Born:
19 February 1916 Place:
Toledo, Lucas County, OH
Died: 9 January 1945
Place: Reharmont (Belgium)
Temp Burial Place:
American Military Cemetery, Margraten, the Netherlands
Final Burial place:
Association Cemetery Sylvania, OH
Wife:
Ruth Schafer (Garner) Married:
20 June 1942
Children:
Sharon
Father:
Carl W. Schafer Mother: Augusta F.
Schafer (Schroeder)
Siblings:
Donald, Cornell, Elva, Laverne and Betty
:
Awards
Purple Heart
22 October 2008
I received
several 643rd Tank Destroyer Battalion newsletters from Joe Decaro.
"Article from Newsletter 643rd Tank Destroyer
Battalion May 31, 2000."
Bill
Guether, sent this account of his memory of events
that led up to the death of Carlton Schafer and Gerard K. Duncan.
“As we rode in that open field, Schafer
and I thought we would be safe if we walked.
Schafer said I have a feeling I’m going to die. No sooner we got out of the
halftrack we walked side by side. Just then the German tank hit our gun.
Schafer got hit and died. I was not hurt. I ran back into the woods. Ahead of
me was a bunker. As I ran toward the bunker, tanks were shooting at me coming
very close to hitting me. They must seen me heading for the bunker. The next
thing I found myself inside. I don’t know how I got in. I think someone is
looking after me. Inside was a lot of smoke. No sooner I got inside I got tree
burst. The tree burst should have killed me, but it didn’t. When the tree burst
stopped I walked back to the halftrack. Gerard Duncan’s body was next to
Schafer on the ground. They other men were o.k.
They died at Reharmont, Belgium
on January 9, 1945”
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