A Santa Cruz wife tearfully had to add a second gold star to the flag in her window.

Clemens A. Lambrecht was born in Oregon in 1912, to Jake and Lena Lambrecht. He grew up on the family farm near Mehama, in Marion County, Oregon, with his brothers Paul, Markus and Miles and sister Opal. Later his parents moved to Washington County near Portland.

Military records indicate that Lambrecht had completed grammar school but there is no record of his completing high school. At the time of his induction in 1942, he was working as a repairman for the Remington Rand Company in Portland.

Clemens Lambrecht was sent to an unspecified camp for his basic and advanced training in June 1941. It is possible that his stateside military assignments also included a local military facility where he met Elizabeth Verhines. On August 24, 1943, he married Mrs. Elizabeth Jacobs Verhines, (see biography of Thomas Verhines) a war widow with a three-year old daughter. Following his marriage, Sergeant Lambrecht joined the 315th Regiment of the 79th Division at Camp Phillips, Kansas, preparing to be deployed overseas.

Lambrecht and his unit left the US on April 7, 1944, arrived in Liverpool on April 17 and began training for the recapture of Europe. On June 13 they were transported to France, where he joined in the pursuit of the retreating Germans. In September 1944,

“The division moved forward despite intense attacks from the Forêt de Parroy, the 315th Infantry losing and then recovering part of Lunéville 22 September 44 as the 314th Infantry faced counterattacks at Moncel. The 314th Infantry frontally assaulted Forêt de Monden the following day in heavy combat and the division entered the Forêt de Parroy. The 315th Infantry was temporarily isolated in fighting at the main road junction there on 5 October 44. An all-out divisional assault forced a German withdrawal from the forest with the final capture of the main road junction 9 October 44.”

Staff Sergeant Clemens A. Lambrecht was wounded during this action and on October 9, 1944, died from those wounds. Elizabeth Verhines Lambrecht once again found herself a widow, this time with two gold flags hanging in her window.

Lambrecht's body was buried in the Epinal American Cemetery in Epinal, France. His awards include the Purple Heart.

(USCR, 1920 US Census, OR, Marion; NARA2; ABMC; 79th Infantry Regiment, WW II, History, http://home.earthlink.net, [16 Sept. 2008] SCSn October 29, 1944 2:3.