FIRST AMERICAN ON GERMAN SOIL - S/Sgt. Warner W. Holzinger,
Troop B 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron.

Webmaster's Note: S/Sgt Holzinger was erroneously reported as KIA near Wallendorf. However, in the June 2001 issue of The Victory Divison News, Will Cook, 5th Armored Divison Association Secretary-Editor, printed the following information on page 76 at the bottom of the second column: "...After Paths of Armor was written, a mistake was discovered. Warner Holzinger was not KIA. He died June 6 1988."

I was later contacted by Jim Gardner who was researching the cemetary where S/Sgt. Holzinger was buried. He was kind enough to provide the following information: "...[S/Sgt. Holzinger] died on 5 June, not 6 June. He was a resident of the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, WI, when he died.

Warner was born in Germany on 31 Mar 1916, and his name at birth was Werner Willi Holzinger. He came to the US with his parents and 3 older siblings in 1921. He was naturalized as a US citizen on 26 Sep 1940. One book states that he was from Reedsburg, WI; but every source document that I found has him living in Fort Atkinson, WI, before the war. He drove a dairy truck before the war."