REMEMBERING
ARTHUR HODDE

By Joe C. Fling

The Allies broke the back of the German army during the vicious winter battle that we know as the Battle of the Bulge. After that fighting, the Allies turned east into Germany to complete the defeat of the Nazis. In those last three months of combat in Europe, four more Southern Colorado County men would die. They were killed in the relatively short span of 55 days.

Arthur Hodde was the first of these young men to die. Hodde was born November 3, 1916, in Eagle Lake, the son of Ed and Ida Hodde. Arthur’s mother preceded him in death in 1941. Arthur also had a cousin, Edward Joseph Hodde who had been killed in 1943 while serving as a civilian flight instructor in New Mexico. Arthur had been captain of his Eagles football team in the 1930’s. After graduation, Hodde went to work in Houston and rose to be a superintendent in Otis Massey’s construction firm. Massey would later be Mayor of Houston.

Hodde entered the army on August 12, 1942. He trained in Oregon and Colorado and served in the military police, before being sent to Europe in January, 1945. Hodde, who held the rank of Private First Class, served in the 328th Regiment, 26th Infantry Division which fought in Germany. The 26th Infantry was one of those units of General George S. Patton, Jr.s’ Third Army that performed so heroically in the Battle of the Bulge during December, 1944 and January, 1945.

On February 19, 1945 in fighting that led to the crossing of the Rhine River, Hodde’s company advanced on heavily fortified houses in Fraulaurten, Germany. Encountering heavy resistance, Hodde and a small group of men took refuge in a barn. Shortly afterward, a bazooka shell hit the building, igniting munitions stored inside. The barn collapsed, burying the men inside. Efforts to rescue them proved fruitless as the Germans kept up heavy fire all day, and -- aided by flares -- through the night.

Hodde was buried there in Germany until the war was over and the option was given to return his remains to the United States. Hodde is believed to be the last Colorado County man returned to the county for burial after World War II. His remains were not returned to Eagle Lake until 1950. On September 22, 1950 Rev. D. Rhea Allison conducted services from the Mill Funeral Home. Burial was in Lakeside Cemetery. He is buried on the right if you are going up the hill on the south road in the cemetery. Buried near him are his parents Ed (died 1961), mother Ida (1941), sisters Edna (1996) and Sophie (1998). As had become routine during the war, businesses in town closed for a couple of hours to allow employees to attend the funeral.

Hodde was survived by wife Beatrice and father Ed, both of whom lived in Houston. He also left behind two sisters and four brothers, some of whom have passed away fairly recently: Edna Taylor, Sophie Zoeller, W.E. Hodde, Floyd Hodde, Dallas Hodde and Ben Hodde. Ben was on a submarine tender in the Pacific Theatre when Arthur was killed.

In addition to local memorials, Hodde’s name was inscribed on the Harris County War Memorial Monument in Houston’s Bear Creek Pioneers’ Park on Zorn drive, off Eldridge in West Houston. The Monument honors over 1500 men from Harris County who died in the two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Also, in October, 1945, Hodde was selected to be honored as representative of the city of Houston’s war dead at a Disabled Veterans’ National Convention.

As with so many other young men, Hodde represented the best and the brightest of the community. Captain of the football team, construction superintendent. One can never know what our communities lost in leadership when some of these young men fell. In this we remember that every life is precious and the sacrifice of them must never be forgotten.