Private First Class Harry Soled - 80th Infantry Division

​Harry Soled was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on August 19, 1922 to Louis and Sarah Soled. He and his family moved to Brooklyn, NY and he went on to study at Cooper Union in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. In June 1942 at 19 years old, Harry Soled registered for the draft at the local draft board on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. By this time, he was working for a Butcher on Manhattan’s west side (600 West 40th Street) as had recently moved to uptown Manhattan (St. Nicolas Avenue) from Brooklyn. In the spring of 1943 he finally enlisted. After basic training, Harry Soled was enrolled in the Army Specialized Training Program. It was program instituted by the United States Army in conjunction with various American universities, which trained college educated soldiers with specific technical skills and for possible promotion to the officer ranks. By mid to late 1944, the program was disbanded, however, and many of the soldiers employed in its ranks were actually sent overseas (primarily the ETO) to offset the losses suffered by US units at the front. It was here that Private First Class Harry Soled was sent to and attached to 80th Infantry Division.  The division landed on Utah Beach in August 1944 and fought through France to the German border with Patton’s Third Army. In early December it was pulled for the line for rest and recuperation, but was sent back on December 20th in response the great German offensive in the Ardennes (The Battle of the Bulge).

Soled is shown above as a college student at Manhattan's Cooper Union. He is shown below, serving in the Army Specialized Training Program, evident by his shoulder patch. 

​The division assembled in Luxemburg and engaged in heavy fighting on the Bulge’s southern shoulder through the end of the year. In early January, 80th Infantry Division was attacking in the vicinity of the Sure River opposite the German 276. Infanterie-Division.

The situation on January 8, 1945. Note 80th Infantry Division on the southern side of the pocket
(Library of Congress)

​ On January 8, 1945, Soled was hit by artillery and suffered a wound to his shoulder area. He was evacuated through a local Aid Station. On January 11, 1945, by way of his division’s General Order no. 11, Soled was awarded the Purple Heart. An official copy of his award extract is shown below.

He survived the war and returned to Brooklyn where he was married in June 1948. He moved to Florida in 1993 and died in 2001.

Soled's Purple Heart is shown above, along with his dog tag, can opener, ten commnadment's medal, and Torah scroll he carried with him while in the war. Notice the H on his dogt tag to indentify his religion as Jewish.