Nicholls White (Nick) Bowden was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Nicholls White Bowden and Willie Fletcher Bates. Brother of Mary Elizabeth Bowden.
Nicholls Bowden attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Tennessee in 1941.
Buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, A, 8, 19.
Tangi Talk, July 8, 1943
Nick Bowden gives vivid picture of Tunisian struggle.
The following excerpt from an article in the News-Sentinel of Knoxville, Tenn., is of much interest to friends and relatives here. Lieut. Bowden is a nephew of the late Lem H. Bowden. The article reads, in part, as follows: One of the most realistically unvarnished accounts of American battle and bloodshed in Tunisia has got back in a letter from First Lt. Nicholls W. (Nick) Bowden, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. N.W. Bowden, of 907 Twenty-first Street.
This grim report reaches its climax in a description of the death struggle of Hill 609 and ends with a word about the Victory Parade in Tunis. Young Bowden writes about it all first hand. He participated in it. He tells of his 1941 classmates, and other U-T fellows in North Africa, including close friends who were killed, wounded or captured. But first, the battle action, in Lt. Bowden’s own words:
“My first little party was at Pichon. The first mission was to take a patrol out and draw enemy fire in order to establish where their lines were. This I did, and I was lucky they were poor shots in the dark. The second mission I was given the command of the rear guard in the evacuation of Pichon the last part of February. Well do we all remember those days. I had the honor of being the last man out of Pichon with my men by quite a few hours. How we ever got out of there is something strange. We played tag with the Germans for one night and two days before we got out of their reach. All of my men came out with me. We were separated from our unit for about ten days, and were given up for lost. We finally joined up with another U.S. Division. The battalion commander there told me than General Allen had told General Ryder of the job we had done and that General Ryder was well pleased. Next job that I had was the command of a patrol unit working in and out of Sbeitla. Lt. Bell was with me at Sbeitla, and I might add that he has a lot of guts. The first day “Jerry” came over and shot up our trucks and car and did his best to shoot us up also. It was pretty lonesome around there with just our small group. Then about the 25 of March came the nightmare of all nightmares, our attack on bloody Fondouk. For five days and nights we hit the German ridge with little success. You can imagine what happens in an attack like that. This was also the place where the Germans had me like a rat in a trap for six hours one night, but the rat got out of the trap. We then pulled back and rested for about seven days. After that we went back and tried for two more days and nights. This was when Lt. Richardson and Lt. Cooper ‘got it.’
The last and most pleasant for us, because we made it so bloody for the Germans, was the famous Hill 609, key to Mateur and final victory. From the killer point of view it was beautiful. Our boys fought like mad dogs. No German lived that “G” Company ran into, and most of the dead Germans I saw were shot between the eyes. At Fondouk my company commander was wounded three times but never left the field of battle.”
The Knoxville Journal, 19 November 1943
First Lt. Nicholls W. (Nick) Bowden Jr., who saw action last spring in the famous capture of Hill 609, before the fall of Tunis, yesterday was reported killed in action in Italy on Oct. 27. Lieutenant Bowden, 24, entered the Army after completing the ROTC course at the University of Tennessee, in the summer of 1941. He was sent overseas the following spring. The parents, Mr. and Mrs. N.W. Bowden, 907 Twenty-first street, received War Department notification by telegram yesterday of the young officer’s death. Announcement of his death followed by barely a week news of the death in the Pacific area of the another Knoxvillian, Lt. N.T. James Jr., who was a friend and fraternity brother of Lieutenant Bowden. “Nick”, as he was popularly known on the “Hill,”and in Knoxville’s young society set, saw action in the African campaign along with several friends from U-T, including two fellow members of Phil Gamma Delta, Lt. Bill Luttrell, former U-T football and basketball star, now a prisoner of war in Germany; and Lt. (now Captain) Matt Tucker, now recuperating in an Army hospital from wounds suffered in the Battle of Hill 609; as well as Sgt. A.C. Bailey Jr., of Knoxville,, and Lt. Bob Hutchinson. Lieutenant Bowden was sent to England in May, 1942, and was stationed there until the Allied invasion of North Africa in November. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, at U-T, and of the Church Street Methodist Church. Surviving are the parents, and a sister, Mrs. Carl Millice, of Jackson, Miss.
Moving up the Third Volturno Crossing.
Several days of fighting still faced VI Corps before it was in position to make its third crossing of the Volturno River. The 34th Division had to drive on up the valley, the 45th Division had to move forward from Piedimonte d’Alife, and the 3rd Division had to cross the valley toward the Mignanon Gap to secure the left flank. The 135th Infantry took up the chase for the 34th Division on the morning of 26 October, with the high ground around Ailano and Mount Cavuto across Lete Creek southwest of Pratella as its objectives. The enemy, however, chose to make one of his most stubborn stands on Hill 235, a insignificant little obstruction rising less than 25 meters above the broken valley west of Raviscanina, and held up the advance for two days. The 168th Infantry camp up and drove on past Hill 235 to Lete Creek on 28 October. The 135th Infantry pushed through Pratella and Prata the next day.
- Rank: First Lieutenant
- Date of birth: 25 July 1919
- Date of death: 27 October 1943
- County: Knox
- Hometown: Knoxville
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 135th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Battles: Hill 609
- Awards: Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XIV, Top Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Nicholls W. Bowden Jr.
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