Individual Details

Lieutenant Colonel
U.S. Army (88th Infantry Division, 351st Infantry Regiment)
Rock Hill, South Carolina
1918 to September 25, 1944
Killed during a skirmish with German troops
near Mounte Pratolungo in Castel Del Rio,
a small town in the mountains between
Florence and Bologna, Italy
Buried Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock Hill, South Carolina

http://www.infostorianews.it/html/tourism___history.html
- Montefune Castel del Rio, Long Lawn of Montefune, Cippo in memory of the Colonel Charles P.Furr and the soldiers of the 351° Regiment, 88.ma Division of American Infantry, fallen in September 1944.

Picture of him taken Newport News, Va. : U.S. Army Signal Corps, Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, November 11, 1943. Major Charles P. Furr, 0-401078, Rockhill, S.C., Commanding Officer of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 351st Infantry, 88th Division, on Pier 8 before sailing overseas on HR-651.

Mister Jay D.Trimmer in visit to Castel of the River

Perhaps the New readers of the "Per diem one" remember an episode of war published time ago on these pages, legacy to the combats of beyond cinquant' years ago on mounts of Castel of the River, in which the fortuitous recovery by means of the metal-detector was narrated of a silver currency, an average dollar of 1875, between stones riarse of a step mount near Montefune dov' had fallen a commander American, the ten. with. Charles P. Furr. As a result of that story, took to contacts with the bulletin salary of the Association of the unit American who had operated on the Santerno, 88.a the Division of infantry; and in outcome, after laborious correspondence, to fine past October one of the soldiers has come to Castel of the River Americans survivors of the narrated episode and direct witness of that fact of arms.
Draft of mister Jay D. Trimmer of It Knows them, Illinois, a young person-old of 75 years, agile step and alert mind, accompanied from the Dave son and from I generate Ray (of sicialian origin).
After a week from tourists between Rome, Naples and Florence, directed to Venice and Milan, the three Americans have sostato to Castel of the River two days, accompany to you from the common friend Enzo Gorini of Florence that holds the contacts with their Association. Gorini, diciottenne in the ' 44, joined to the Americans of that unit in Tuscany, then followed them in the rest of the campaign of Italy and in America to the end of the war, from where it returned later with a profession trades them and, naturally, with the perfect mastery of the language.
To receive Trimmer in the public square of the country, together to the organizers and the onlookers there was a group of young people of it goes them, it gets passionate you of our recent military history and given over in particular to the search of reperti war. Trimmer, together to the relatives, has been introduced to Cavini mayor in the beautiful municipal center in the Alidosi Palace, than it has delivered one copy to it of the recent photographic history of the country; then it has been guided to visit the contiguous Museum of the War. Therefore, in corteo outside road, has been accompanied to Montefune, approximately six kilometers, from where on foot the Step of Pozz Gur has been caught up in group, said hour "Step of the Colonel", where to the dawn of the 25 september 1944, in head to its battalion fell with. Charles P. Furr, of 28 years, decorated to the memory.
With commotion, Trimmer has lived again on that path and described the numerous ones you introduce is made dramatic of the German ambush during which it saw to fall its commander who was left over before all in row, hit in head from a bomb by hand launch from a jumped enemy soldier from a hole, to which it followed along crackle of mitraglie that cut with a scythe a.morte sei-sette fellow soldiers; while other wounded or incolumi were made captive, like same he and captain Stanton Richart commander of the K Company, and pushed out then in the house of the Balzone little more under.
In the direct testimony of Orfeo of the Berlete is made of the reconstruction of the bloody crash has been precious, then sedicenne, than little hours after the battle rinvenne here, between the dead men Americans and Germans, the body of the official reversed American beyond the ciglio of the step, and of it it has indicated the exact positura. The same Orfeo then has told like two days after the crash, journeying on the same place, was guided from flebili invocazioni of aid until little finding under a soldier American in end of life, rolled between the scoscese cengie: race to the church of Montefune where there was the commando American and the wounded was carried in but. Although much serious one, to said of Trimmer, survived and seems that is tutt' living hour.
To this point, it is exited the famous silver currency, found dov' was the body of with. Furr, from whose pockets a lot probably had fallen during its removal: an average dollar consunto, perhaps held like portafortuna: that fortune did not carry!
And here on that alpine step, bathed from blood American, with a little commotion it is proceeded to the delivery of that silver currency, like a medal to the value from part ours, to the Trimmer soldier who with the eyes polishes, has been engaged to make it to reach in the hands of the relatives of with. Furr to Rock Hill in the North Carolina, its native land.
At the same time, the kind one. Salvatore Costanzo, director of the Museum of the War of Castel of the River, to the presence of the hosts Americans and the Italian friends, has been engaged to elevate on that step a cippo commemorative, supported from associations and exponents of the country, previ agreements with the Association of the veterans Americans whom center to Lancaster in Pennsylvania has, to the aim to hold lives the memory, not only of with. Furr, but of all the soldiers allies to you that cinquantacinque years ago were struck on our mounts for a free world.
Lorenzo Rasping
http://www.nuovodiario.com/pa131199.html

The Battle for Santa Maria Infante http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/smallunit/smallunit-smi.htm

A young father's sacrifice remembered 56 years later

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The European landscape is decorated with memorials to America's war dead: Headstones, crosses and granite monuments inscribed with names, dates and brief descriptions of the heroism and sacrifice of American soldiers during World War II. In the mountains of Italy, one newly erected marker recalls the sacrifice of a Rock Hill native 56 years after his death. The town of Castel Del Rio erected a monument to Lt. Col. Charles P. Furr and the men of the 351st Regiment, "whose bravery was seen on this site" on Sept. 25, 1944.

A Rock Hill High School graduate, Charles Furr was a member of the National Guard when his unit was activated around 1940. He later attended Officers Candidate School in Fort Benning, Ga. In Europe, Furr commanded the 351st Regiment, which was part of the famed 88th Infantry Division of the U.S 5th Army.

On Sept. 25, 1944, 26-year-old Furr was killed during a skirmish with German troops near Mounte Pratolungo in Castel Del Rio, a small town in the mountains between Florence and Bologna.

At the time of his death, Furr was leading an advance patrol. After the shooting stopped, two Italian teens hid the bodies from the Germans and later turned them over to American troops.

Furr was buried in Florence, Italy, along with thousands of other fallen American soldiers. His remains were disinterred in 1949 and returned to Rock Hill for burial in the military section of Laurelwood Cemetery. But even after the war, Castel Del Rio residents never forgot Furr and his men, who liberated them from the Germans. Today, hikers call that mountain pass "il passo del Colonnello" or Colonel's Pass in memory of Furr, said Lorenzo Raspanti, a member of the Castel Del Rio Museum.

A 59-year-old Fort Mill High School English teacher, Hannon was not yet 3 when her mother Lucille Dabney Furr received news of her husband's death.

"I remember clearly the night my mother received word he was dead," said Hannon. She recalled that although she was too young to remember what it felt like losing her father, she can't forget that before he died Furr sent instructions from the battlefront via military V-mail asking his father, Herbert, to buy Sandra a puppy for her third birthday, which fell on Oct. 28.

"He instructed him to place the dog in a crate so it would look like it came from the battlefield," Hannon said. "My grandfather bought that dog - a cocker spaniel named Tinker."

In addition to those memories, Hannon also has the old letters she scribbled and sent to her father, whose youthful optimism is captured in a 1943 family portrait with his daughter and wife. Hannon has a sketch of her father and an 1875 half dollar coin found near where her father was killed.

"I felt it was a talisman," Hannon said." A gift from my father's grandfather."

"I was captured at the same time the colonel was killed," said 77- year-old Trimmer from his home in LaSalle, Ill. "We were going up the mountain and walked into a trap. The Italians found eight bodies. About seven of us were captured," Trimmer said.

A retired Illinois state employee, Trimmer returned to Italy last year to revisit the place where he was captured before he was transported to Munich, Germany. He spent eight months as a POW at Stalag 7A at Moosburg, Germany, before being freed April 30, 1945.

"I wanted to go back and see where I was captured," said Trimmer who learned of the plans to erect the marker during his 1999 visit.

"When they gave him the talisman, they started looking for me," Hannon said.

Through the Internet and the network of the Blue Devils Association, the group of former members of the 88th Infantry, Trimmer found Hannon. She received the invitation to travel to Italy. Initially, because of health concerns, Hannon was reluctant to go.

"It was something she needed to do," said the Rev. Walter A. Clark, who married Hannon's mother a year and a half after Charles Furr was killed. A World War II veteran, Clark understood Hannon's emotional ties to the war and her father.

"It was part of her life," Clark said. "She needed to understand her heritage."

For Hannon, it was like completing an unfinished journey she had begun as a little girl more than 50 years ago.

"As a child, I always wanted to know what it was like when he died. I actually got to walk and be in the place where he was during his closing days. To meet the people he talked to," Hannon said. "It made me feel as if I knew him. I had not had that opportunity before."

Andrew J. Skerritt
askerritt@heraldonline.com
The Herald, Rock Hill, SC, 10/29/2000

'The military was his life, and he gave his life'
By Sula Pettibon <mailto:spettibon@heraldonline.com> The Herald

Charles Furr of Rock Hill died a hero even though he didn't go to college or West Point as he dreamed.
A dedicated husband, father and student of military history, Furr was Rock Hill's highest-ranking officer to be killed in World War II. A lieutenant colonel, he died during a skirmish with the Germans outside a mountain village in Italy.
"He was just one of those individuals that bubbled with life," said M.H. Carroll of Rock Hill, a childhood friend of Furr's. "The military was his life, and he gave his life. He is symbolic of the American youth who served in World War II."
A Veterans Day honor
Carroll plans to remember Furr and recognize five men from Furr's company during a Veterans Day observance Friday at Chandler Place retirement community.
The 90-minute program will begin at 9:30 a.m. with an hour of patriotic music. Descendants of soldiers from the Spanish-American War and World War I will be recognized, as well as representatives from each military branch, widows of deceased veterans and women who served.
A Gold Star flag, which was given to mothers who lost children in the war, will be displayed. Furr's daughter, Sandra Furr Hannon, plans to make a presentation.
"My blood runs red, white and blue," said Carroll, who was in the Navy Air Corps during World War II and the Korean War. "We are forgetting our veterans. I'm going to make this a patriotic rally."
Carroll, who is chaplain at Chandler Place, was three years younger than Furr when they grew up in the Highland Park Mill village, he said. Furr, who took Carroll under his wing, was Carroll's boyhood idol. "He was just a plain, old, good American," Carroll said.
Furr was the third of five children, and his parents worked at the Highland mill. He longed to attend West Point, but a ruptured eardrum kept him from passing the physical, said Hannon. He joined the National Guard instead. Furr also wanted to go to college, but there was no money. He worked two jobs at local mills and operated a small store in his parents' garage, where customers would dance to the jukebox.
"When he didn't get what he wanted, he looked for other opportunities," Hannon said.
He met his wife, Lucille Dabney, at a church event when she was just 12 and he was 17, Hannon said. He told a buddy that, when she got older, they would marry.
Lucille was allowed to date Furr when she was 14, provided they double-dated with her sister, Hannon said. Lucille was 16 when the two married Christmas Day, 1938.
His letters from the front, written in pencil, are full of love.
"Darling, tonight there is a moon as big as a wagon wheel," he wrote shortly before he died. "I wish I was there to look at it with you."
The National Guard unit was activated in 1940 and Furr, who had attended Officers Candidate School, rose through the ranks.
"He was a No. 1 soldier," said James Strait, 84, of Rock Hill, who served with Furr. "He would never ask you to do anything he wouldn't do."
'Doing a private's job'
Strait was in Germany when Furr was killed in Italy while commanding a regiment that became part of the 88th Infantry Division. He died Sept. 25, 1944, while leading an advance patrol in Castel Del Rio.
"The guy shooting the machine gun got killed, and Charles took over," Strait said. "He was doing a private's job when he got killed."
Furr was buried in Florence, Italy, but his body was brought home in 1949. Carroll was a pallbearer when they buried Furr at Laurelwoods Cemetery.
The people of Castel Del Rio never forgot. They dedicated a mountain pass -- Colonel's Pass -- in Furr's memory and put up a marker that recalls the sacrifice of the Americans.
Hannon's mother remarried when Hannon was a child, but they remained close to Furr's family. Her mother died in the early 1990s. Hannon, a former English and journalism teacher, loves to sort through her father's letters and pictures.
"It's like finding a piece of yourself," she said. "Every time I go through his things, I learn something I didn't know."
She's quick to say her father was like many others who need to be remembered.
"The men from this era had a strong work ethic and a strong sense of patriotism," she said. "You worked as hard as you could to do the right thing. Most men of his generation were the same way."
The Herald, Rock Hill, SC, 11/21/2005

• 

Birth	31 Dec 1917	Rock Hill, York County, SC
Marriage	25 Dec 1938	Sadie Lucile DABNEY
Occupation	1940	hosiery mill knitter - Rock Hill, York County, SC
Death	25 Sep 1944	Mounte Pratolungo, Castel Del Rio, Italy
Burial		Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock Hill, York County, SC
Military		in World War II

Spouse	Sadie Lucile DABNEY (1923 - 1994)
Child	Living

Father	James Herbert FURR (1894 - 1957)
Mother	Ada Mae WILLIAMS (1891 - 1985)
Sibling	Ruby P. FURR (1913 - 1992)
Sibling	James Herbert FURR Jr. (1915 - 1967)
Sibling	Ernest Franklin FURR (1922 - 1994)
Sibling	Grace Alethea FURR (1927 - 1975)

Notes