1LT Richard Burrows Memorial -First KIA on German Soil WW2
Details:
Between the roadway and West Wall Dragon Teeth park.
A polished granite inscribed marble plaque attached to the front of a large upright fieldstone.
The plaque remembers 1LT Richard Spencer Burrows of the 33rd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division who was killed while breaching the West Wall (Siegfried Line) near this location on September 12, 1944. 1LT Burrows is considered the first American soldier killed in action while fighting on German soil in WW2.
The memorial also remembers a German Noncommissioned Officer, Heinrich Bruck, who was killed near here. The memorial also remembers all the victims of both world wars.
1LT Burrows is buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium. Oberfoldwebel Brunk is buried in the nearby German War Cemetery Soldatenfriedhof Vossenack in Vossenack, Germany.
From the Liberation War Route Website:
On the afternoon of 12 September 1944, the small municipality of Roetgen, located about 20 kilometres southeast of Aachen, became the first German municipality to be liberated by American soldiers. The American troops achieved this less than 100 days after their arrival on European soil.
The small municipality of Roetgen was liberated by soldiers of the First US Army under the leadership of General Courtney Hodges. Less than 100 days after their landing on D-Day, 6 June 1944, the members of the VII Corps made it from the Atlantic coast of France across occupied Western Europe to the border of the German Reich.
Source: https://www.liberationroute.com
Monument Text:
The inscription on the plaque is written in German and English. The English reads:
THIS MONUMENT COMMEMORATES
THE GERMAN AND AMERICAN SOLDIERS
WHO DIED HERE SEPTEMBER 12-13, 1944
REPRESENTING ALL THE VICTIMS OF THE WORLD WARS
OF THE 20TH CENTURY
RICHARD SPENCER BURROWS
1st LIEUTENANT
3RD US ARMORED DIV
US ARMY
WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION
ON SPETEMBER 12, 1944
HEINRICH BRUNK
OBERFELDWEBEL
Ersatz-u. Ausb. B+l. 328
Deutsche Wehrmacht
KILLED IN ACTION ON
SEPTEMBER 13, 1944
