Henry H. Bixler was a former resident of Kimberton and Malvern, PA, and the son of Mrs. Elizabeth Bixler , of Philadelphia.  The youth attended the Charlestown Consolidated School and also the Phoenixville School. Before joining the Army, he was employed by the J. Bishop Company of Malvern.  For two years prior to entering the service on November 26, 1943, this twenty one year old hero resided with a sister, Mrs. W. Roy Bond, of 136 Woodland Avenue, Malvern.  In addition to his mother and this sister, he was survived by four other sisters and four brothers.

 

Pvt. Bixler was an infantryman of the 363^rd Infantry Regiment, 91^st Infantry Division, in the U. S. Army.²  His unit arrived in Italy after Easter of 1944.  In letters to his family, he told of being in two of the major battles for the German-held Gothic Line, and the “going was tough.”  The last letter that the sister received from him was dated October 8, 1944, and took more than one month to be delivered.  A friend, Miss Winifred Mullen, of West Chester, received a letter from Pvt. Bixler dated October 21, 1944.  A short time later, the War Department informed the mother that Private Henry H. Bixler died in action on October 26, 1944 in Italy.

This young hero was awarded the Purple Heart and was buried in the Florence American Cemetery in Via Cassia, Italy.  His plot is identified as F Row:9 Grave:8. This cemetery site covers seventy acres, chiefly on the west side of the Greve River and about seven and a half miles south of Florence, Italy.  There are headstones of the 4402 American military Dead, representing thirty-nine percent in the U.S. Fifth Army burials originally made between Rome and the Alps.  Most died in the fighting which occurred after the capture of Rome in June 1944. Included among them are the casualties of the heavy fighting in the Apennines shortly before wars end.