James Malone Pendergrass

Private First Class James Malone Pendergrass was killed in action on July 9, 1944 on the Carentin Peninsula, Normandy,  France during World War II.  He was 24 years old.

James Malone Pendergrass was born on March 27, 1920 in Kittrell, Vance County, North Carolina, the son of James Pendergrass and Rodie Loyd Pendergrass. 

PFC Pendergrass was inducted into the U.S. Army on June 18, 1942.  He was deployed to the European Theater of War in June 1944 serving with the 315th Infantry Regiment, 79th Division. 

The 315th landed in Normandy, France on June 14, 1944.  On June 19, 1944, a massive gale hit the English Channel, sweeping in from the west, hitting the gigantic artificial harbors the Allies had built on their D-Day invasion beaches. By daylight on the 20th, the artificial roads and piers had disappeared under waves that reached eight feet high. For three days, the storm tore at the British breakwaters off Arromanches and the American ones at St. Laurent-sur-Mer, destroying the American harbor entirely and badly damaging the British piers. More than 140,000 tons of supplies were destroyed, and 800 ships lost or beached.

Once the 79th Division linked up with the other three infantry divisions in VII Corps, the  Corps was given the crucial assignment of seizing the Cherbourg Peninsula (also called the Cotentin Peninsula) and the deepwater port city of Cherbourg. After loss of the artificial harbors on June 19, it was vital that the Allies control the port of Cherbourg, which would be the chief resupply and reinforcement point for Allied ships crossing the Atlantic from the United States.

The 79th Division spearheaded a three-pronged assault on Cherbourg. The terrain facing them was uniquely difficult: north of the Valognes–Barneville line the ground was primarily hilly, but south of the line it was flat and marshy, crisscrossed by small streams and divided into countless farm fields and orchards by centuries-old hedgerows of earth, stone, and underbrush. The Germans, long skilled in the art of defense, had reinforced the natural earthworks with scores of concrete pillboxes and well-placed antitank guns. They had also flooded the flatlands, forcing the attackers to splash through knee-deep water and mud on their approach.

The 79th Division’s initial objective was the high ground west and northwest of the village of Valognes, which commanded the Valognes–Cherbourg highway and blocked access from the feeder roads on that side of Valognes. Zero hour was set for 5 a.m. on June 19. The 313th and 315th Regiments would go over to the attack, with the 314th Regiment held in reserve.  The 315th Regiment made first contact with the enemy near Flottenanville. A German counterattack at 3 p.m. held up the advance for four hours before it was repelled with heavy losses. Farther to the right, at Lieusaint, enemy snipers also slowed the advance, and all three of the regiment’s battalions were brought into action to clear the area. By nightfall, all the units had reached their first-day objectives, most of them ahead of schedule.

For the next two days the 79th proceeded toward Cherbourg, an exhausting stop-and-start advance that necessarily slowed each time the various regiments encountered German resistance. Even in late June, the nights were cold, and the men dropped into foxholes and slept when they could, which was not often since enemy artillery incessantly split the night.

The last key to the German defense before Cherbourg was Fort du Roule, situated on a ridge running northwest to southeast in front of the city. On the morning of June 25, Allied planes dive-bombed the fort before the men of the 79th Division launched their attack. Fort du Roule’s defenders surrendered at 9:48 that night.  On June 27, the 4th Division moved into Cherbourg to garrison the city, and the 79th headed south.

The 79th Division had taken Cherbourg, but the Germans still had forces spread across the Carentin Peninsula, from Denneville on the extreme western flank east through St. Lô to Carentan. To link up with other advancing Allied troops—and to avoid being trapped in a bottleneck on the peninsula itself— the 315th would attack farther west in the direction of Hill 84 near Montgardon. After taking Hill 84 on July 3, 1944 (and encountering for the first time the vaunted troops of the 2nd Schutzstaffel [SS] Division), the men of the 315th were joined by the 313th, which helped beat back an intense counterattack on the promontory the Germans were calling “Bloody Hill.” Highways south and east of La Haye-du-Puits were still infested with German defenders and heavily mined. It took the 79th 11 days to clear the peninsula. In doing so, the division suffered 2,930 casualties.  PFC Pendergrass was killed in action on July 9, 1944.  

Private First Class James Malone Pendergrass is buried in the New Sandy Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Vance County, North Carolina. 

Last edited: 8 June 2026