Staff Sergeant James R. Taylor

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20031565

Description

Staff Sergeant James R. Taylor, 24. A man in an Army uniform standing on a front porch. The dress uniform is dark with a lighter shirt and matching solid-color tie, and a darker garrison cap. A wide leather belt tops the jacket. There are patches on the sleeves to do with unit or job, and insignia on the collar. He also has thin ribbon decorations and clusters over his breast pocket. The house number of the porch is 1472. Clipping:"Veteran With British 8th Visits Fort Worth Parents Staff Sgt. James R. Taylor, 24, who served with the British 8th Army as a gunner in a tank unit in the battle which raged from El Alemein [Egypt] to Tripoli [Libya]is in Fort Worth visiting is parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Taylor, 1024 Bessie, after 18 months overseas.His first lesson in dodging enemy fire came early. Two days after he landed in Cairo he was injured in an air raid on the Heliopolis Airport. 'I got curious and stuck my head out to see what was going on,' he said, 'and a piece of shrapnel put me in the hospital for 10 days.'He was stationed in the Middle East with a medical unit when two men were needed to go into the desert. Wanting 'to get out and see some action,' he volunteered. Twenty miles from Tobruk [Libya] he joined the British army and didn't stop fighting until they went into reserve at Tripoli in July. All of it was rough going, he says, but the hardest blow was the death of his best friend who was shot as they rode back to the lines in a jeep.He rejoined the United States forces and was assigned to a hospital unit. He spent 38 days in Sicily. The Italians, he reports, were exceedingly hospitable, 'inviting us to their homes for tea and wine.' From there he went to England on board a hospital ship. On Sept. 16 [1943] he left Liverpool and landed in Brooklyn Nov. 8.'What they boys over there want most is cigarettes, hard candies, canned fruit and woolen sweater,'Taylor attended Polytechnic High School before enlisting in the Army six years ago. He trained at Fort Sam Houston, Water Reed General Hospital in Washington, D. C., and Stark General Hospital in Charleston, S.C.His wife, the former Elizabeth Hefner of Silver Spring, Md., accompanied him here. They will leave Tuesday.He has a brother, Ralph Taylor, and two sisters, Mrs. Clarence Tally and Mrs. Horace Dumas, living in Fort Worth. Another Sister, Mrs. Mozelle Young, resides in Sherman."Stamped: Star-Telegram Eve Nov. 16, 1943

Archival Date

1943-11-15

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-296

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

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License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

Taylor, James R.; British Army; British 8th Army; Gunners; Polytechnic High schools