Harold Arthur Labelle
Staff Sergeant, 941st Field Artillery Battalion
Harold was born in 1918 in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the only son of Arthur and Blanche Labelle. He lived most of his life in Manchester, New Hampshire and worked as a shoe worker before the war. He enlisted into the New Hampshire National Guard the 17th of September 1940 and was mobilized for federal service the 24th of February 1941. He was assigned to the medical detachment of the 941st Field Artillery Battalion.
He married Pauline Lebel on Christmas day 1943 before receiving training in Virginia, Mississippi and California. The 941st embarked aboard the USS JAMES PARKER the 24th of March 1944 and departed for Europe. Originally billeted in England the men landed on Omaha beach the 13th of June 1944 and immediately begain fire support missions for various allied units. Harold was promoted to Staff Sergeant and served as the senior enlisted man of the medical detachment Engaged in some of the hardest fighting of the war including during the battle of the Hurtgen forest and during the Battle of the Bulge. Harold served as the senior enlisted member of the Medical detachment and was key in the support provided by the medical detachment to the men of the battalion. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions on the 22nd and 27th of February where he rescued injured men who were trapped in a mine field making multiple trips into and out of the mine field to provide aide and rescue them. Harold and the Medical detachment were sent to the west side of the Rhine river where they remained until being transferred to Witzenhausen, Germany where they were positioned when the war in Europe ended.
Harold survived the war only to die tragically in a jeep accident the 28th of July 1945. He is buried at the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in Epinal, France plot B, Row 24, Grave 4.
