U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arthur W. Crossland Jr.

U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arthur W. Crossland Jr., 19, of Columbia, South Carolina, was killed during World War II, on March 15, 1945, in the vicinity of Althorn, France. He was born on March 12, 1926, in Columbia, South Carolina. Crossland spent his youth in the Olympia community of Columbia, attended Olympia High School, and was an avid outdoorsman who especially enjoyed hunting and fishing. In 1944, at the age of 18, Crossland was drafted into the US Army, and was deployed to the European Theater of operations during WWII. While serving his country during WWII, he routinely wrote and mailed many letters to family members detailing his life as a soldier and the perils of war. In March 1945, Crossland was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 242nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division. Shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve 1944, German forces launched a major offensive operation in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace-Lorraine, France, known as Operation NORDWIND. The German attack surged through Allied defenses along the France-German border, and the ensuing battle enveloped two U.S. Corps along a 40-mile-wide front. In the following few weeks, Company L was assigned to move online near Althorn, France. Intense fighting ensued in the heavily wooded terrain filled with minefields, and mortars, and machine gunfire halted Company L’s advance. Witnesses stated seeing Crossland trigger a mine roughly 200 yards in front of the main resistance line. He was killed instantly, but U.S. forces had to withdraw before they could recover his body. Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, began looking for missing American personnel in the Althorn area. At the time, they were unable to recover any remains which could be identified as Crossland. By late 1950, the Office of the Quartermaster General confirmed Crossland’s status as non-recoverable. Later, DPAA historians began conducting in-depth research into soldiers missing from combat around Althorn, and believe that Unknown X-535, recovered from Althorn and interred at Normandy American Cemetery, could be associated with Crossland. Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission workers exhumed X-535 in July 2022 and transferred the remains to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. Ultimately, U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arthur W. Crossland Jr, was accounted for on August 21, 2024. At the time of his death Crossland was survived by his parents Arthur W. Crossland, Sr. and Lauda Mae Stallings Crossland, as well as his brother, Paul Dillard Crossland. Paul would marry Mrs. Jacqueline Gurecki and have three sons, William Crossland, Paul David Crossland (Marie), and Robert Edward Crossland (Janie). Crossland’s sister-in-law, his nephews and their families honor his memory and carry on his great legacy today. The funeral service for U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arthur W, Crossland, Jr. will be held at 1:30 o’clock, Friday, March 14th, at Northeast Presbyterian Church, 601 Polo Road, Columbia, South Carolina 29223, with the Reverend Josh Desch and Colonel Steve Vitali, US Marine Corps (Ret.) officiating. Burial with full military honors will follow at 3 o’clock at Fort Jackson National Cemetery, 4170 Percival Road, Columbia, South Carolina 29229. For those unable to attend the funeral service, U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arthur W, Crossland, Jr. will lie in repose on Thursday, March 13th at Shives Funeral Home, Trenholm Road Chapel, 7600 Trenholm Road Extension, Columbia, South Carolina 29223 from 9 o’clock until 6 o’clock. Shives Funeral Home, Trenholm Road Chapel, is assisting the family.

Tributes

U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arthur W. Crossland Jr.

March 12, 1926 - March 15, 1945