WWII · Battle Death Record
Robert Cole
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army · Texas
Medal of Honor
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Robert Cole
- Entered the Service From
- Texas
- Rank
- Lieutenant Colonel
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Unit / Regiment
- 3rd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
- War
- WWII
- Date of Death
- September 18, 1944
- Awards
- Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, French Croix de Guerre with Palm
- Burial / Memorial
- Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten, Netherlands
- Grave
- Plot B, Row 15, Grave 27
Their story
Lt. Col. Robert G. Cole earned the Medal of Honor for leading a daring bayonet charge on June 11, 1944, near Carentan, Normandy, rallying his pinned-down battalion of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment across open ground to assault entrenched German positions and establish a bridgehead. Three months later, on September 18, 1944, he was killed by a German sniper near Best, Netherlands, while directing air support during Operation Market Garden, before he could receive his medal. He is buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
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