Hometown: West Bend, WI
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: Company H, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division
Date of Sacrifice: January 3, 1945 - KIA near Melines, Luxembourg province, Belgium
Age: 20
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Raymond Michael Hinsenkamp was born on August 11, 1924, to parents Frank and Clara (Hacker) Hinsenkamp. The family, including his older brother Herbert and younger sister Mary Jane, lived in West Bend, Wisconsin—less than an hour’s drive northwest of Milwaukee.

“Ray” was a champion athlete at West Bend High School, winning the 1943 Wisconsin State High School mile run with a time of 4:46.7.

While he was a student in high school, the United States officially entered World War II (1939-1945) following the December 7, 1941, surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Three days after that attack, Axis belligerents Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

After years of remaining on the sidelines and limiting its participation to selling arms and supplies to the British, America was forced to mobilize large-scale war efforts in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters of World War II. Like many young men eager to serve their country, Hinsenkamp enlisted in the United States Army on June 17, 1943.

He was trained as a Technician, 5th Class (T/5), and assigned to Sherman Tank Company H, 66th Armored “Iron Knights” Regiment, 2nd Armored “Hell on Wheels” Division. According to the National Archives:

Technician ranks were a type of noncommissioned officer rank developed to provide extra pay to soldiers who had extra skills and/or experience but who did not have the leadership roles of a traditional noncommissioned officer rank such as a corporal or a sergeant. Technician fifth grades (sometimes referred to as technician fifth class) were the same pay grade as corporals, but were ranked one level below corporals.

From July 10 to August 17, 1943, his 2nd Armored Division took part in Operation Husky—the Allied invasion of Sicily, which marked the Americans’ first move into Europe in World War II.

On June 9, 1944, Hinsenkamp and the 2nd Armored Division landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France—three days after the initial D-Day landings. They operated in France’s Cotentin Peninsula in the Allied push to liberate France from Nazi occupation. Weeks later, the 2nd Armored Division fought in the Operation Cobra assault—General Omar N. Bradley’s decisive breakthrough that allowed Allied forces to move further into France.

By December 1944, the Allies had pushed the Nazis out of France and east into Belgium. German forces made one final push to regain territory in what became known as “the Battle of the Bulge.” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to it as “the greatest American battle of the war.”

In the frigid cold and difficult terrain of Belgium’s densely wooded Ardennes Forest, the six-week battle proved to be the costliest ever fought by the United States Army, with more than 100,000 casualties.

On January 3, 1945, T/5 Hinsenkamp and his tank crew were moving along an icy road near the Hamlet of Melines, in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. Their tank slid off the road and struck a pile of mines that had been removed—but had not been diffused. Hinsenkamp, age 20, was killed in the explosion.

In the Belgian Ardennes, a memorial has been erected on the spot where T/5 Raymond M. Hinsenkamp and four other members of his tank crew gave “the last full measure of devotion” for their country, and to liberate the people of Europe.

Sources
Details submitted by Mr. Scott Mindel, West Bend East High School
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association: All-Time Track Champions by Event
The National WWII Museum: From Arsenal to Ally: The United States Enters the War
National Archives via History Hub: Seeking explanation of duties of Army Tech 5
Sons of Liberty Museum: 2nd Armored Division
History: Battle of the Bulge
Burial Site: Find a Grave