Max A. Daily
Biography: Max Alva Daily was born on August 3, 1918, in Logan, Kansas. He was the son of James Riley and Edna Zula Daily and attended local schools in Logan, KS. The census from 1940, has Max working as a service station attendant but his draft card identifies that he was working for a K.M. Dye, also in Logan. Max’s father was the postmaster in Logan.
Service Time: Max entered the service on February 3, 1941, and after his basic training was assigned to the 35th Infantry Division and specifically, Battery G of the 127th Field Artillery Regiment. He trained with them until December 15th when the 635th Tank Destroyer Battalion was activated and formed by men of the 35th Infantry Division. Sergeant Max Daily, along with a large group of men from the 127th, was transferred to the Headquarters Company of the unit. They were stationed at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas at the time. We are not sure when, but he was transferred and later served in Company B.
On August 11, 1943, while on leave from the Army, Max married the former Irene Louise Bird. Irene was born in Hill City, Kansas, and was the daughter of Elery Martin Bird and Alma Clark. The couple’s first child was born in July of 1944.
Max continued his training with the unit at various military facilities, including Fort Ord and Camp San Luis Obispo in California, Camp Hood, Texas, Camp Polk, Louisiana and then Camp Shanks, New York, where they would spend their final few weeks preparing for overseas shipment. They shipped out from the New York port on February 9, 1944, and arrived in Liverpool, England, on February 19th. After a few months of additional training, they boarded transports and landed at Omaha Beach on June 8th. The 635th advanced through northern France and Belgium and then operated in the Roetgen-Aachen sector and Hürtgen Forest during autumn. They transferred to Belgium on December 22nd during the Battle of the Bulge and returned to the Aachen area in January to support the drive toward the Rhine River near Cologne.
The 635th transferred to the Seventh Army and almost immediately to Third Army on April 1st, 1945. Crossing the Rhine at Mannheim, they advanced through central Germany to Austria. The unit was credited with the campaigns of Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe. Max shipped home and was discharged on July 26th and held the rank of Sergeant.
Minimal information is available on Max’s life after he returned home to Kansas but as with many soldiers, memories of the war had made life difficult. The last of the couple’s five children was born in 1951, and Max was working as a roofing repair laborer. In the late 40s or early 50s, Max moved to the west coast, possibly the Los Angeles, California area. He passed away on May 3, 1965, and was buried in the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California. I want to thank Max’s son, Gary, for providing the information and photo of his parents. Thank you also to Find A Grave contributor Jon Verdick for the use of the Grave Marker image.
