The World War II service of two lifelong Wilmington friends led them on similar paths from the Normandy beaches to final victory along Germany’s Elbe River.
Daniel David Cameron and Chris Eugene Fonvielle graduated together from New Hanover High School in 1938 and Virginia Military Institute (roommates) in 1942, both age 21.
Cameron trained at Camp Davis near Wilmington and landed over Omaha Beach on June 8, 1944. A three-year captain, he commanded automatic weapons Battery B of the 430th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion which protected field artillery.
“We were always exposed, but did not take too many casualties.”
He campaigned with the 5th Corps through St. Lo and Normandy, France; Holland; the Bulge in Belgium; and the German Siegfried Line, Roer River and Rhine River. For the final spring 1945 drive to the Elbe to link with Soviet forces, he served in the 19th Corps.
Troops thought the snow was colder than usual. The turkey dinner served at noon tasted good, but otherwise there was still watch to be stood, weapons to be cleaned and gloves to be thawed out. – Official Report, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Division, Malmedy, Belgium - New Year s Eve, 1944
By then, the main Battle of the Bulge had thwarted the German attacks which began Dec. 16, 1944. From defensive foxholes, the 120th, which included Wilmington-area National Guard soldiers fighting since Normandy, noted a quiet front without harassing fire. Vigilance, hunker down, and send patrols to capture prisoners.
“Three hours into the new year two platoons set out across the snow to investigate a strong point in a house 200 yards southwest of the road junction at Baugnez” in no-man’s-land, the report continued. Germans fired on the raiding party. Flanking the enemy through a field southwest of Baugnez, “Some of the men stumbled over uneven humps in the ground.”