Bryan, Robert Carter

Was awarded the Légion d'Honneur (Chevalier degree) posthumously on November 11, 2011.

ROBERT C. BRYAN on May 17th, while looking after the assignments of the forward posts of his platoon in the Rapido Sector, was wounded by shrapnel when a shell landed close to his car. He was immediately taken to an Advanced Dressing Station, but died in the ambulance which was transferring him for further attention to the Medical Dressing Station. His courage, devotion and leadership will always remain an inspiration and treasured memory to his comrades in the AFS.

__ AFS Letters No. 26

The work at Cassino was hazardous, strenuous, and in most respects unpleasant. Still, there were many gripes when, at the end of the month, B and C Platoons of 567 Company were relieved of their posts with the New Zealand Corps by C Platoon of 485 Company. As they had come, the two platoons set out for the Adriatic in a torrential rainstorm. Lt. Bryan and his Platoon took over the forward Indian and New Zealand posts, as the Corps waited for a break in the weather to permit the launching of its second attack on Cassino.

With the two companies working in more or less the same area in the late spring, 485 Company held a competition for a design to be used as its insignia. QMS MacFarlane concocted one of the better designs. The prize, however, was given to Lt. Bryan for a symbolic beast-half British lion and half American eagle. This griffin was stencilled in white on a red cross on all the vehicles of the Company.

On 24 April [Galatti] wrote: "Spent yesterday with Bryan's platoon---it has at the moment the most forward positions, and I was able to visit everyone or catch everyone somewhere along the line. Their posts are something, and these boys don't need to take their hats off to anyone. One of them has been up to a spot where no other ambulance has ever been before. Bryan looks to be a swell leader, knows his stuff, quick and decisive, attractive. . . . Chamberlin is just as good, and they make a great team. . .

On the afternoon of 17 May, Lt. Bryan, returning with F. E. Balderston from a tour of the forward posts of his Platoon, was mortally wounded. They were bringing back a British MO who had been on roving duty in a Bren carrier since the start of the battle. At Cardiff bridge, they were tied up in a small concentration of traffic, which may have attracted fire. A shell struck without warning to the rear of their jeep, wounding both Lt. Bryan and the British MO, who had been sitting in the back.

As the shelling continued, Balderston managed to get the two unconscious officers out of the jeep and into a ditch beside the road, where he protected them from further wounds by lying across their bodies until the shelling stopped. After dressing their wounds, Balderston got them to the ADS and accompanied them on back to the MDS. He and Bryan were able to talk during the short trip. As they reached the MDS , Balderston said "We're turning in now." Bryan winked at him and died.

"The Field Service has lost a great platoon officer," Lt. Mitchell wrote. "C Platoon revolved about him, just as he reached out to every part of the platoon, wherever it was working, and it did the finest work possible because of his leadership. He saw and helped to win the crucial part of the great battle we are in." Robert Carter Bryan had represented "the spirit of the Field Service," wrote Captain Morley, expressing the sympathy of the attached British personnel. He was succeeded as Platoon officer by Lt. W. B. Chamberlin III, with H. M. Wagner succeeding as Sergeant.

__ George Rock. Chapter 9. "Italy 3. Cassino and the Break-Through to Rome (February to 6 June 1944)" History of the American Field Service, 1920-1955. New York 1956.

The next afternoon the lieutenant of another AFS platoon --- Bob Bryan---was killed by shell-fire near the river. It came as an awful shock. He was a good friend and as genuinely well-liked as anyone I ever knew. His men were devoted to him. That evening I went up with his second in command to help break the news to his platoon and visit some of my own men who had crossed the Rapido with the Lancer and Yeomanry tanks. It was not a pleasant job.

__ AFS Letters No. 30