Joseph R. Shapley
Rank: Private, U.S. Army
Serial: 32959148
Unit: 406th Infantry Regiment, 102nd Infantry Division
Entered service from: New Jersey
Died:
Burial: Plot H, Row 6, Grave 23 — Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands
Awards: Purple Heart
Biography
Private Joseph R. Shapley was born in New Jersey in 1925 to Joseph and Miriam Shapley. By the time of the April 1930 census, the Shapley family lived at 2125 Lexington Avenue in Pennsauken, NJ. The elder Shapley worked as a railroad postal clerk for the United States Postal Service. Joseph R. Shapley was an honor graduate of Moorestown, NJ High School, and was attending the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, PA.
Drafted at Camden on October 13, 1943, Joseph R. Shapley was inducted into the United States Army in November of 1943. He was sent overseas in September of 1944 serving with the 406th Infantry Regiment, 102nd Infantry Division.
The 102nd Infantry Division was constituted as a Missouri/Arkansas Army Reserve unit on June 21, 1921, with its headquarters in St. Louis. The division existed on paper only until September 15, 1942, when Major General John Anderson, from the 2nd Infantry Division, assembled 15,000 men from throughout the United States at Camp Maxey in Northern Texas. In June 1943, 1,475 men were transferred to the 42nd Infantry Division at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. In October 1943 the 102nd moved to Western Louisiana for large-scale exercises.
While staged at Fort Dix the 405th and 406th Regiments were deployed to guard the property of the Philadelphia Transit Authority during a union strike. The 102nd arrived in Cherbourg on September 23, 1944. They headed northeast by truck and rail through France and the Netherlands into Northern Germany. On October 23, 1944 the 405th Regiment, temporarily attached to the 30th Infantry Division, attacked the Siegfried Line northwest of Aachen.
Plans were afoot for the 9th Army to spearhead an attack on Hitler’s Siegfried line at Geilenkirchen. The Ozarks, already in place, were permanently reassigned to the 9th. On November 3rd the 102nd, flanked by the 113th Cavalry Group and the 2nd Armored Division, began its push through the Siegfried line. Weeks of regrouping and defensive measures followed.
Joseph R. Shapley was originally listed as missing in action. His body was recovered, and his death was reported in the October 8, 1945 edition of the Camden Courier-Post. He was survived by his parents and a brother.