An American D-Day Participants Grouping to Lieutenant Colonel Woulded at St. Lô

Second War Group of Nine, to Lieutenant Colonel Cecil E. Runkle, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, Virginia National Guard, D-Day Veteran Wounded at St. Lô: Bronze Star; Purple Heart; Army Good Conduct Medal; American Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star; American Campaign Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal; World War II Victory Medal; Virginia National Guard Legion of Merit; and Virginia National Guard Six Years' Faithful Service Medal with seven Dogwood Blossom Devices (each device representing an additional three years' service). Un-mounted, original ribbons, five with brooch pinbacks, holes present on the American Campaign Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal where bronze stars once resided, near extremely fine. Accompanied by a Ribbon Bar (Purple Heart; American Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star; American Campaign Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Bronze Star; World War II Victory Medal; Army Armed Forces Reserve Medal with two Hour Glass Devices; and Virginia National Guard Six Years' Faithful Service Medal with three Dogwood Blossom Devices, with two holes where two devices once resided. Mounted to a light-brown wool covered board with three push pins on the reverse); Nine Miniatures (Group one: Bronze Star; Purple Heart; Army Good Conduct Medal; and American Defense Service Medal; Group Two: American Campaign Medal with Bronze Star; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Bronze Star; World War II Victory Medal; Army Armed Forces Reserve Medal with three Hour Glass Devices; and Virginia National Guard Legion of Merit. Each group is mounted to a bar, original ribbons, dual push pin points on the reverse); a Lieutenant Colonel Rank Insignia (sterling silver, maker marked "GEMSCO", coded "G22" and marked "STERLING" on the reverse, 26.5 mm x 28.5 mm, dual push pin points); his Uniform Name Plate (black and white plastic, inscribed "RUNKLE", 25.5 mm x 76.2 mm, dual push pins on the reverse); a 29th Infantry Division Patch (gray, blue and green embroidery, 53 mm x 63 mm); a 116th Infantry Regiment Pin (bronze gilt with gray, white, red, blue and black enamels, maker marked "DONDERO, INC.", coded "D21" and marked "MADE IN U.S.A." on the reverse, 25.5 mm x 30.5 mm, dual push pin points); and a Book Entitled "Eighty-First Infantry Division "The Wildcats" " (with multiple photos illustrating various leisure activities, base training and maneuvers, handwritten inscriptions on various pages in blue ink, cover printed in red, blue and black inks on a thick off-white paper stock, 62 pages printed in black ink: 18 pages on a white semi-gloss paper stock and 44 pages on a thick newsprint stock, quadruple staple-bound with glued cover, one page exhibiting a 10 mm x 70 mm cut out, 282 mm x 357 mm).

Footnote: Cecil E. "Tip" Runkle was born of January 25, 1916. He was from the Shanandoah Valley in Virginia and originally joined the 116th Infantry Regiment in the 1930s. At that time, his unit was a coastal artillery unit. Their training consisted of one night a week in the armory for four hours, which included classroom work, along with stints at Ft. Story, in order to practice on the guns. The 116th Infantry Regiment is traditionally made up of companies in Virginia and traces its lineage to the 8th Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War. It was initially composed of German settlers in the Shanandoah Valley and over the years, it changed its composition but even during the Second World War, there remained a large concentration of men with German surnames (e.g. Runkle). Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Runkle was an executive officer in his company. He took a number of ranking individuals out of the 29th Infantry Division and made them cadre, to begin the 81st Infantry Division. The men of the 116th Infantry Regiment who fought and died during the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 grew up together, worked, played and worshipped together and were from the same small communities in Virginia. A couple of days after the D-Day landing, Runkle landed at Omaha Beach with the 81st Infantry Division, where he saw bodies with the gray and blue patches of the 81st Infantry Division on the uniforms. It would bring tears to his eyes years then and years later, when he would recount the event. Runkle participated during the Battle of Saint-Lô, France, which was one of the three conflicts in the Battle of the Hedgerows, which took place between July 9th and 24th, 1944, just before Operation Cobra. Saint-Lô had fallen to Germany in 1940, and, after the Invasion of Normandy, the Americans targeted the city, as it served as a strategic crossroads. American bombardments caused heavy damage (up to 95% of the city was destroyed) and a high number of casualties, which resulted in the martyr city being called "The Capital of Ruins", popularized in a report by Samuel Beckett. The 29th Infantry Division attacked the northeast sector of Saint-Lô, near the Madeleine. A battalion led by Major Sidney Bingham, called the "lost battalion" found itself isolated for a whole day without ammunition and with little food. They had twenty-five wounded, with only three nurses, and were surrounded by German forces. Planes were called in to drop plasma. Martainville Hill was continuously showered by German artillery. On July 17th, the 3rd Battalion, under Major Thomas D. Howie, joined up with the lost battalion around 4:30 in the morning. Hidden by dense vegetation, the 3rd Battalion had orders not to return enemy fire, and use only their bayonets. The mission was successful, but Howie was fatally wounded by a mortar shell explosion. Their position was then heavily attacked, preventing any further movement that day. Lieutenant Colonel Cecil E. Runkle was wounded at Saint-Lô and spent the remainder of the war in England at the "edge of death". He survived his wounds and returned to the United States, where he would be awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. For his Second World War service, he was awarded the Army Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. He was married to Dorothy Butler Runkle (born March 12, 1917), the couple having one son, E.L. "Tip" Runkle and made their home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Cecil E. Runkle was a life-long member of the Virginia National Guard, with whom he was awarded the Virginia National Guard Legion of Merit and the Virginia National Guard Six Years' Faithful Service Medal with seven Dogwood Blossom Devices. In the rank of Colonel, Cecil E. Runkle (Retired), he was President of the Virginia National Guard Association from 1961 to 1962. Runkle's wife, Dorothy, died on February 3, 1981, at the age of 63, with Runkle himself dying on January 2, 2000, at the age of 83. He is buried in Saint Pauls Cemetery, Ivy, Albemarle County, Virginia, just west of Charlottesville, in the same cemetery as his predeceased wife. His grave marked is inscribed "CECIL E. RUNKLE / U.S. ARMY / WORLD WAR II / PURPLE HEART / 116 INF 20 DIV VANG". E.L. "Tip" Runkle, the only son of United States Army (Retired) Colonel Cecil E. Runkle and Dorothy Butler Runkle, was born on August 31, 1943 and attended Fishburne Military School and Rock Hill Academy. He later attended Beckley College in West Virginia, before serving in the United States Navy and was an avid outdoorsman, spending many hours canoeing, fishing, snow-skiing, re-enacting and attending sports car events. He died on February 15, 2014, at the age of 70 and was survived by his wife of forty-four years, Jeanne S. (Demi) Runkle.