Benjamin W. Dyl
Service Record
- Rank: Technical Sergeant, U.S. Army
- Serial Number: 42112922
- Unit: 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division
- Hometown: Woodlynne, New Jersey
- Died: February 5, 1945, Prisoner of War camp, Germany
- Buried at: Netherlands American Cemetery, Plot H Row 9 Grave 2, Margraten, Netherlands
- Awards: Purple Heart
Technical Sergeant Benjamin William Dyl, of 115 Elm Street, Woodlynne, NJ, made the supreme sacrifice after only 10 months in the service.
Benjamin Dyl was born in 1917 to Jakub and Anna Dyl, who had emigrated to the United States from Poland in 1912, bringing their three oldest children with them: Andrzej (Andy), Walerya (Valeria), and Lodzio/Leokadia (Lillian). Andy was born in 1904, Valeria in 1907, and Lillian in 1912, shortly before they came to America. The three oldest children were born in Zwiartow, which was then in Polish Russia. Lillian was listed on the Ellis Island passenger list in 1912 and also in the 1920 census in Camden. Sadly, she died at a young age in the 1920s. After coming to New Jersey the Dyls had three more children: Genevieve “Jenny” in 1914, Mary in 1915, and Benjamin “Bennie” Dyl in 1917.
By 1930 the Dyl family was operating a confectionary shop, and living at 1524 Mount Ephraim Avenue, in the heart of Camden’s Polish community. Benjamin spent his early years in this Camden neighborhood, where he attended the Bonsall School, in the mostly Polish neighborhood anchored by St. Joseph Catholic Church at 10th and Liberty Streets. The family later moved to Woodlynne, where he attended Collingswood High School, graduating in 1935. Benjamin took the commercial course while in high school. His yearbook noted “Baseball seems to wield a strange fascination over him,” and he was on the high school golf team during his senior year. Benjamin Dyl found work in a hosiery mill in Palmyra, NJ. He had married Dorothy Etter, also of Woodlynne, and the couple had two sons. Benjamin Dyl was inducted into the United States Army on April 1, 1944.
After entering the Army in 1944, he trained at Camp Wheeler in Macon, GA, and was sent overseas on September 15, 1944 as an infantry replacement. He was assigned to the 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, joining the Division shortly after it took Saarlautern. In November and December the 9th Infantry Division held defensive positions from Monschau to Losheim. Moving north to Bergrath, Germany, it launched an attack toward the Roer on December 10, taking Echtz and Schlich. From mid-December through January 1945, the Division held defensive positions from Kalterherberg to Elsenborn, Germany. In this time he was promoted from Private to Sergeant.
During this period, Sergeant Dyl was wounded while on patrol and was captured by German forces. On January 15, 1945, Sergeant Dyl was ordered to lead a four-man patrol to scout enemy positions. While approaching enemy lines, the patrol was pinned down by mortar fire. Two of the men were killed instantly, and Sergeant Dyl was wounded seriously enough to not be able to return to his own lines. The sole survivor, suffering from frozen feet after 36 hours out of doors, reported that Sergeant Dyl had been taken prisoner. Taken to a POW camp, Benjamin Dyl passed away on February 5, 1945.
Benjamin Dyl, the son of Jacob and Anna Dyl, was survived by his wife Dorothy Etter Dyl, and two sons, Benjamin, aged 3, and Thomas, 2.
1524 Mount Ephraim Avenue, Camden
Tag: benjamin-w-dyl
Polish Heroes War Memorial
The Polish Heroes War Memorial at Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, N.J. (Park Drive and Route 130) unites three monuments — to Casimir Pulaski (1936, moved here 1984), Thaddeus Kosciusko (1984), and, since 1995, the members of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church of South Camden who died in World War II.
St. Joseph's Parish WWII War Memorial
A bronze plaque in the vestibule of St. Joseph Church at 10th and Liberty Streets in Camden, presented by the Catholic War Veterans, St. Joseph's Post 418, and dedicated April 3, 1949, honoring the parish's heroic war dead of World War II.
Camden City Flier Now Listed Killed
A July 1945 Camden Courier-Post report that Technical Sergeant Benjamin W. Dyl of Woodlynne had died of wounds on February 5 in a German prison camp, after being wounded and captured while leading a four-man reconnaissance patrol.