bastogne to relieve the encircled 101st Airborne Division began. The orders were to push straight through with the tanks, and the infantry would mop up and hold the road open behind the attack. The first tank rolled into Bastogne on 26 December 1944.
Staff Sergeant Czarney was Killed in Action on 24 December 1944. He was interred at the Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg, Plot F, row 3, site 25.
The Upper Cumberland Times, December 1, 1949
In memory of Edd Czarney, ASN 34193766, Co. A, 53rd Armd. Inf. Bn., APO 254, c.o. P.M. New York, N.Y. Somewhere among the many thousands my dear brother is tenderly sleeping. It left us all here sadly weeping. It will soon be 5 years dear brother, that you have been silently sleeping. Dear God in Heaven, look down upon us as we sadly miss him. The words you may have said, dear brother, before you were called way, we do not know, for we were too far away. But in your childhood days your parents taught you how to pray, although we had all drifted away. Now, dear God, I’m now a mother of six. I;m calling upon you that I too may teach mine to pray. Dear sisters and brothers, Dec. is drawing near. It reminds us of the birth of Christ, also the death of our dear brother. How are you going to celebrate it? A bottle of beer in one hand and liquor in the other, or get on your knees and pray? Our mother has gone back to where he had left her when he was called away. With me she will not stay. In his letters he often mentioned, “What is mother going to do by herself?” Dear God, look down upon her and answer my prayers that she may prepare to meet her darling son in heaven some day. Now, dear God, in closing I ask you to have Thy way when times get dark and dreary I go to Thee in prayer. Dear Edd was killed in Belgium, Dec. 24, 1944.
Written by his sister, Mrs. Bennie Young, Banner Springs, Tenn.
- Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Date of birth: 2 November 1917
- Date of death: 24 December 1944
- County: Morgan
- Hometown: Deer Lodge
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 53rd Infantry Battalion, 4th Armored Division
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Battles: Battle of the Bulge
- Awards: Silver Star, Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XVI, Middle Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Edd Czarney
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