Greene County

T/Sgt. Duane Rohovit

 

 

SAW SERVICE WITH FAMED 9TH DIVISION
T. SGT. DUANE ROHOVIT HOME
Was In Action in 7 Campaigns in War Against Nazis; From Africa to the Elbe


T. Sgt. Duane Rohovit, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Rohovit has returned from service in Europe with the famed Ninth division and has been discharged. Other Greene county boys who served with the Ninth are Alvin Schilling and George Booth.

Rohovit left New York Nov. 5, 1942, as a member of a light artillery unit attached to the Ninth and landed in England where they stayed for 30 days before going to North Africa. They landed in Africa ten days after the initial landings and he met the local headquarters company in Algiers.

The Ninth went through the entire African campaign and at El Guitar Sergeant Rohovit was decorated with the bronze star for heroic action in computing data for 12 days under fire. Following the fall of Bizerte and a short bivouac the Ninth went into Sicily. Circling the west end of the island, the unit took Palermo and smashed through to Mt. Etna before being withdrawn to Glasgow, Scotland.

On D plus 4, the unit landed at Omaha beach in France, cut the Cherbourg peninsula, then wheeled and took the fortress of Cherbourg. After a short rest they advanced into St. Lo and then raced across France during the break-through.

They were thrown into the Siegfried line below Aachen and during the Battle of the Bulge held a vital spot.

When the Remagen bridge across the Rhine was taken by the Allies, the Ninth was the first infantry unit to cross. The Ninth then went up to the Ruhr and later crossed Germany to meet the Russians at the Elbe. Recently they have been in the army of occupation in Bavaria.

The Ninth was in eight campaigns and Sergeant Rohovit took part in seven of them. He landed in Algiers after the campaign there had been completed.

Source: Jefferson Bee, October 2, 1945