William P. Reckeweg
Captain William P. Reckeweg; war memorial marker at Haddon Heights NJ
Captain, U.S. Army
Serial: O-1290129
Company C, 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division
Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: February 1, 1945
Buried at: Plot H237
Beverly National Cemetery
Beverly, New Jersey
Awards: Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster
Introduction
Captain William P. Reckeweg of Haddon Heights NJ was born in Audubon NJ on September 3, 1916. He attended Audubon High School, graduating in 1933, and then entered Dickinson College in Carlisle PA with the class of 1937. While at Dickinson he was an active student. He was a football, soccer, and baseball player, and a member of the Glee Club and Sigma Chi fraternity.
After graduation, William Reckeweg became employed as an insurance agent for the Insurance Company of North America, living in Haddon Heights NJ at 500 10th Avenue. On February 8, 1941, he enlisted in the United States Army and was sent to Fort Indiantown Gap PA for training. He completed officer candidate school at Fort Benning GA in August 1942; and after more schooling at Camp Breckenridge PA and Camp Van Dorn MS, was promoted to the rank of Captain. He applied for active duty and became the commander of Company C, 357th Infantry, 90th Division, just prior to the D-Day landings. He was wounded on July 5, 1944 in Normandy by a piece of shrapnel and spent six weeks in a hospital in England, returning to his command on September 1.
Captain William Reckeweg was killed in action on February 1, 1945, in northern Luxembourg, when shell fragments struck his company command post as his unit was digging in on newly-won high ground. He was survived by his father, William Reckeweg, then field representative for the Selective Service in the Camden County area, mother Helen, sister Dorothy, and brother Donald.
After the war had ended, William Reckeweg was brought home to New Jersey. He rests at Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly NJ, where he was buried on April 20, 1949.
W. P. Reckeweg Rites Wednesday
Camden Courier-Post —
W. P. RECKEWEG RITES WEDNESDAY
Services and burial for Capt. William P. Reckeweg will be held at 11 a. m. Wednesday in the National cemetery, Beverly. Wounded during the invasion of Normandy in 1944, Captain Reckeweg was killed in action in Luxembourg Feb. 1, 1945. He was in command of Company C, 357th Infantry, 90th Division, attached to General Patton’s Third Army.
Captain Reckeweg was the son of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Reckeweg, of 500 Tenth avenue, Haddon Heights. His father is executive secretary of the Camden County Chamber of Commerce.
In a letter to his parents from the headquarters of his unit, the following appeared: “During operations in northern Luxembourg while his company was holding high ground recently captured from the enemy, Captain Reckeweg was killed instantly by a fragment from an enemy artillery shell which struck the barn in which his company command post was located.”
Captain Reckeweg, who was the holder of the purple heart, landed in Normandy five days after D-Day, and was wounded there July 5, 1944. He spent six weeks in a hospital in England and returned to active service with his unit about Sept. 1. A short time before he was killed he suffered a leg injury, for he wrote his parents three days before his death that he was in a hospital.
Born in Audubon Sept. 3, 1916, Captain Reckeweg was graduated from the Audubon High school in 1933 and received his diploma from Dickinson college in 1937.
Also surviving are a sister, Dorothy, and a brother, Donald.
Photos
Gravestone of Captain William P. Reckeweg at Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly, New Jersey
Beverly National Cemetery monument