Twice Wounded

Written by: Kelly Durham

His was the first American regiment to land in French Morocco during the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942.  Allan Jackson Snead of Greenwood continued to serve in the 47^th Infantry Regiment from Morocco to Sicily to Normandy.  Along the way, he would be wounded  twice.

Snead was a civil engineering major and a member of Clemson’s Class of 1941.  He was a member of the Greenwood County Club, the YMCA Council, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.  Snead qualified as a sharpshooter at ROTC summer training at Fort McClellan, Alabama and served as a cadet Second Lieutenant in Clemson’s Cadet Brigade his senior year.

Following graduation on June 2, 1941, Snead reported for active duty as the United States raced to build up its Army in response to the threat of the expanding war in Europe.  Snead was assigned to the 47^th Infantry Regiment of the 9^th Infantry Division.  After Stateside training, the regiment shipped out in October 1942.  Its destination was French Morocco where it landed in November as part of Operation Torch.  Snead’s outfit was among the first American ground units to be committed to combat against the Axis forces in the European war.

In April 1943, as the Germans and Italians were squeezed between General Eisenhower’s forces in the west and General Montgomery’s Eighth Army advancing from the east, Snead was wounded.  He rejoined the 47^th in time to participate in Operation Husky, the July invasion of Sicily.

The regiment remained in Sicily after Axis forces escaped from the island to the Italian mainland.  Rather than joining the invasion of Italy, the 47^th along with the rest of the 9^th Infantry Division, was ordered to England for reorganization, replacements, and retraining in preparation for the war’s penultimate mission, the invasion of France.

Snead and the 47^th crossed the English Channel, landing on Utah Beach four days after D-Day.  As part of General “Lightning Joe” Collins’ VII Corps, the regiment helped liberate the Cotentin Peninsula by sealing off its base to prevent German reinforcements from breaking through to relieve the port of Cherbourg.

After taking part in the capture of Cherbourg, the regiment was ordered south to join in the effort to liberate Saint-Lô and the junction of key roads General Omar Bradley’s US First Army needed to affect a breakout from the Normandy beachhead.  On July 25, First Army executed Operation Cobra which punched a hole in the German lines and allowed American forces to move south into better country for the maneuver of armored forces.  The 47^th moved south to the area around Gathemo.  On August 2, First Lieutenant Snead was leading a machine gun platoon along a road when he was seriously wounded.  He was evacuated to the 42^nd Field Hospital and then transferred to a hospital in England where he died on August 16.

Allan Jackson Snead was survived by his parents.  After the war, his remains were returned to Greenwood where he was buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

For more information on First Lieutenant Allan Jackson Snead see:

https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/scroll/allan-jackson-snead/

For additional information on Clemson University’s Scroll of Honor visit:

https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/