Robert F. Miller 

ASN:36629007

Robert Frank Miller registered for the draft on June 27, 1942. Born July 16, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois, he was employed by Frank Miller & Sons in Chicago, Illinois, at the time of his registration. 

This nineteen-year-old enlisted in the US Army in 1942. He was 6’-2”, 194 pounds with a light complexion, brown eyes, and brown hair. A scar between his eyes was listed as an identifying physical characteristic at the time of his registration.   

Private Miller trained at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina in late 1942 through the spring of 1943 where he earned his glider qualification. A member of A-Battery, 319th Glider Field Artillery, 82nd Airborne Division, he sailed with the battalion from Staten Island, New York, aboard the SS Santa Rosa to North Africa arriving in Casablanca May 10, 1943.

North Africa was largely a training exercise but that summer saw a reorganization of the gun batteries. Base camps were established in Oujda, Morocco, Kairouan and finally Bizerte, Tunisia.

Company Morning Reports

Company Morning Reports were produced every morning by the individual Army units to record personnel matters. The following events for Robert Miller were reported.

• October 1943, wounded in action shell fragment lumbar region. Station: Naples, Italy.

• November, 13, 1943, from absent sick 3rd Conv. Hospital to duty 1030 hours. Station: Naples, Italy

• January 22, 1944, from duty to detached service Airborne Division Signal Company, Castle Dawson, N.I.  at 1300 hours. Station: Camp Ballyscullion, Northern Ireland.

• February 5, 1944, from detached service with 82nd Airborne Division Signal School to duty at 1400 hours. Station: Camp Ballyscullion, Northern Ireland.

• February 8, 1944, appointed Private First Class from Private. Station: Camp Ballyscullion, Northern Ireland.

• March 15, 1944, from duty to furlough 5 days at 0600 hours. Station: Papillon Hall, Lubenham, England.

• March 20, 1944, from furlough (5 days) to duty at 2000 hours. Station: Papillon Hall, Lubenham, England.

• May 2, 1944, from duty to detached service with 1st Landing Light Reg, RA – Westfield, Sleaford Road Boston, England (7 days) 0900 hours. Station: Papillon Hall, Lubenham, England.

• May 7, 1944, from detached service with 1st Landing Light Reg, RA – Westfield, Sleaford Road Boston, England, to duty 1330 hours. Station: Papillon Hall, Lubenham, England.

• June 6, 1944, wounded in action laceration to the head, remained duty. Station: 2 miles east of Ste Mere Eglise, France. 

• July 18, 1944, appointed from Corporal to Tec 5, MOS 177 (radio operator). Station: Papillon Hall, 4 miles west of Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England WF 1406.

• March 11, 1945, from duty to temporary duty reception Station #7, Ft. Sheridan, Illinois, per par 4 SO 49, Hq 82nd Airborne Division APO 469, U.S. Army. 6 Mar ‘45 departed this unit 0600 hours. Station: Camp Suippes, VT6863, Nor D’Guerre, France.

• May 21, 1945, temporary duty reception station No. 7, Fort Sheridan, Illinois, to dropped from rolls per TWX European to AG 1012, May 14, 1945. Station: Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

Robert Miller fought in the major campaigns of Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Normandy, Holland, Ardennes, and Central Europe.

In July of 1943, the 319th Glider Field Artillery was called on to participate in the invasion of Sicily, known as Operation Husky.

Stationed near Bizerte, Tunisia, it was to be the 82nd Airborne’s first large-scale operation and one which called for close co-operation with our naval forces. Sadly, when tragic errors resulted in airborne personnel being killed by friendly fire, the role of the 319th was canceled at the last moment.

On September 11, 1943, the 319th sailed from Tunisia, North Africa, and received orders to land immediately at Maiori, Italy, with the mission of supporting an existing Ranger force. (1st, 3rd, 4th Battalions)

That evening the 319th landed on the beach at Maiori at 2250 hours and immediately occupied a mountainous position 5 miles north of the beach known as the “Chiunzi Pass.”

For the next 19 days the 319th fired more than 12,000 artillery rounds over the mountain range and through the Chiunzi pass targeting truck columns, troop movement and supply dumps, road junctions, enemy 88-gun positions and ammo supplies, tanks and rocket batteries as well as other enemy activity along Highway 18 just outside of Naples.

On October 1, 1943, the 319th entered Naples, Italy, for occupational duty. Their occupation duties involved several days of combat beginning October 5th, at the Volturno River near Villa Literno, Italy. Private Miller was wounded in action but returned to duty just prior to the battalion departing for training in Northern Ireland.

During the winter of 1944 the 82nd Airborne Division was now stationed in Market Harborough, a town near Leicester, England, preparing for the Allied invasion of northern France. Miller was promoted to Private First Class and twice detached for advanced training with the airborne signal school and the British airborne forces.

The 319th was bivouacked at Papillon Hall, a 300 acre estate built in 1620. (see inset) Market Harborough was also a British Royal Air Force station, a place for allied military training, and also where glider troops went for training and replacement soldiers. Papillon Hall itself was a large structure, set-out in a butterfly pattern (Papillon means butterfly in French) with four distinct wings. The soldiers lived in the main building and a cluster of Quonset huts. But no space was wasted, soldiers also slept in horse stables and barns.

A veteran like himself, Miller was also required to maintain his glider qualification with a flight at least every 90 days. Now that the battalion had access to nearby Cottesmoore airfield, all this could be accomplished.

During the Normandy D-Day invasion PFC Miller glided into Normandy with A-Battery the evening of June 6, 1944. He rode in a British Horsa glider with Captain Manning, Sgt. Frank Marshall and medic James Jamison, who later died from his wounds.

The battalion landed in the German front lines just north of the town of Ste Mere Eglise, France, which resulted in 2 officers and 15 enlisted men killed, 6 officers and 86 enlisted men wounded.

The A-Battery soldiers and others freed themselves from their crashed Horsa gliders and were immediately under enemy small arms fire. PFC Miller was wounded in the glider landing with a laceration to the head. He remained on duty despite a general order to evacuate all soldiers with head injuries.

With more than 30 days of intense fighting the 319th was relieved of combat duty on July 12, 1944. The following day they were issued new uniforms and boots then marched from a staging area 3 miles to Utah Beach. (see Morning Report below) The following day the 319th departed by sea on LST 212 (Landing Ship Tank) to their rear echelon base camp at Papillon Hall, Market Harborough, England.

On July 18, 1944, Corporal Robert Miller was promoted to Tec 5.

During the invasion of Holland, the Battle of the Bulge and the fighting near Hurtgen, Germany, Miller’s MOS (military occupation) was a radio operator. He was generally assigned to A-Battery Captain Charles Sartain or Captain John Manning.

Gliding into Holland on September 18, 1944, Tec 5 Miller rode in a CG4A Waco glider along with Captain Sartain, jeep driver Louis Sosa and a 1/2 ton Jeep. They landed without incident and managed to reach the battalion rendezvous site on the road between Groesbeek and Nijmegen. Later that day Sartain ordered the first fire mission of the battalion in Holland at 1700 hours. Tec 5 Miller called in three dozen rounds of heavy explosives from the howitzers of A-Battery and neutralized several enemy vehicles.

On October 5, 1944, the 319th planned a crossing of the bridge over the north bank of the Waal River, in support of the 508th Infantry. It was a combined assault with a British tank unit. Tec 5 Miller and driver Louis Sosa rode on the back of a tank while Captain Sartain rode on another. They crossed the river without a shot fired. The “Island” or area beyond the bridge had been cleared unbeknownst to their reconnaissance. 

By November 7, 1944, the 319th had been in combat for over six weeks. That afternoon Louis Sosa and Captain Sartain were checking their forward observation posts when Miller received a distressed radio message. The staticky message was broken up but Miller heard an urgent call for help. Lt. Fellman’s position had just been relieved by forward observer Lt. McArthur. An enemy round hit close, McArthur was seriously wounded and needed to be evacuated. Sosa immediately took off, their jeep bounced along at full speed while Miller and Sartain held on for dear life. Arriving at the scene there was still smoke and the scent of cordite in the air from a recent explosion. Corporal Marvin Spoerl, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was crouched over the Lieutenant franticly trying to apply a tourniquet and morphine. McArthur was treated successfully and survived the war.

In December 1944, the 319th was training at Camp Suippes, France, and reinforced by replacement soldiers when a major German offensive took the Allied forces by surprise. The 82nd Airborne was quickly ushered into the Ardennes Forest on December 18, 1944, to counter the German Army Group B. The enemy attack, comprised of the German 7th Army, 5th and 6th Panzers, would come to be known as the “Battle of the Bulge.”

The 319th’s guns were in position and firing near Werbomont, Belgium. But on Christmas Eve 1944, the 82nd Airborne pulled back to straighten out their defensive line to a new gun position at Froideville, Belgium. A-Battery’s order to pull back apparently was not received. As tracer rounds from enemy machine guns grew closer and the deep rumble of enemy tanks could be heard, Captain Sartain later recalled Tec 5 Miller and what happened that evening. “I threw radio silence to the wind, took the walkie-talkie from Miller and spoke into the mouthpiece. Marvin (Lt. Ragland) this is Sartain, he said, get the hell out of there! Pack up and get those guns out of that field in a hurry. I’ll wait here and alert you if anything comes this way, but get your asses up here now!” The battery escaped, but just barely.

Over the evening of January 1st and the following days the 319th was supporting the 508th infantry with close artillery missions.

Captain Sartain from his observation tree called out coordinates to Miller and later recalled, “It hit where I thought it would land, where I wanted it to land. I told them, left one hundred, up one hundred, fire for effect. Fire direction comes back and says, we’re giving you two hundred left and three hundred over. That was Major Wimberley, he always doubled, you know, just second guessing the forward observer. So I repeated my command. I’m calling down to Miller, who’s on the ground with the radio, and he’s giving it to fire direction, 200 right, 100 over, fire for effect! I grabbed the walkie-talkie from Miller’s hand, punched the button and called into the microphone, I want to know who’s the son of a bitch running fire direction. There was no answer.”

The fighting ended in late February and the battalion returned to their base camp in Suippes, France.

In early March 1945 staff changes occurred creating vacancies and the need for replacement soldiers. Several men, including Tec 5 Robert Miller, were ordered to early detached service stateside. He departed the European Theater of Operations and reported to Fort Sheridan, Illinois. His last morning report entry was dated May 21, 1945, “dropped from rolls per TWX (Teletypewriter Message) European Theater of Operations.”

His service was awarded with the Good Conduct Medal, Distinguished Merit Badge GO 54, European/African Middle Eastern Service Medal with six bronze service stars, Bronze Arrowhead, Belgian Fourragere, Presidential Unit Citation Badge, Glider Badge, 5 Overseas Bars, Purple Heart with cluster and WW2 Victory Ribbon.

Robert F. Miller returned to civilian life in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, employed as a salesman for Miller & Sons, an industrial sawdust company. At 36 years of age he tragically died in an automobile accident.

God Bless this hero.

Some content and photos courtesy of the family of Charlotte Sartain Provenza, family of Mahlon Sebring and Joseph Covais, author of BATTERY