Charlie T. Gardner

Private Charlie T. Gardner was killed in action on January 17, 1945 in Belgium during World War II.  He was 23 years old.

Charlie T. Gardner was born on April 18, 1921 the son of J. T. Gardner and Ida Caulder Gardner. He was married and had two children at the time of his death.

Pvt Gardner was inducted into the U. S. Army in March, 1943.  He trained at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and Camp Atterbury, Indiana serving in Company I, 424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division.  The 106th  was deployed to the European Theatre of War arriving in England on November 17, 1944. 

The 106th deployed to France on December 6, 1944 and crossed into Belgium on December 10, 1944,  guarding a 22-mile stretch of the Allied front line in Northwest Europe. The recommended length of front line for an American division in 1944 was at most six miles.  There were other difficulties as well. The division artillery battalions were low on ammunition, having received none since landing in France a week before. Assured that they would receive plenty of ammunition when they arrived at the front, in fact there was none for them. It was only through the generosity of the artillery battalions of the 2nd Infantry Division that a supply was finally obtained. Of more concern to the men of the 106th (the “Golden Lions”) was the fact that their barracks bags, containing all their spare clothing and personal articles, had yet to catch up with them. In the cold, wet climate of the Ardennes Forest, this quickly became a problem when individual cases of frostbite began to appear within days of arrival. The climate was not welcoming, and the men huddled in huts, pillboxes, and villages when available. Most of these villages were in depressions, “sugar bowls” the men called them, at crossroads within the Ardennes Forest. They were all surrounded by hills which would allow an enemy unobstructed observation of them and easily allow an enemy to bring down fire on each village.

At 0530 on a wintry Saturday morning, December 16, 1944. the Germans suddenly opened up with everything from nimble 3-inch mortars to massive 16-inch railway guns.  The "battle of the Bulge" had begun. The men of the 106th were about to plunge into one of the worst disasters in US military history. Within days, their division would be destroyed, and most of them would be spending the rest of the war in German POW cages.

Caught by surprise, the men of the 106th tumbled out of bed, or they ran into each other in their haste, or they desperately tried to get the ice-cold engines in their jeeps to turn over, or they fired wildly in every direction.  The Germans never assaulted the positions of the 106th directly. Rather, their plan called for one column to assault through the relatively open terrain of the Losheim Gap to the north of the Schnee Eifel, while a second, complementary column punched through US lines to the south of it. The rapid link up of these two pincers behind the Eifel encircled two entire US infantry regiments of the 106th Division, the 422nd and the 423rd, perhaps 7,000 men in all. They were now surrounded, out of contact with neighboring units, and cut off from supply. They would surrender, en masse and on the orders of their regimental commanders, on Tuesday, December 19th, day four of the German operation. It was "the most serious reverse suffered by American arms" in the entire European campaign.

The remainder of the division, the 424th Regiment, fought for its life nearby,  evaded the German pincer movement,  was reinforced by the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division and withdrew over the Our River joining other units at St. Vith. Along with the city of Bastogne to the south, St. Vith was a road and rail junction city considered vital to the German goal of breaking through Allied lines to split American and British forces and reach the Belgian port city of Antwerp.

A scratch force of 106th Division personnel fought a five-day holding action (December 17–21) on a thin ridge line a mile outside St. Vith, against German forces vastly superior in numbers and armament (only a few hundred green Americans versus many thousands of veteran Germans). The force pulled back from St. Vith on December 21, under constant enemy fire, and withdrew over the Salm River at Vielsalm on December 23. The following day, the 424th Regiment, attached to the 7th Armored Division, fought a delaying action at Manhay until ordered to an assembly area. From December 25,1944 to January 9, 1945, the division received reinforcements and supplies at Anthisnes, Belgium, and returned to the struggle, securing objectives along the Ennal-Logbierme line on January 15 after heavy fighting.   Pvt Gardner was killed in action on January 17, 1945. 

Private Charlie T. Gardner is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Henderson, North Carolina. 

Last edited: 28 April 2026