Walking in his father’s bootsteps: Son retraces dad’s World War II journey across Europe

They say you should walk a mile in someone else’s shoes to really understand who they are.

Despite having his father’s combat boots at his disposal, Wayne resident Tom Breen chose his own sneakers to retrace the route his father Vernon took during his World War II combat tour through Europe.

“He told me they were the only pair of shoes he wore the entire time he was over there,” Breen said. “I just brought some tennis shoes and a pair of dress shoes. I went for comfort.”

That didn’t lessen the experience for Breen who said the nearly two-week journey from July 30 to Aug. 10 made him feel closer than ever to his father, who raised his family in Glen Ellyn and died in 2021 at the age of 96.

“He really only started opening up about his experiences in the war when he was about 85 and I really had no idea until then what he went through,” the 67-year-old Breen said. “I would pull out my phone and record what he was saying and we used some of that to plot the trip.”

But Breen credits Texas-based war historian Erin Faith Allen for making the trip so personal and relevant to his father’s war experiences. That, he says, “brought things to life” for him.

Allen’s particular expertise happens to be the U.S. Army’s 42nd Rainbow Division, where Vernon Breen served during his combat tour from 1944 through 1946 — specifically the 42nd Rainbow Division, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Headquarters Company, Intelligence and Reconnaissance.

They connected through her company, Fortitude Investigative War Research, which specializes in connecting families with the war legacies of their loved ones.

While Breen had his father’s stories, he’d been told Vernon’s military records had been lost in a fire at the military archives in 1973. However, Allen was able to find them, only slightly “singed.”

“He asked me to put together a customized tour for him and together we went on a tour in his father’s footsteps through all of his combat positions,” she said. “We started in Strasbourg, France, where Vernon first saw combat and ended in Vienna.”

She located specific riverbanks, hills, offices, bridges and other buildings Vernon Breen had been to during his combat tour.

“I didn’t think the trip was going to be so specific, but she was able to sometimes have us following in his exact footsteps,” Breen said.

Oddly, the Rainbow Division’s march through Europe during World War II vaguely resembles the arc of a rainbow as well.

At their first stop along the Rhine River near Strasbourg, the pair were greeted by something remarkable.

“My back was to the river and all the sudden Erin goes, ‘Oh my God!’” Breen said. “I turned around and there was a giant rainbow on the other side of the river.”

“I couldn’t believe it,” Allen said. “It was like we were meant to be there at that exact moment.”

They were also able to locate a wall near a church and cemetery in Newbourg, France, where Vernon and other soldiers came under attack.

“They were getting shelled by German artillery and one of the German 88 artillery shells went by his head and through the wall instead of exploding on impact,” Breen said his father told him.

“There are still pockmarks on the wall of the church from the war,” Allen said.

They were able to visit an office building in Wurzburg, Germany, where Vernon had been dispatched to find the Nazi burgermeister — a type of mayor — who had been put in charge of the town. Vernon told his son that when he got to the burgermeister’s office, he found the Nazi had killed himself rather than be taken prisoner.

Breen and Allen were able to locate a custodian at the building who showed them the office they believe was the burgermeister’s. Breen told the custodian about what had likely happened there 80 years ago.

“He looked somewhat astounded,” Breen remembered.

Breen also paid tribute to his father’s reconnaissance partner, Curtice Mathews.

Mathews was killed in combat as their unit was heading into Wurzburg. Breen said his father and Mathews were riding in a truck together when their convoy came under fire by German planes strafing the road. They jumped out of the truck to take cover, but when the attack was over, Vernon got in one truck and Mathews in another.

Mathews’ truck came under attack as it entered the Wurzburger Brewery, and he was killed by a grenade.

Breen and Allen toasted Mathews’ memory at the brewery that still stands today. And they stopped at Mathews’ grave at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Saint-Avold, France.

The pair also visited the Dachau Concentration Camp that Vernon helped liberate as the war wound down.

“He said you could smell the death and decay miles from the camp,” Breen said. “He never stepped one foot inside. He was told to not let anyone in or out because they were concerned about disease.”

Breen met with a Dachau survivor as well.

“There are all these conflicting emotions you deal with throughout something like this,” he said. “It’s a combination of pride, sorrow and gratitude for what they’ve done. It was the best trip I’ve ever taken, and I do feel like I know my father better now because of it.”