Hometown: Ashland City, TN
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: July 11, 1944 - KIA in Normandy, France
Age: 32
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Thomas Roy Hicks was a schoolteacher whose first assignments were at Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville and at Pleasant View, Tennessee—northwest of Nashville.

His early career as a teacher kept him close to his hometown and family. Born September 6, 1911, in nearby Thomasville, Tennessee, Hicks was one of seven children born to Willard and Mary Hicks. His father Willard worked as a rural mail carrier.

Thomas was a graduate of Ashland City (Tennessee) High School, and of Austin Peay State College in Clarksville, Tennessee. He earned his teaching degree from Middle Tennessee State Teachers College in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The Hicks family’s four sons all served their country during World War II (1939-1945). Thomas registered for the draft in October of 1940 and enlisted in the Army in August 1942. Brothers Herman and Ben were privates in the U.S. Army, and J.W. was a Yeoman First Class in the U.S. Navy.

After training at Camp Roberts, California, and Camp Howze, Texas, Thomas was sent overseas to the European theater on June 1, 1944. He was a Sergeant with the 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Robert C. Macon.

Hicks’ 83rd Infantry Division landed at Omaha Beach on June 18, 1944—twelve days after the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The weeks that followed the Allied landing saw intense hedgerow warfare in the effort to push back German occupying forces in France. Col. R.T. Foster of the 330th Infantry later described what it was like:

After assembling in the vicinity of Bricqueville, Normandy, we moved into the lines southeast of Carentan, relieving elements of the 101st Airborne Division…Our advances were measured by the number of hedgerows we took, but we kept going. Forward, hedgerow to hedgerow. From one ruined Norman village to the next. From one destroyed farm with its dead, stinking cows to the next.

Sgt. Thomas Roy Hicks was killed in action on July 11, 1944, somewhere in Normandy, France. Awarded the Purple Heart medal, he is buried along with his brothers-in-arms at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France (Plot A Row 17 Grave 28).

Sources
Fold3: Thomas R Hicks
The Leaf-Chronicle, August 7, 1944: Sgt. Roy Hicks of Thomasville Killed in France
83rd Infantry Division Documents: 330th Infantry Regiment
Col. R.T. Foster: The Story of the 330th Infantry Across Europe
Burial Site: Find a Grave