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769. Pensacola's July Loss 7-9-1944 WWII

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Updated: Feb 27, 2022

US Army Private Elmer David Long was born in Haynesville, Louisiana on January 1, 1925, the son of William "Billy" Alumnus Long (1896-1925) and Marilda Nora Carter (1892-1925). His parents were married on November 22, 1917, in Crenshaw County, Alabama, and moved shortly afterward to Pensacola. There, they were living at 2216 West Jackson Street where Billy was working as a laborer in a shipyard.


Also living in Pensacola at the time were Elmer's grandparents Robert "Bob" Pollard Long (1863-1922) and Mittie Lei Miller (1874-1951). They were living and farming in the Millview community of Escambia County. Two years later Bob passed away and Mittie moved to East Carroll County, Louisiana to live with her son Thomas L. Long. It was during this time that Billy and Nora left Pensacola themselves and relocated to Homer, Louisiana in the northern part of that state.


While in Homer, Billy and Nora got mixed up with some bootleggers although it's unclear whether they were buying illegal alcohol or selling it. The 18th amendment had been passed in 1919 making it illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell intoxicating liquors. But every county across America began making its own liquor to compensate for the loss of the legal production. Regardless of their role in the situation, a gunfight ensued between Billy and Nora and the other man and woman. It was obvious that Nora was not expecting trouble since she was holding the infant Elmer in her arms at the time. However, when the shooting started Nora tried to shield Elmer from the bullets with her own body. When the fight was over, both couples were dead, and Elmer as the only survivor.


Following the funeral, Millie took custody of Elmer and returned to her son's house in East Carroll. She would return to Pensacola before 1940 to live with her daughter Carrie Mae Long Coleman (1903-1989) and her family in Bratt. By 1943, Elmer had finished one year of high school and was living at 16 North Spring Street and working as a sales clerk at Delchamps Grocery Store on West Garden Street.


At what point the young man chose to join the war effort is unknown but he had grown up with stories of his great grandfather Robert Benjamin Long (1830-1908). Robert left his wife Martha Ridgeway and his blacksmith forge to enlist in the Confederate Army on April 5, 1862, in Company "H" of the 60th Alabama Infantry Regiment. He would later serve with the 1st Battalion of Hilliard's Legion and fight until the end of the war. He and Martha would both die from influenza on March 15, 1908. They were both large people and both wished to be buried in the same coffin. So a carpenter came to their house and built a coffin inside their home however when they tried to carry it out, it was too big for the front door. They had to remove the front doors to extract the coffin and carry it to the Long Chapel Cemetary for burial.


In the meantime, Elmer enlisted in the US Army on April 28, 1943, and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for processing and orientation. After basic training, he was assigned to the 315 Infantry Regiment with the 79th Infantry Division. He would sail for England with components of the division landing separately at Glasgow, Scotland, and Liverpool, England. They were quartered near Cheshire, England as they went through training for amphibious landing and attacking fortified positions. The division sailed from the ports of Plymouth, Falmouth, and Southampton and landed on Utah Beach six days after the initial D-Day landing.


Elmer's regiment joined the division in the breakout from the Normandy beaches and fought inland to take the town of Cherbourg. By July 3, the regiment was attacking toward Hill #84 near the town of Montgardon. Here the going got rough as the Germans fought tenaciously from the hedgerows where they were dug in and ordered by Hitler to fight to the last man. By July 5, the regiment was attacking the French town of La Haye-du-Puits, which was finally captured by July 8 after house-to-house fighting. After the fighting, Lt. Arch Hoge Jr. of Tennessee raised a small Confederate flag above the town. This same flag had been raised by his uncle during WWI over another French town and his grandfather had raised it over a town during the Civil War.


It was in this pitched battle that Elmer was fatally wounded by artillery shrapnel fragments and would perish from his wounds on July 9, 1944. His body was turned over to the graves registration company along with the other casualties and buried in a military cemetery. Today, he rests in the Normandy Military Cemetery in France while his grandmother Mittie lies at Godwin Cemetery in Bratt.













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