Date of birth:

October 25th, 1925 (Hammond-Lake County/Indiana, United States)

Date of death:

September 20th, 1944 (Nijmegen/Gelderland, the Netherlands)

Buried on:

Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial
Plot: F. Row: 4. Grave: 23.

Service number:

35900872

Nationality:

American

Private (PVT) Jack Martin Seitzinger was born on October 25, 1925, in Hammond, Lake County, Indiana, the United States of America. He was the eldest son of Martin Delbert Seitzinger and Zilphia May Dunlap and had three more brothers and four sisters. After grammar school he went only one year to Hammond Tech High School. He then started to work at Glodblatt’s Department Store in his hometown Hammond.

Jack, just 18 years old, enlisted in the US Army on December 14, 1943, in Indianapolis, Indiana. On January 8, 1944, he reported to Camp Blanding in Clay, Florida, for his basic- and secondary infantry training. He probably then volunteered for training to become parachutist and graduated on June 23, 1944, at Fort Benning, Georgia, and received his parawing. Subsequently he shipped to England and was assigned to I Company, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (504 PIR), 82nd Airborne Division “All American”. Under supervision of the experienced cadre members of the unit, Jack and his buddies prepared for the upcoming combat, operation Market Garden.

On September 17th, 1944, Jack jumped above the Netherlands, with his unit, and landed near Overasselt. 504 PIR’s objectives were to immediately capture the bridges across the river Maas and the Maas-Waal canal. The 3rd Battalion, with Jack, had to secure the western flank of the regiment, while the 2nd Battalion had to take the Maas-bridge near Grave and the 1st Battalion had to capture the bridges crossing the Maas-Waal canal. The regiment succeeded within 24 hours after the paradropping. In the afternoon of September 19, the 3rd Battalion became division-reserve of the 82nd Airborne Division. Jack and his fellow troopers of the 3rd Battalion, marched via bridge number 7 (near Heumen), to the southern suburbs of Nijmegen. That night they camped in the Jonkerbosch woods. That same evening, the commanding officer (CO) of the 3rd Battalion, Major Julian Aaron Cook, received the order of General Gavin, CO of the 82nd Airborne Division, to cross the river Waal the next day by boat. The battalion had to seize the northern approaches and ramps of the two bridges crossing the Waal near Nijmegen.

Together with his fellow warriors of the 3rd Battalion, Jack marched, on the morning of September 20, to the south bank of the river Waal near the Nijmegen powerplant at the NYMA area. There they had to wait for the arrival of the canvas boats that had to be transported all the way from a Belgium depot to Nijmegen. Jacks unit, the I Company, together with the battalion staff and H Company, would cross the Waal in the first wave.

On September 20, 1944, Jack probably was assigned to the same boat as PFC Raymond H. Grummer and PVTs Anthony Bei, Leonard G. Trimble and Dale E. Campbell. At 15.00 the assault started with a preliminary bombardment and at 15.15 the men moved, while carrying their boats and gear, to the Waal and then started to row across the river. The boats were almost immediately spotted by the enemy and came under heavy fire from mortars, machine guns (MG) and antiair artillery (FLAK). At what point exactly Jacks boat was hit by enemy fire is unclear, but only Trimble was to survive their ordeal. The boat reportedly circled and drifted back to the south bank of the river, where the severely wounded Trimble was picked up and brought to the nearest first-aid station. Next to Jack, also Bei, Campbell and Grummer were killed.

PVT Jack Martin Seitzinger was only 18 years of age, when he died in combat on the river Waal near Nijmegen on the afternoon of September 20, 1944. At first he was buried at the temporary graveyard in Molenhoek, south of Nijmegen. Later he was reburied at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, the Netherlands; in plot F, row 4, grave 23.

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• Photo 1: Findagrave.com by Kaths
• Photo 2: Findagrave.com by Ralph P.
• - LUNTEREN, F. VAN, The Battle of the Bridges, Casemate, 2017.
  - MEGELLAS, J., De weg naar Berlijn, Mynx, Amsterdam, Nederland, 2005.
  - NORDYKE, P., All American All the Way, Zenith Press, St. Paul, United States, 2005.
  - STEENBERGER, D. e.a., De Oversteek, De Gelderlander, Nijmegen, 2013.
  - https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/people_details.php?PeopleID=31594
  - https://www.honorstates.org/profiles/40783/
  - https://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/en/american-war-cemetery-margraten-s/52842-seitzinger-jack-m
  - https://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/504/504_trp_3.html#seitzinger
  - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56303718/jack-martin-seitzinger
  

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