James Lynwood Derix was born on October 20, 1916 to Charles and Verna Derix who lived at 519 West Bridge Street in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.  James was the older of two children including his brother, Calvin. Their father worked as a car painter at the body shop of Unger’s Chevrolet on the 500 block of Bridge Street. He also worked as a self-employed brick pointer.

James, who like to be called “Jim” (his younger brother was the only one he allowed to call him Jimmy) attended Phoenixville schools.  He graduated from Memorial Junior High School, located at 320 Second Avenue. This is the school in which the famed 1957 movie “The Blob”  was filmed. It was refurbished and today is known as the Samuel K. Barkley Elementary School.  James then attended Phoenixville High School, but left school to help support the family.

 

Calvin remembers his big brother as 5 foot 8 inches tall, 170 pounds, stocky, and strong as a bull.   He was easygoing, hard to get mad.  James enjoyed finding gasoline engines in junk yards and rebuilding them. He was not big on playing sports, but he loved to swim.  James worked at the Weiland Meat Packing Plant on the 500 block of West Bridge Street. Weiland slaughtered and processed pork, as much as 3 million pounds a year, producing sausage, hot dogs, bolognas, bacon and lard.

James married his wife Elizabeth of Ambler, Pennsylvania in 1941.  He enlisted in the Army in 1941.

James was drafted into the Army in mid 1941.  After basic training, he was assigned to the 329th Infantry Regiment, 83^rd Infantry “Thunderbolt” Division, which was activating at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. James’ regiment practiced maneuvers in Tennessee; Camp Breckeridge, Kentucky then was sent to Camp Shanks, New York.  They embarked for England in April 1944.

Leading elements of James’ Division went ashore on Omaha Beach in Normandy June 19^th.  The division waited on board transports weathering a severe storm, which lasted a week, wreaking havoc with the temporary port facilities built off the beaches. (There was no port in the area.  American and British innovation shone by prefabricating floating docks, break waters, and long floating causeways.  Imagine, creating a port off Atlantic City beach to unload a few hundred thousand combat troops and all their equipment!)

James’s division relieved the 101^st Airborne in the Carentan Peninsula in late June.  The 83rd slowly fought through the French hedgerows, with heavy casualties, some of the toughest fighting in the European theater.  The Carentan area was defended by crack German Troops, mostly SS troops. 

 

The French hedgerows permeated the area. They divided numerous small fields, and consisted of thick hedges planted on top of earthen and stone walls 4 to 10 feet high.  Allied troops crossing the open fields were often mowed down by crack German troops who were well concealed in the thick hedges, and who had their guns and artillery zeroed in to markers.  Each hedgerow became a battle in itself, with very heavy casualties.  Again, American innovation shone – later in the battle, an American Sergeant came up with an idea.   He improvised, using scrap metal to form a type of toothed plow which he welded onto the front of a tank, to plow through the hedgerows.

 

 

 

Private James Lynwood Derix Died Of Wounds on July 7, 1944.

James was buried in a local cemetery.  His sister requested he be buried in his home country and his remains were returned in 1948.   On July 20^th, James was buried with full military honors at the Beverly National Cemetery, on Bridgeboro Road, Beverly, NJ.