James William DeGraff was born on 10 August 1920 to Louis and Addie Bell DeGraff in Gainesville, Florida. Lewis, a farmer and sometimes boilermaker, was a native of New York while Addie was originally from South Carolina. James was the seventh of eleven children, all born in Florida:
• Joseph Rayford, born 1910;
• Rachel, born 1912;
• Pearl, born 1915;
• Calvin Marcus, born 1917;
• Onie Mae, born 1918;
• Wesley, born 1920;
• James, born 1921;
• David, born 1923;
• Clara Belle, born 1927;
• Robert, born 1928; and
• Rollie, born 1928.
According to the 1935 Florida state census, James and the three younger children attended grade school while his older brothers worked on the farm. Twins Robert and Rollie (possibly Rowlin) were too young to attend school in 1935.
By 1940 some of the older children had left home, but 19-year-old James remained on the family farm and assisted with the labor. Older brother Wesley worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in a state park and earned the only cash income in the family that year. Fifty-eight-year-old Louis worked on the family farm which did not bring in any outside income. The small letter "x" in the circle next to his name indicates that Louis was the person who provided the family's information to the enumerator, so we consider his age and other details to be accurate.
James' siblings, Rachel and David, also worked on the family farm. Two-year-old Lois, a granddaughter of Louis and Addie, lived with the family, but the identity of her parent was not reported on the census form. The absence of one of the twins, 12-year-old Rollie, from the 1940 census report suggests that the boy died in the intervening five years.
We do not know why James DeGraff decided to join the Army. He had registered for the draft in February of 1942, as required by law at the age of 21. By the fall of 1942 the United States, in general, was beginning to recover from the Great Depression. However, rural northern Florida where the DeGraffs lived continued to suffer economic distress, and a steady job with a reliable income may have appealed to the young man. The adventure of warfare and the desire to fight against oppression are also possible reasons which caused the young man to enlist. On 2 November 1942 James W. DeGraff enlisted at nearby Camp Blanding.
The fact that James volunteered to join 401st Glider Infantry, part of the 101st Airborne Division, suggests that he was a very brave man. Potential recruits knew that they would either be jumping out of airplanes or would be towed in gliders and then cut loose to land behind enemy lines. It is important to note that at this time the Airborne was a brand-new concept that had never been tried and did not have the cache and reputation that it carries today. There was a very real chance that the Army would lose every single man assigned to the Airborne.
The War Department quickly realized that stranding Airborne units behind enemy lines would make them easy targets for enemy aircraft and tanks. The Airborne units needed to be equipped with the means to defend themselves while they were separated from the rest of the American forces. Out of this was born the 81st Anti-Aircraft Battalion, of which James was assigned to Battery F.
Presumably prior to being sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina James took the opportunity to have his photograph made and a copy was sent home to his family. Although his draft card indicated that James was short and a bit stocky for his height in February of 1942, weighing 150 pounds while only 5' 2" tall; it appears that he had lost his excess weight. We also know that the young Floridian had a dark complexion with brown hair and eyes. His great-niece sent us a cell phone photograph of James' photograph while it was still in the frame. We were able to remove some of the water stains, resulting in the best-possible version of the photograph, considering the condition of the version we received.
Once at Ft. Bragg James and the other men of D, E, and F batteries began glider training, among other skills. He would have learned how to assemble and fire his 50-caliber air-cooled machine gun and would have practiced loading and unloading himself, his weapons, and six to eight other soldiers into the wooden gliders.
The glider was basically a plywood box which was towed behind a troop transport. Once the gliders were released they were guided by their pilots in a controlled fall to the ground. On the ground James and the others in the glider would have been expected to disembark from the glider, gather their gear, and begin the task of destroying any German airplanes flying overhead. Needless to say, the entire operation was fraught with danger, since the glider had no means of protecting itself and crash landings were not uncommon.
By September of 1943 the 81st was fully trained and ready for battle. They were shipped to England, ending up near Reading. Here they expected to intensify their training, honing their physical fitness, improving their accuracy with their weapons, and increasing their ability to load, fly, and land in their gliders.
However, in April of 1944 James and the other men of batteries D, E, and F discovered that instead of a glider assault, they were to be retrained to make an amphibious landing. This required a completely different set of skills than those James had learned for the glider. Now, instead of being shot from the sky the men of battery F faced the dangers of an ocean crossing including the possibility of attacks from the air, on the water, and under the ocean. As they approached mainland Europe the fortified German positions offered one final obstacle for the men attempting to make the landing.
For the next nine weeks the men endured extremely intensive training in their new location of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, across the Severn River from Cardiff, Wales. Much of the training was actually on the water and the climax came with the exercise known as "Tiger" which was a simulation of an amphibious landing. In addition to the water-based training James and the other men intensified their weapons training, focusing on both the 50 caliber machine gun and their side arms. All of the men attained a high degree of marksmanship in the weeks leading up to D-Day.
A few days before the assault of D-Day James would have learned some of the details of the operation, including his duties. Battery F, along with batteries D and E, were assigned to land with the initial assault wave of infantry, landing on Utah Beach at H-Hour +15 minutes on D-Day with the men of the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, 7th Corps.
James and three other men were assigned to a squad, each man carrying ammunition, three men adding the parts of the machine gun to their load and the fourth man carrying a radio. Added to the load was the individual side arm of each man, and other gear, in total weighing about 40 pounds. When the weight of the gear is added to the fact that the average U.S. soldier weighed a mere 140 pounds, and that James' final journey to France began with a trek through three to ten feet of water, the physical and mental toughness and preparation that he made prior to D-Day becomes all the more obvious.
The plan was simple: batteries D, E, and F would land on Utah Beach with the initial assault waves, set up their 50 caliber anti-aircraft guns, and provide cover for the rest of the troops attempting to land on Utah Beach. By virtue of the nature of their task and the geographical features of the beach, there would be almost no cover to protect them from the German machine gun nests and artillery on the cliffs above.
D-Day arrived and James and the other men were loaded into two Liberty Ships which traveled around the southern coast of England and headed for western France. Along the way they narrowly escaped a German torpedo bombing run which took out another of the ships in their convoy. As they neared the French coast they were loaded into assault boats and taken closer to shore. Eventually, the men had to jump out over the side and wade or swim the final distance to shore.
Of the 556 men of the 81st Airborne Anti-Aircraft Battalion who landed by sea or by air on D-Day, six were killed, five more reported as missing in action, and ten were wounded in the course of the day's action. The relatively low number of men who died is a testament to their intense and specialized training. The fact that James W. DeGraff was one of the men killed is most likely a result of bad luck rather than any error on his part. Although James' niece reported that the family story was that James stopped to assist a wounded comrade back into the transport and was killed when he attempted to catch up to his mates, the tale of the records suggests otherwise.
The initial report listed James as MIA – missing in action – on 6 June 1944. This means that James' body had not been recovered, even if the men of his squad knew what had happened to him. Second-hand accounts of his death were not sufficient to declare him KIA.
It is clear that the Army was aware that the fog of war, combined with the large area of the D-Day landings and the possible effects of the ocean currents on retrieval of bodies meant that accurate data regarding the missing would slowly be corrected as burial details were reported back to headquarters. Note that James' father was not notified of James' demise until July of 1944, nearly a month after his death.
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of burying the bodies found along the Normandy beaches had found and buried James in the first of several interments on 9 June. According to the Report of Burial James was positively identified by means of his dog tags which matched the pre-printed form provided to the officer in charge of the burial of soldiers. One of the tags, listing his name, his serial number, the years of his enlistment, and his mother's name and address, was buried with him while the second was attached to his grave marker in a temporary cemetery nearby known as "Utah Red" Cemetery, for the designation given to that sector of the beach.
Two weeks later James and the other soldiers were disinterred and reburied in Ste. Mere-Eglise, another temporary cemetery. James' effects had been collected, amounting to 200 francs, or the 1944 equivalent of $4.03 (about $105 in 2017).
On 6 March 1945 a letter was sent to James' father, Lewis DeGraff, requesting information regarding James' will and familial relations for the purpose of disposing of his personal effects which were only the francs recovered with his body. There were no letters or photographs mentioned. The fact that there was no back pay to report suggests that James had either spent all of his money while in the Army, or had instructed that most of his earnings be sent to his family in Florida.
After World War II ended, and almost exactly five years after his landing with the 81st Anti-Aircraft Airborne Division Private James William DeGraff's remains made one final move, to the St. Laurent U.S. Military Cemetery in France where he rests today.
• Joseph Rayford, born 1910;
• Rachel, born 1912;
• Pearl, born 1915;
• Calvin Marcus, born 1917;
• Onie Mae, born 1918;
• Wesley, born 1920;
• James, born 1921;
• David, born 1923;
• Clara Belle, born 1927;
• Robert, born 1928; and
• Rollie, born 1928.
According to the 1935 Florida state census, James and the three younger children attended grade school while his older brothers worked on the farm. Twins Robert and Rollie (possibly Rowlin) were too young to attend school in 1935.
By 1940 some of the older children had left home, but 19-year-old James remained on the family farm and assisted with the labor. Older brother Wesley worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in a state park and earned the only cash income in the family that year. Fifty-eight-year-old Louis worked on the family farm which did not bring in any outside income. The small letter "x" in the circle next to his name indicates that Louis was the person who provided the family's information to the enumerator, so we consider his age and other details to be accurate.
James' siblings, Rachel and David, also worked on the family farm. Two-year-old Lois, a granddaughter of Louis and Addie, lived with the family, but the identity of her parent was not reported on the census form. The absence of one of the twins, 12-year-old Rollie, from the 1940 census report suggests that the boy died in the intervening five years.
We do not know why James DeGraff decided to join the Army. He had registered for the draft in February of 1942, as required by law at the age of 21. By the fall of 1942 the United States, in general, was beginning to recover from the Great Depression. However, rural northern Florida where the DeGraffs lived continued to suffer economic distress, and a steady job with a reliable income may have appealed to the young man. The adventure of warfare and the desire to fight against oppression are also possible reasons which caused the young man to enlist. On 2 November 1942 James W. DeGraff enlisted at nearby Camp Blanding.
The fact that James volunteered to join 401st Glider Infantry, part of the 101st Airborne Division, suggests that he was a very brave man. Potential recruits knew that they would either be jumping out of airplanes or would be towed in gliders and then cut loose to land behind enemy lines. It is important to note that at this time the Airborne was a brand-new concept that had never been tried and did not have the cache and reputation that it carries today. There was a very real chance that the Army would lose every single man assigned to the Airborne.
The War Department quickly realized that stranding Airborne units behind enemy lines would make them easy targets for enemy aircraft and tanks. The Airborne units needed to be equipped with the means to defend themselves while they were separated from the rest of the American forces. Out of this was born the 81st Anti-Aircraft Battalion, of which James was assigned to Battery F.
Presumably prior to being sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina James took the opportunity to have his photograph made and a copy was sent home to his family. Although his draft card indicated that James was short and a bit stocky for his height in February of 1942, weighing 150 pounds while only 5' 2" tall; it appears that he had lost his excess weight. We also know that the young Floridian had a dark complexion with brown hair and eyes. His great-niece sent us a cell phone photograph of James' photograph while it was still in the frame. We were able to remove some of the water stains, resulting in the best-possible version of the photograph, considering the condition of the version we received.
Once at Ft. Bragg James and the other men of D, E, and F batteries began glider training, among other skills. He would have learned how to assemble and fire his 50-caliber air-cooled machine gun and would have practiced loading and unloading himself, his weapons, and six to eight other soldiers into the wooden gliders.
The glider was basically a plywood box which was towed behind a troop transport. Once the gliders were released they were guided by their pilots in a controlled fall to the ground. On the ground James and the others in the glider would have been expected to disembark from the glider, gather their gear, and begin the task of destroying any German airplanes flying overhead. Needless to say, the entire operation was fraught with danger, since the glider had no means of protecting itself and crash landings were not uncommon.
By September of 1943 the 81st was fully trained and ready for battle. They were shipped to England, ending up near Reading. Here they expected to intensify their training, honing their physical fitness, improving their accuracy with their weapons, and increasing their ability to load, fly, and land in their gliders.
However, in April of 1944 James and the other men of batteries D, E, and F discovered that instead of a glider assault, they were to be retrained to make an amphibious landing. This required a completely different set of skills than those James had learned for the glider. Now, instead of being shot from the sky the men of battery F faced the dangers of an ocean crossing including the possibility of attacks from the air, on the water, and under the ocean. As they approached mainland Europe the fortified German positions offered one final obstacle for the men attempting to make the landing.
For the next nine weeks the men endured extremely intensive training in their new location of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, across the Severn River from Cardiff, Wales. Much of the training was actually on the water and the climax came with the exercise known as "Tiger" which was a simulation of an amphibious landing. In addition to the water-based training James and the other men intensified their weapons training, focusing on both the 50 caliber machine gun and their side arms. All of the men attained a high degree of marksmanship in the weeks leading up to D-Day.
A few days before the assault of D-Day James would have learned some of the details of the operation, including his duties. Battery F, along with batteries D and E, were assigned to land with the initial assault wave of infantry, landing on Utah Beach at H-Hour +15 minutes on D-Day with the men of the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, 7th Corps.
James and three other men were assigned to a squad, each man carrying ammunition, three men adding the parts of the machine gun to their load and the fourth man carrying a radio. Added to the load was the individual side arm of each man, and other gear, in total weighing about 40 pounds. When the weight of the gear is added to the fact that the average U.S. soldier weighed a mere 140 pounds, and that James' final journey to France began with a trek through three to ten feet of water, the physical and mental toughness and preparation that he made prior to D-Day becomes all the more obvious.
The plan was simple: batteries D, E, and F would land on Utah Beach with the initial assault waves, set up their 50 caliber anti-aircraft guns, and provide cover for the rest of the troops attempting to land on Utah Beach. By virtue of the nature of their task and the geographical features of the beach, there would be almost no cover to protect them from the German machine gun nests and artillery on the cliffs above.
D-Day arrived and James and the other men were loaded into two Liberty Ships which traveled around the southern coast of England and headed for western France. Along the way they narrowly escaped a German torpedo bombing run which took out another of the ships in their convoy. As they neared the French coast they were loaded into assault boats and taken closer to shore. Eventually, the men had to jump out over the side and wade or swim the final distance to shore.
Of the 556 men of the 81st Airborne Anti-Aircraft Battalion who landed by sea or by air on D-Day, six were killed, five more reported as missing in action, and ten were wounded in the course of the day's action. The relatively low number of men who died is a testament to their intense and specialized training. The fact that James W. DeGraff was one of the men killed is most likely a result of bad luck rather than any error on his part. Although James' niece reported that the family story was that James stopped to assist a wounded comrade back into the transport and was killed when he attempted to catch up to his mates, the tale of the records suggests otherwise.
The initial report listed James as MIA – missing in action – on 6 June 1944. This means that James' body had not been recovered, even if the men of his squad knew what had happened to him. Second-hand accounts of his death were not sufficient to declare him KIA.
It is clear that the Army was aware that the fog of war, combined with the large area of the D-Day landings and the possible effects of the ocean currents on retrieval of bodies meant that accurate data regarding the missing would slowly be corrected as burial details were reported back to headquarters. Note that James' father was not notified of James' demise until July of 1944, nearly a month after his death.
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of burying the bodies found along the Normandy beaches had found and buried James in the first of several interments on 9 June. According to the Report of Burial James was positively identified by means of his dog tags which matched the pre-printed form provided to the officer in charge of the burial of soldiers. One of the tags, listing his name, his serial number, the years of his enlistment, and his mother's name and address, was buried with him while the second was attached to his grave marker in a temporary cemetery nearby known as "Utah Red" Cemetery, for the designation given to that sector of the beach.
Two weeks later James and the other soldiers were disinterred and reburied in Ste. Mere-Eglise, another temporary cemetery. James' effects had been collected, amounting to 200 francs, or the 1944 equivalent of $4.03 (about $105 in 2017).
On 6 March 1945 a letter was sent to James' father, Lewis DeGraff, requesting information regarding James' will and familial relations for the purpose of disposing of his personal effects which were only the francs recovered with his body. There were no letters or photographs mentioned. The fact that there was no back pay to report suggests that James had either spent all of his money while in the Army, or had instructed that most of his earnings be sent to his family in Florida.
After World War II ended, and almost exactly five years after his landing with the 81st Anti-Aircraft Airborne Division Private James William DeGraff's remains made one final move, to the St. Laurent U.S. Military Cemetery in France where he rests today.
James William DeGraff was born on 10 August 1920 to Louis and Addie Bell DeGraff in Gainesville, Florida. Lewis, a farmer and sometimes boilermaker, was a native of New York while Addie was originally from South Carolina. James was the seventh of eleven children, all born in Florida:
• Joseph Rayford, born 1910;
• Rachel, born 1912;
• Pearl, born 1915;
• Calvin Marcus, born 1917;
• Onie Mae, born 1918;
• Wesley, born 1920;
• James, born 1921;
• David, born 1923;
• Clara Belle, born 1927;
• Robert, born 1928; and
• Rollie, born 1928.
According to the 1935 Florida state census, James and the three younger children attended grade school while his older brothers worked on the farm. Twins Robert and Rollie (possibly Rowlin) were too young to attend school in 1935.
By 1940 some of the older children had left home, but 19-year-old James remained on the family farm and assisted with the labor. Older brother Wesley worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in a state park and earned the only cash income in the family that year. Fifty-eight-year-old Louis worked on the family farm which did not bring in any outside income. The small letter "x" in the circle next to his name indicates that Louis was the person who provided the family's information to the enumerator, so we consider his age and other details to be accurate.
James' siblings, Rachel and David, also worked on the family farm. Two-year-old Lois, a granddaughter of Louis and Addie, lived with the family, but the identity of her parent was not reported on the census form. The absence of one of the twins, 12-year-old Rollie, from the 1940 census report suggests that the boy died in the intervening five years.
We do not know why James DeGraff decided to join the Army. He had registered for the draft in February of 1942, as required by law at the age of 21. By the fall of 1942 the United States, in general, was beginning to recover from the Great Depression. However, rural northern Florida where the DeGraffs lived continued to suffer economic distress, and a steady job with a reliable income may have appealed to the young man. The adventure of warfare and the desire to fight against oppression are also possible reasons which caused the young man to enlist. On 2 November 1942 James W. DeGraff enlisted at nearby Camp Blanding.
The fact that James volunteered to join 401st Glider Infantry, part of the 101st Airborne Division, suggests that he was a very brave man. Potential recruits knew that they would either be jumping out of airplanes or would be towed in gliders and then cut loose to land behind enemy lines. It is important to note that at this time the Airborne was a brand-new concept that had never been tried and did not have the cache and reputation that it carries today. There was a very real chance that the Army would lose every single man assigned to the Airborne.
The War Department quickly realized that stranding Airborne units behind enemy lines would make them easy targets for enemy aircraft and tanks. The Airborne units needed to be equipped with the means to defend themselves while they were separated from the rest of the American forces. Out of this was born the 81st Anti-Aircraft Battalion, of which James was assigned to Battery F.
Presumably prior to being sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina James took the opportunity to have his photograph made and a copy was sent home to his family. Although his draft card indicated that James was short and a bit stocky for his height in February of 1942, weighing 150 pounds while only 5' 2" tall; it appears that he had lost his excess weight. We also know that the young Floridian had a dark complexion with brown hair and eyes. His great-niece sent us a cell phone photograph of James' photograph while it was still in the frame. We were able to remove some of the water stains, resulting in the best-possible version of the photograph, considering the condition of the version we received.
Once at Ft. Bragg James and the other men of D, E, and F batteries began glider training, among other skills. He would have learned how to assemble and fire his 50-caliber air-cooled machine gun and would have practiced loading and unloading himself, his weapons, and six to eight other soldiers into the wooden gliders.
The glider was basically a plywood box which was towed behind a troop transport. Once the gliders were released they were guided by their pilots in a controlled fall to the ground. On the ground James and the others in the glider would have been expected to disembark from the glider, gather their gear, and begin the task of destroying any German airplanes flying overhead. Needless to say, the entire operation was fraught with danger, since the glider had no means of protecting itself and crash landings were not uncommon.
By September of 1943 the 81st was fully trained and ready for battle. They were shipped to England, ending up near Reading. Here they expected to intensify their training, honing their physical fitness, improving their accuracy with their weapons, and increasing their ability to load, fly, and land in their gliders.
However, in April of 1944 James and the other men of batteries D, E, and F discovered that instead of a glider assault, they were to be retrained to make an amphibious landing. This required a completely different set of skills than those James had learned for the glider. Now, instead of being shot from the sky the men of battery F faced the dangers of an ocean crossing including the possibility of attacks from the air, on the water, and under the ocean. As they approached mainland Europe the fortified German positions offered one final obstacle for the men attempting to make the landing.
For the next nine weeks the men endured extremely intensive training in their new location of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, across the Severn River from Cardiff, Wales. Much of the training was actually on the water and the climax came with the exercise known as "Tiger" which was a simulation of an amphibious landing. In addition to the water-based training James and the other men intensified their weapons training, focusing on both the 50 caliber machine gun and their side arms. All of the men attained a high degree of marksmanship in the weeks leading up to D-Day.
A few days before the assault of D-Day James would have learned some of the details of the operation, including his duties. Battery F, along with batteries D and E, were assigned to land with the initial assault wave of infantry, landing on Utah Beach at H-Hour +15 minutes on D-Day with the men of the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, 7th Corps.
James and three other men were assigned to a squad, each man carrying ammunition, three men adding the parts of the machine gun to their load and the fourth man carrying a radio. Added to the load was the individual side arm of each man, and other gear, in total weighing about 40 pounds. When the weight of the gear is added to the fact that the average U.S. soldier weighed a mere 140 pounds, and that James' final journey to France began with a trek through three to ten feet of water, the physical and mental toughness and preparation that he made prior to D-Day becomes all the more obvious.
The plan was simple: batteries D, E, and F would land on Utah Beach with the initial assault waves, set up their 50 caliber anti-aircraft guns, and provide cover for the rest of the troops attempting to land on Utah Beach. By virtue of the nature of their task and the geographical features of the beach, there would be almost no cover to protect them from the German machine gun nests and artillery on the cliffs above.
D-Day arrived and James and the other men were loaded into two Liberty Ships which traveled around the southern coast of England and headed for western France. Along the way they narrowly escaped a German torpedo bombing run which took out another of the ships in their convoy. As they neared the French coast they were loaded into assault boats and taken closer to shore. Eventually, the men had to jump out over the side and wade or swim the final distance to shore.
Of the 556 men of the 81st Airborne Anti-Aircraft Battalion who landed by sea or by air on D-Day, six were killed, five more reported as missing in action, and ten were wounded in the course of the day's action. The relatively low number of men who died is a testament to their intense and specialized training. The fact that James W. DeGraff was one of the men killed is most likely a result of bad luck rather than any error on his part. Although James' niece reported that the family story was that James stopped to assist a wounded comrade back into the transport and was killed when he attempted to catch up to his mates, the tale of the records suggests otherwise.
The initial report listed James as MIA – missing in action – on 6 June 1944. This means that James' body had not been recovered, even if the men of his squad knew what had happened to him. Second-hand accounts of his death were not sufficient to declare him KIA.
It is clear that the Army was aware that the fog of war, combined with the large area of the D-Day landings and the possible effects of the ocean currents on retrieval of bodies meant that accurate data regarding the missing would slowly be corrected as burial details were reported back to headquarters. Note that James' father was not notified of James' demise until July of 1944, nearly a month after his death.
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of burying the bodies found along the Normandy beaches had found and buried James in the first of several interments on 9 June. According to the Report of Burial James was positively identified by means of his dog tags which matched the pre-printed form provided to the officer in charge of the burial of soldiers. One of the tags, listing his name, his serial number, the years of his enlistment, and his mother's name and address, was buried with him while the second was attached to his grave marker in a temporary cemetery nearby known as "Utah Red" Cemetery, for the designation given to that sector of the beach.
Two weeks later James and the other soldiers were disinterred and reburied in Ste. Mere-Eglise, another temporary cemetery. James' effects had been collected, amounting to 200 francs, or the 1944 equivalent of $4.03 (about $105 in 2017).
On 6 March 1945 a letter was sent to James' father, Lewis DeGraff, requesting information regarding James' will and familial relations for the purpose of disposing of his personal effects which were only the francs recovered with his body. There were no letters or photographs mentioned. The fact that there was no back pay to report suggests that James had either spent all of his money while in the Army, or had instructed that most of his earnings be sent to his family in Florida.
After World War II ended, and almost exactly five years after his landing with the 81st Anti-Aircraft Airborne Division Private James William DeGraff's remains made one final move, to the St. Laurent U.S. Military Cemetery in France where he rests today.
• Joseph Rayford, born 1910;
• Rachel, born 1912;
• Pearl, born 1915;
• Calvin Marcus, born 1917;
• Onie Mae, born 1918;
• Wesley, born 1920;
• James, born 1921;
• David, born 1923;
• Clara Belle, born 1927;
• Robert, born 1928; and
• Rollie, born 1928.
According to the 1935 Florida state census, James and the three younger children attended grade school while his older brothers worked on the farm. Twins Robert and Rollie (possibly Rowlin) were too young to attend school in 1935.
By 1940 some of the older children had left home, but 19-year-old James remained on the family farm and assisted with the labor. Older brother Wesley worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in a state park and earned the only cash income in the family that year. Fifty-eight-year-old Louis worked on the family farm which did not bring in any outside income. The small letter "x" in the circle next to his name indicates that Louis was the person who provided the family's information to the enumerator, so we consider his age and other details to be accurate.
James' siblings, Rachel and David, also worked on the family farm. Two-year-old Lois, a granddaughter of Louis and Addie, lived with the family, but the identity of her parent was not reported on the census form. The absence of one of the twins, 12-year-old Rollie, from the 1940 census report suggests that the boy died in the intervening five years.
We do not know why James DeGraff decided to join the Army. He had registered for the draft in February of 1942, as required by law at the age of 21. By the fall of 1942 the United States, in general, was beginning to recover from the Great Depression. However, rural northern Florida where the DeGraffs lived continued to suffer economic distress, and a steady job with a reliable income may have appealed to the young man. The adventure of warfare and the desire to fight against oppression are also possible reasons which caused the young man to enlist. On 2 November 1942 James W. DeGraff enlisted at nearby Camp Blanding.
The fact that James volunteered to join 401st Glider Infantry, part of the 101st Airborne Division, suggests that he was a very brave man. Potential recruits knew that they would either be jumping out of airplanes or would be towed in gliders and then cut loose to land behind enemy lines. It is important to note that at this time the Airborne was a brand-new concept that had never been tried and did not have the cache and reputation that it carries today. There was a very real chance that the Army would lose every single man assigned to the Airborne.
The War Department quickly realized that stranding Airborne units behind enemy lines would make them easy targets for enemy aircraft and tanks. The Airborne units needed to be equipped with the means to defend themselves while they were separated from the rest of the American forces. Out of this was born the 81st Anti-Aircraft Battalion, of which James was assigned to Battery F.
Presumably prior to being sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina James took the opportunity to have his photograph made and a copy was sent home to his family. Although his draft card indicated that James was short and a bit stocky for his height in February of 1942, weighing 150 pounds while only 5' 2" tall; it appears that he had lost his excess weight. We also know that the young Floridian had a dark complexion with brown hair and eyes. His great-niece sent us a cell phone photograph of James' photograph while it was still in the frame. We were able to remove some of the water stains, resulting in the best-possible version of the photograph, considering the condition of the version we received.
Once at Ft. Bragg James and the other men of D, E, and F batteries began glider training, among other skills. He would have learned how to assemble and fire his 50-caliber air-cooled machine gun and would have practiced loading and unloading himself, his weapons, and six to eight other soldiers into the wooden gliders.
The glider was basically a plywood box which was towed behind a troop transport. Once the gliders were released they were guided by their pilots in a controlled fall to the ground. On the ground James and the others in the glider would have been expected to disembark from the glider, gather their gear, and begin the task of destroying any German airplanes flying overhead. Needless to say, the entire operation was fraught with danger, since the glider had no means of protecting itself and crash landings were not uncommon.
By September of 1943 the 81st was fully trained and ready for battle. They were shipped to England, ending up near Reading. Here they expected to intensify their training, honing their physical fitness, improving their accuracy with their weapons, and increasing their ability to load, fly, and land in their gliders.
However, in April of 1944 James and the other men of batteries D, E, and F discovered that instead of a glider assault, they were to be retrained to make an amphibious landing. This required a completely different set of skills than those James had learned for the glider. Now, instead of being shot from the sky the men of battery F faced the dangers of an ocean crossing including the possibility of attacks from the air, on the water, and under the ocean. As they approached mainland Europe the fortified German positions offered one final obstacle for the men attempting to make the landing.
For the next nine weeks the men endured extremely intensive training in their new location of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, across the Severn River from Cardiff, Wales. Much of the training was actually on the water and the climax came with the exercise known as "Tiger" which was a simulation of an amphibious landing. In addition to the water-based training James and the other men intensified their weapons training, focusing on both the 50 caliber machine gun and their side arms. All of the men attained a high degree of marksmanship in the weeks leading up to D-Day.
A few days before the assault of D-Day James would have learned some of the details of the operation, including his duties. Battery F, along with batteries D and E, were assigned to land with the initial assault wave of infantry, landing on Utah Beach at H-Hour +15 minutes on D-Day with the men of the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, 7th Corps.
James and three other men were assigned to a squad, each man carrying ammunition, three men adding the parts of the machine gun to their load and the fourth man carrying a radio. Added to the load was the individual side arm of each man, and other gear, in total weighing about 40 pounds. When the weight of the gear is added to the fact that the average U.S. soldier weighed a mere 140 pounds, and that James' final journey to France began with a trek through three to ten feet of water, the physical and mental toughness and preparation that he made prior to D-Day becomes all the more obvious.
The plan was simple: batteries D, E, and F would land on Utah Beach with the initial assault waves, set up their 50 caliber anti-aircraft guns, and provide cover for the rest of the troops attempting to land on Utah Beach. By virtue of the nature of their task and the geographical features of the beach, there would be almost no cover to protect them from the German machine gun nests and artillery on the cliffs above.
D-Day arrived and James and the other men were loaded into two Liberty Ships which traveled around the southern coast of England and headed for western France. Along the way they narrowly escaped a German torpedo bombing run which took out another of the ships in their convoy. As they neared the French coast they were loaded into assault boats and taken closer to shore. Eventually, the men had to jump out over the side and wade or swim the final distance to shore.
Of the 556 men of the 81st Airborne Anti-Aircraft Battalion who landed by sea or by air on D-Day, six were killed, five more reported as missing in action, and ten were wounded in the course of the day's action. The relatively low number of men who died is a testament to their intense and specialized training. The fact that James W. DeGraff was one of the men killed is most likely a result of bad luck rather than any error on his part. Although James' niece reported that the family story was that James stopped to assist a wounded comrade back into the transport and was killed when he attempted to catch up to his mates, the tale of the records suggests otherwise.
The initial report listed James as MIA – missing in action – on 6 June 1944. This means that James' body had not been recovered, even if the men of his squad knew what had happened to him. Second-hand accounts of his death were not sufficient to declare him KIA.
It is clear that the Army was aware that the fog of war, combined with the large area of the D-Day landings and the possible effects of the ocean currents on retrieval of bodies meant that accurate data regarding the missing would slowly be corrected as burial details were reported back to headquarters. Note that James' father was not notified of James' demise until July of 1944, nearly a month after his death.
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of burying the bodies found along the Normandy beaches had found and buried James in the first of several interments on 9 June. According to the Report of Burial James was positively identified by means of his dog tags which matched the pre-printed form provided to the officer in charge of the burial of soldiers. One of the tags, listing his name, his serial number, the years of his enlistment, and his mother's name and address, was buried with him while the second was attached to his grave marker in a temporary cemetery nearby known as "Utah Red" Cemetery, for the designation given to that sector of the beach.
Two weeks later James and the other soldiers were disinterred and reburied in Ste. Mere-Eglise, another temporary cemetery. James' effects had been collected, amounting to 200 francs, or the 1944 equivalent of $4.03 (about $105 in 2017).
On 6 March 1945 a letter was sent to James' father, Lewis DeGraff, requesting information regarding James' will and familial relations for the purpose of disposing of his personal effects which were only the francs recovered with his body. There were no letters or photographs mentioned. The fact that there was no back pay to report suggests that James had either spent all of his money while in the Army, or had instructed that most of his earnings be sent to his family in Florida.
After World War II ended, and almost exactly five years after his landing with the 81st Anti-Aircraft Airborne Division Private James William DeGraff's remains made one final move, to the St. Laurent U.S. Military Cemetery in France where he rests today.
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from Florida.
Family Members
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