Harold J Monk
Lt Col Combat Eng
WWII Army 1942-1946
Harold J. Monk was born in an abandoned boxcar along the Cheyenne River south of Wasta, South Dakota on April 22, 1908, son of Jesse Monk (a railroad station master) and Emma Monk. He graduated from Burlington Junction, Missouri, High School in 1926, and received his B.S. (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Iowa and was commissioned a 2nd Lt. from the University of Iowa Army ROTC in 1931. He received his Masters Degree in Engineering at the University of Iowa in 1933. He married Evelyn J. Kanak of Iowa City on June 6, 1934. He worked as Iowa City building inspector for several years and thereafter spent a short time as professor of engineering and mathematics at a college in Cookeville, Tennessee, but left his teaching position to enter active duty following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Monk was an enlisted man in the Iowa National Guard in his earlier years. He entered active duty as an Army officer in May, 1942. He was stationed at several locations in the United States until 1944 when he was reassigned to England. There he trained for the D-Day invasion of Europe. His unit was the 147th Engineering Combat Battalion, 6th Engineer Special Brigade attached to the 1st Infantry Division for Operation Overlord and was involved with the June 6, 1944, invasion of Omaha Beach, Normandy. His men were some of the first to go ashore landing soon after 7:00 a.m. His landing craft (LCI #84) was shot out from under him, and he and his men were forced to swim in to the beach, hide behind tetrahedrons, and eventually crawl forward up the beach. They were under heavy fire for most of that day. They finally made their way to the beach wall where they used bangalore torpedo explosives to open the wall, rush the German gun emplacements, and capture a foothold on French soil. Monk served as an Army Engineer Officer during the continuing invasion of Germany. After the victory in Europe he served as an instructor at a U.S. Military University established in Shrivenham, England, for soldiers who were waiting their turn to come back to the United States. Lt. Col. Monk left military service on February 17, 1946.
After military service he returned to Iowa City where he lived for the remainder of his life. He became Ass’t Johnson County Engineer until his death on March 10, 1954. He and Evelyn had three children, David H. Monk, Gerald R. Monk, and Janis E. Monk (aka Janis E. Bright).
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