J M Blankenship

Pvt J Blankenship was killed in action on 11 June 1944, serving with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment. On this date, the 116th Infantry as a whole was reported moving across the flooded lowlands to take up a position in Division Reserve near the Bois de Calette. Records for this period describe the regiment's movements at this broader level rather than detailing the actions of individual companies or troops within it, so it is not possible to state precisely what the Regimental Troops themselves were doing at that hour. It can be said, however, that they would have shared in this general repositioning as part of the regiment's shift into reserve, away from the immediate fighting, in the days following the Normandy landings. Pvt Blankenship was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.