Paul M. Lavoie, was born on March 8, 1923 to Archille and Marie Lavoie of Nashua, NH. Although Archille and Marie Lavoie had eighteen children, only ten survived to their teenage years (five girls and five boys). Paul was one of the younger children; four years older than the baby of the family.

Paul is remembered as a clean, quiet boy who was a good fixer. In fact, he was such a good fixer that his mother depended on his skill and generosity. He was her helper and did whatever he could to assist her. His efforts earned him the nickname of "mother's sweetheart boy."

After completing grammar school, Paul went to work at a variety of locations, including a local shoe shop and hospital. He also helped his eldest brother Gerard chop firewood. During one of these occasions with his brother, Paul suffered an injury to his right hand that left him with limited use of his thumb and pointer finger.

Archille and Marie's eldest son and child Gerard was drafted into the Army in 1942. A year later, Paul found himself following his brother's steps and being drafted into the Army as well. A few months later, another of Paul's brothers, Larry voluntarily joined the Navy. Paul was the only one who did not return home.

Paul's 78th Infantry Division was reactivated at Camp Butner, NC, August 15, 1942, under the command of Major General Edwin P. Parker, Jr. Streamlined to triangular proportions. The new division totaled about 15,000 men. First mission was turning out reinforcements for combat. By late 1943, the 78th Infantry Division had won a well-earned reputation for training fighting men, with some, 60,000 in all theaters of war.

Mid-November, 1943, Paul and his 78th Infantry Division was moved to South Carolina for 3 weeks of field exercises after which it returned to its home station at Camp Butner. In January, 1944, the division moved to the Tennessee Maneuver Area for eight weeks of simulated combat. Throughout the maneuvers Paul's Lightning Division took each problem confidently and established an enviable record for smooth operation.

His oldest brother Gerard remembers a chance meeting the two had at Camp Polk, which was the last time he saw Paul. From Tennessee the division moved to its new home, Camp Pickett, Va., where from April 1944 until September 1944 preparations for combat were completed. During its training Paul's division received commendations from Under-Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, Lieutenant General William H. Simpson and Lieutenant General Ben Lear.

In late September 1944, Paul and the 78th Infantry Division had had left Camp Pickett, Va., to go to Camp Kilmer, N.J. The division arrived at Camp Kilmer on October 4, 1944. On October 13, 1944 straining under the weight of duffle bags, Paul and his comrades in arms, filed up the gangplank. The next evening they hung over the railing and watched the lights of Manhattan slip slowly into the night aboard the troopship the SS Ericsson.

Days later on October 25, 1944 after a safe ocean crossing, Paul caught his first glimpse of the English coast when anchor was dropped at the south coast of England. Troops disembarked and piled into trains, climbing off again at Bournemouth. Here, on the coast, the division remained and where Paul and his fellow soldiers trained until their November 18, 1944 departure for France when the men boarded landing crafts and crossed the Channel to France.

Part of the division docked at the French port of Le Havre where Paul got his first glimpse of the ravages of war on the continent. Their stay in France lasted only a week and all members of the 309th were billeted in the area of Tongres, Belgium until November 26. Company C saw action in early December in the town of Bickerath. Paul's records indicate he was part of this assault not only in Bickerath, but also in Simmerath and Kesternich in mid December of 1944 ...

In the thickly wooded hills of Germany, just over the Belgian border, in the pre-dawn dark of that cold December morning, Paul and his comrades crouched in their foxholes, awaiting the order that would hurl them into their first combat action. The division sector, a three-mile stretch, lay just south and east of a small town called Lammersdorf, about nine miles southeast of Aachen, first large German city to be taken by the Allies. Out in front, paralleling the Roer River, rose the vaunted Siegfried Line.

Germany had long proclaimed this line to be impregnable. Not a line at all, but a belt of defenses from three to five miles deep running just inside the German border from the Netherlands south to Switzerland, it represented a formidable barrier. Rows of dragons' teeth stretched in an unbroken chain as far as the eye could see. Ingeniously concealed concrete pillboxes guarded every square yard of ground, firing slits covered all approaches. The ground surrounding these 16-foot thick monsters was sown with deadly anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Concertina wire entanglements spiraled across the countryside. Intricate networks of ground entrenchments afforded the enemy movement and cover for forward firing positions. The entire diabolical system was completely registered in by artillery and mortar units, which could lay down a murderous barrage on any threatened point.

Paul and his comrades in their foxholes outside of Lammersdorf, stared into the darkness and were quiet. It was December 13, 1944. H-hour was 0600. At H-hour, Lightning was going to strike the Siegfried Line! Several German-held dams near the source of the Roer controlled the flow of its waters north from Monschau and posed a serious threat to the success of a river-crossing operation. The largest and most important of these was Schwammenauel Dam, which lay opposite the division sector. Paul's division was given the mission of capturing and securing it. Immediate objective of the division, however, on the morning of December 13, was to break into the Siegfried Line an capture the towns of Bickerath, Rollesbroich, Simmerath, Witzerath and Kesternich -- all lying within the belt of fortifications.

The plan of operations called for a surprise attack; a surprise attack it was. Many a German soldier, manning a forward outpost, was awakened by a Lightning bayonet against his ribs. Stunned prisoners, their eyes still puffed with sleep, were quickly herded to the rear. Awakening to the realization that their positions were being challenged, Germans began to pour on everything they had. As Paul and his comrades scrambled across the minefields, enemy pillboxes spewed automatic weapons' fire. Mortars and 88s pounded the earth; jagged hits of killing shrapnel exploded in the air. While one group engaged a pillbox in a fire fight from the front, others crept around to its flank with dynamite. A 1000-pound charge was placed, the fuse lit. This was the way the 78th removed the pillbox menace. The pattern of advance was slow. Minefields were detected and by-passed. Machine guns chattered, rifles cracked incessantly. There always was low, grazing fire.

Paul's Battalion, the First Battalion 309th Infantry Regiment, smashed into Simmerath. At the same time, 1st Bn., 310th, struck for the crossroad at Witzerath; 3rd Battalion., 309th Infantry Regiment, swung down towards Bickerath; 2nd Battalion, 309th Infantry Regiment, pushed past Simmerath towards Kesternich. By nightfall, Rollesbroich, Simmerath, Bickerath had fallen. Thirty-five pillboxes had been destroyed; the enemy had been thrown back 2500 yards. A big chunk had been bitten out of the Siegfried Line.

The town of Kesternich, however, still remained in the German's grip. Struggle for its possession raged during the next three days. Paul's division was holding the western tip of Kesternich and was preparing another attack to complete its capture on December 16, 1944 when von Rundstedt launched his mighty counter-offensive in the Monschau area, five miles to the south. Ordered to the defensive, the division was instructed to hold its gains at all costs. The Battle of the Bulge had started …

It was Christmas in Germany. There was turkey for dinner, and the Christmas spirit found its way to the man in the foxhole, even to the regular riflemen like Paul Lavioe. General Parker, in a message to the troops, expressed the spirit in these words:

"On this particular day our hearts go homeward, just as our people at home are thinking of us. By our very presence here, amid the misfortunes that are war, we have made and are making possible a peaceful Christmas in a free land for our families back in America. We know that this cannot be a Merry Christmas, in a true sense of the word, for us. Yet, the same world ills which brought the Star of Bethlehem into Being give us inspiration for successfully completing the duty before us. I join with you this day in what Christmas means to each of us. Best wishes and good luck."

Rain and mud of December gave way to the snow and bitter cold of January, 1945. Thick snow draped the hills and valleys and hung from fir trees in a picture-card beauty that belied the horror of war. By the end of January the German Bulge ceased to be a threat. It was time for Allied armies to strike. Schwammenauel Dam still was in enemy hands. Its 22 billion gallons of water, once unleashed by German demolitions, would be sufficient not only to submerge completely and destroy all the towns along the Roer from Heimbach to Dortmund, but to sweep away like matchsticks men and equipment in a river crossing operation. Its capture was imperative. The Lightning Division, already poking more than two miles into Siegfried defenses, was given the signal to resume the vital task of capturing the Dam.

While the 309th held the north flank, the 310th and 311th, ploughing through waist-deep snowdrifts, pressed to the east and the south from their positions near Simmerath and Kesternich. The action was swift, strong. It was slow, arduous work, but it brought results. By February 2, 1945 Kesternich, a town no longer, but a name which never will be forgotten by the 78th Division, was captured and cleared of Germans. To the south, Konzen, Am Gericht, Huppenbroich and Eicherscheid already had fallen. Treacherous minefields, veiled by heavy snow, took their toll, but Lightning soldiers would not be stopped. Hammer, on the Roer, was seized.

Next morning, February 4, 1945 the 78th Infantry Division continued the attack straight east from Kesternich toward Ruhrberg. When that town was buttoned up before dark, all the area south and east of Simmerath was clear. With its south flank secure, the division turned northeast toward Schmidt and the Schwammenauel Dam. The much-attacked, never-captured stronghold of Schmidt lay on the high ground three miles north of Ruhrberg, overlooking the river. A mile and a half below, just around a bend in the Roer, stood the key to the Allied offensive in the north -- Schwammenauel Dam.

The goal which had seemed so far away in December now was within striking distance. Weariness had to be thrust aside. There was no time for rest. The enemy was cracking, and the attack to batter down his remaining defenses and capture Schmidt already was underway. The 311th struck northeast from Ruhrberg. The 310th attacked northeast from Simmerath. The 309th plunged over the wild, heavily wooded countryside to the north to block enemy withdrawal from the pocket.

Wofflesbach, Strauch and Steckenborn were captured February 5, 1945. Across open ground under a hail of withering artillery, mortar and small arms fire, through deadly minefields in the face of enemy automatic weapons' fire Paul's division. Advancing in rushes, assaulting each objective in turn the 78th stormed into Schmidt defenses. The assault continued three days as the regiments advanced abreast to close in on their objective. The 309th peeled off and battered into Kommerscheidt.

After a bitter fight the town of Schmidt was captured. Destruction was complete. Hardly a wall stood upright. Aachen is larger and better known, but the most devastating picture was Schmidt, February 8, 1945. On the afternoon of February 9, 1945 as the 310th and 903rd FA protected its north flank, the 309th passed through the 311th and slogged down the last leg of the exhausting journey which had started 12 days before at Simmerath.

Just before midnight, leading riflemen of the 1st Battalion 309th Infantry Regiment, broke out of the woods at the bottom of the steep hill. There was the prize ... Schwammenauel Dam! The area is weirdly lit up by enemy flares from the far side of the river. Machine gun fire splattered all around. The crash of bursting mortar shells mingled with the whip-cracking reports of flying lead.

While the fire fight raged unabated, a specially trained 303rd Engrs. team set about the grim work of exploring the Dam for demolitions. One group searched control houses on the near shore; another crawled cautiously over the face of the Dam. A third checked the structure from the inside. Built in 1934 primarily for defense purposes, Schwammenauel Dam is 188 feet high and 1000 feet across. A reinforced concrete core supports the five-tiered earthen staircase which is more than 1000 feet thick at the base.

Engineers groped their way through the inspection tunnel in the very bowels of the Dam with the knowledge that 22 billion gallons of water were straining against the structure and that even as they pursued their search an already lighted fuse might be burning closer to the charge.

Three hours later these engineers returned to the 1st Battalion Command Post. The Dam was safe. No demolitions had been touched off. A bridge across the sluiceway had been blown. The control houses had been demolished. The control to the penstock tunnel had been destroyed. Water was flowing through the penstock and into the river. The reservoir was emptying and the water level of the river would rise. But the threat of destruction and flood was removed. Schwammenauel Dam no longer was a menace to the Allied forces in the north.

Following the seizure of the Dam, the division received a commendation from Major General C.R. Huebner, V Corps Commander, which stressed the strategic importance of the accomplishment "without which further contemplated winter operations against the enemy on the northern front would have been impossible... Although the 78th Infantry Division is relatively new in combat, you have given ample proof that in future operations you will add new honors to those you have already achieved in this war."

On February 10, 1945 for Paul Lavoie the commendation from Major General Huebner came at a time that he was one of the many who were considered to have brought the ultimate sacrifice … Thousands of miles away from home, in a dark German forest, on the slopes of a German dam overlooking a dark and cold water, Paul was lying on the ground … he most probably had been killed in the dying hours of the massive attack on the Schwammenauel Dam. The tragic part is that Paul's unit couldn't do anything for another two weeksafter the dam had been secured by him and his comrades…

Paul wasn't there to celebrate Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945 … he didn't come back on a steamer to be greeted in New York harbour … he wasn't part of any elaborate victory parades … Paul was resting with thousands of other men and women in foreign soil, waiting for the actions of a distant niece Aimee Fogg to preserve his legacy and to tell people his story …

These days Paul Lavoie is resting in the beautiful American Military Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle ... He is remembered and honored by his niece Aimee Fogg and her husband Ryan, Paul's direct niece Rita Fifield, Aimee's uncle Greg Ahearn, the Belgian adopters of Paul's final resting place Jacques and Anne-Marie Corman, his family, by every visitor of the Henri-Chapelle cemetery and by everyone who visits the In-Honored-Glory website…

Special thanks Aimee Fogg en her husband Ryan.