March 11, 2024
Provided images/Food Shelter PR
Benjamin Berry, who recently served as the 2023 grand marshal in the Philadelphia Veterans Parade, will accept the Legion of Honor from the French government at a March 18 ceremony. Photos above show him at his 100th birthday last year, left, and during his military service in 1944, right.
Next week, Benjamin Berry will step inside the Navy Yard's chapel to accept a prestigious award also given to Dwight Eisenhower, James Baldwin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The 100-year-old World War II veteran will receive the Legion of Honor, the highest distinction from France. Berry was part of the Allied invasion into the country during the Nazi's occupation and served in the Battle of the Bulge, a brutal conflict that helped end the war.
Berry, who grew up in Willow Grove, Montgomery County, was 19 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was assigned to a segregated unit within the Quartermaster Corps, which transported food, gas and other supplies to Allied troops. After completing basic training, he was sent to England and then France, landing on Omaha Beach roughly three weeks after D-Day. He joined Allied forces in the Ardennes Forest for the Battle of the Bulge, a month-long campaign that took soldiers across Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany during a frigid winter. The thwarted German offensive was Hitler's failed attempt to beat the Allies back, and proved to be one of the bloodiest battles of the war. After the battle's end in early 1945, Berry helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp.
When the war in Europe ended, Berry and his unit were sent home to the U.S. for 30 days before their next deployment to Japan. The men were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when the war concluded for good. Berry was a corporal when he was discharged, and settled in Germantown with his new wife Lois Miller Graves. The couple raised four children.
Berry already received the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 2021 and was inducted into the Quartermaster Hall of Fame in 2022. While about 2,000 French citizens claim the Legion of Honor each year, only about 300 foreigners do. Berry will officially accept his at the Chapel of the Four Chaplains next Monday, March 18, at 2 p.m.
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