CPT Robert B. Trenner
Captain (CPT) Robert Banks Trenner of Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR), was born in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, to Robert and Margaret A. (Banks) Trenner on February 4, 1918. Robert was their youngest child. He had two older brothers, Logan G. and Kenneth W. Trenner.
Kenneth served with several units during WWII. At Camp Bowie, Texas, with the HQ Company, CC “B”, of the 13th Armored Division, at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, with the battalion headquarters of 655th Engineer Top Battalion, and at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, as well as Ft Jackson, South Carolina, while serving with Co A of the 657th Engineer Top Battalion. While serving with the 657th, he was promoted to Technician 3rd Grade on October 4, 1944.
Robert finished North Side High School in Fort Wayne (Class of 1936) and then spent two years studying at Indiana University, where he was a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity. After this period, he was employed as an insurance salesman and traveled from Shanghai, China, to the Port of San Francisco on April 13, 1939.
He registered for the draft at Fort Wayne, Allen County, on October 16, 1940. At the time, he worked for a Medical Business Bureau in Fort Wayne. Robert enlisted at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Marion County, Indiana, on November 20, 1940.
At the start of September 1941, he reported as a candidate for officers’ training at the Officers Candidate Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia. There is no information available on when he graduated and his assignment to the 327th, but Robert is mentioned in a Headquarters 101st Airborne Division special order (number 102, Ft Bragg, North Carolina, dated December 14, 1942) as a first lieutenant of the 327th GIR.
CPT Robert Trenner assumed command of Baker Company on August 24, 1943, when he was transferred from the 327th Headquarters Company to Baker Company. On September 5, 1943, he sailed with the regiment on the SS Samaria to England.
Baker Company boarded a landing ship in England at 09:15 hrs on June 2, 1944, and landed at Utah Beach, Normandy, on the evening of 7 June.
On June 10, at 01:45 hrs, the first battalion of the 327th began crossing the lower Douve with rubber boats, and by 06:00 hrs, under cover of mortar fire, the entire regiment was across. While Baker and Charlie Company were crossing the Douve, they took heavy casualties from their own friendly mortar support, which some leaders have denied happened.
After securing Brevands, 327th GIR turned south toward Catz. Late on June 10, and near Catz, the regiment swung east, with its 1st Battalion on the south side of the Carentan Insigny highway and with 2nd Battalion on the north side. The 327th encountered heavy enemy pressure during their approach, and to make matters worse, the glidermen had to fight the Germans in waist-deep muck.
During the early evening hours of 10 June, CPT Trenner proceeded, initially alone, around a hedgerow close to the front lines, in the direction from which enemy fire had come. As the enemy evidently had left its positions, a small patrol consisting of at least CPT Trenner and LT Walter Fleming started to find out what happened. The patrol ran into enemy fire that stopped them. The group of men took cover as the two officers managed to move forward another 300 yards until they came under more heavy enemy sniper and mortar fire. Both men were pinned down and had to wait for darkness until they were able to return safely to their own lines.
In the early morning hours of June 11, 1944, while attacking the enemy, CPT Trenner was killed in action by the enemy, possibly by artillery or mortar fire.
Another Screaming Eagle had soared to the ultimate height. 🦅
Source: sites.rootsweb.com
CPT Robert Trenner died at the age of 26 in Normandy, France. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart Medal. On June 14, 1944, he was first buried at the Temporary American Military Cemetery of Sainte-Mère-Eglise #1 at Plot B, Row 10, Grave 197. He was disinterred on March 19, 1948, and moved by truck to Cherbourg, where his casket was placed on the USAT Lawrence Victory on April 26, 1948. After he arrived in New York Harbor on May 7, 1948, he was transported by train to Fort Wayne, arriving on 7 June. CPT Trenner rests eternally at the Lindenwood Cemetery, Wayne Township, Allen County, Indiana.
May he rest in peace.
Happy Birthday in Heaven, Robert.
Lest we forget. 🇺🇸
Sources:
Family Search
After Action Reports 327th GIR (courtesy of Kevin Brooks)
NARA
North Side High School Yearbook (1946), Fort Wayne, Remembrance Page