Bartholomew P. Tirro

Rank: Private First Class, U.S. Army

Serial: 42113952

Unit: Antitank Company, 232nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division

Entered service from: New Jersey

Died: January 19, 1945, France

Burial: Calvary Cemetery, State Highway 70 & Hampton Road, Cherry Hill, NJ

Awards: Purple Heart

Private First Class Bartholomew P. Tirro was born around 1917 in Camden NJ to Salvatore and Louise Tirro. His father worked as a fireman on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1920; at the time of the 1930 census he was working as a baker. The Tirro family lived at 526 South 2nd Street in Camden NJ. Bartholomew (Bartolo) was the second of seven sons. He had married and lived in Camden at 305 Stevens Street with his wife Florence and a son Salvatore. He worked as a pipefitter at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard before being inducted into the United States Army on April 5, 1944.

Private First Class Tirro was sent overseas on November 18, 1944. Arriving in southern France, his regiment was put into the line in late December 1944. January 1945 found the three inexperienced regiments of the 42nd Infantry Division in the Alsace region of France, covering a broad, marshy front along 42 miles of the Rhine River. While the Battle of the Bulge was being fought in the north, the German Army threw its remaining resources on the western front into two offensives in Alsace.

The German offensive against the positions of the 232nd, which was occupying old Maginot Line fortifications at the time, began on January 7, 1945. The fighting that took place between January 7th and January 20th was extremely heavy, until the German attacks finally ceased.

Private First Class Tirro was killed in action on January 19, 1945, in southern France after engagements in Marseilles and Metz. Initially declared missing, his body was recovered and his death was reported in the July 13, 1945 edition of the Camden Courier-Post.

Bartholomew Tirro was survived by his mother, Mrs. Louise Fanelli of 526 South 2nd Street, six brothers — Carmen, Patrick (Pasquale), Anthony, Samuel, Albert (Umberto), and Timothy Tirro — and two step-brothers, Frank and William Fanelli, all of Camden. Carmen was then serving in the Army in North Carolina, and Patrick was with the Army Air Force overseas.