Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008

Uncle Howie became known as 'Liberator of St. Lo'

By Staff Reports

Enquirer Herald

At the risk of boring you, let me make a few more comments on my father's brother, Major Thomas D. Howie. Commanding the battalion that led the assault and capture of St. Lo in World War II there was much written about him in this country and abroad.

Hal Boyle, Associated Press, described him as a "mild mannered English professor" and this was accurate except that he also played fullback for the Citadel in 1929, scored the touchdown that beat Clemson that year, and missed a Rhodes Scholarship by a tenth of a point.

I knew him as the uncle who very much resembled my own father, gave me my first football, and urged me to "stick with Latin all four years of high school." In 1944 Greenville High did require two years of Latin but I did not make the final two.

Tom went on active duty with the Virginia National Guard and spent months in British Battle School. Here he became close friends with several Oxford professors and planned to return and study there after the war.

His battalion went ashore with the 29th Division on Omaha Beach, D Day, 1944. A York friend who was on nearby Utah Beach told me of standing there and witnessing the the hand to hand fighting described by some as the "bloodiest battle is US Army history."

On the morning of his death AP reported that he told General Gerhardt he would "see him in St. Lo" that night. Tom was killed by mortar fire on the outskirts of the city and the general remembered their conversation when the city fell and he ordered his flag draped body carried in ahead of the troops as they marched in and filed by in respect.

Andy Rooney, well know CBS TV correspondent today, was present and described it as "one of the truly heartwarming emotional scenes of a gruesome and frightful war."

In America his fame spread as the "Major of St. Lo." In France, much as the heroes of some Central and South American countries, he is regarded as "The Liberator of St. Lo."

The action ended their occupation and mistreatment by the Nazis.

Every year they celebrate the birth of their adopted son at this time and this year it is special because it is his 100th. I checked the family Bible and found his birthday to be in April but he truly was born in 1908.

As written earlier I was unable to accept their kind invitation but my son Sam, an English professor at Converse, his wife Margaret a French teacher and their 5 year old son, Jed, left Charlotte for Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris. The mayor of St. Lo was to have a limousine meet them. An email from Sam says the festivities were "poignant and joyous."

I hardly need to say again how much I wish I could be there.

-- York resident H. Sanford Howie Jr. is executive director emeritus of the Episcopal Church Home for Children