William J. McAvoy

Rank: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army

Serial Number: O-346152

Unit: 84th Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Infantry Division

Hometown: Collingswood, New Jersey

Killed in Action: March 30, 1943, Djebel Berdi, Tunisia

Buried: North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia (Plot A, Row 3, Grave 3)

Awards: Purple Heart

First Lieutenant William J. McAvoy was a graduate of South Philadelphia High School in Philadelphia, PA. He took a post-graduate course there. At some point after his graduation from high school, his parents moved to Collingswood, NJ. His father, who was a veteran, passed away in 1939. His mother, Lillian I. McAvoy, lived at 20 Washington Avenue in Collingswood.

William J. McAvoy entered the Army from Philadelphia, PA. He was a member of the National Guard, and was activated on December 1, 1940. He had previously attended the Citizens Military Training Camp. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and sent to Fort Sill, OK, to attend artillery school. Upon graduation from the Fort Sill program, he was promoted to First Lieutenant and sent to Fort Bragg, NC. While at Fort Bragg, he met and married his wife, Marion, a student at Duke University. Shortly afterwards he was assigned to convoy duty, and was a member of a transportation group which took one convoy of American troops to Northern Ireland.

First Lieutenant McAvoy returned to the United States in August of 1942, and within three days received orders assigning him to the 84th Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Infantry Division. He went overseas with the 84th Field Artillery by way of the New York Port of Embarkation on January 13, 1943, arriving in North Africa on January 26, 1943.

William J. McAvoy wrote two letters home, one to his mother, and another to his sister Ann, on March 9, 1943. To his mother he wrote:

I am happy to know Ma that you are working and doing your share for the boys over here. You will never know how much it means to us who are sacrificing so much, to feel our people back home to keep us supplied and give us the things we so badly need.

“Our enemy is tough and well equipped, but soon, very soon, we are going to kick him right into the sea. Life here is no bed of roses and we are constantly on the move. Keep up your prayers for me, I need them.

First Lieutenant William J. McAvoy was killed in action on March 30, 1943 in combat near Djebel Berdi in southern Tunisia. He was survived by his mother, and sister Ann, of the Collingswood address, and his wife Marion McAvoy, then of Washington, DC. His death was reported in the April 16, 1943 edition of the Camden Courier-Post.