Private First Class, U.S. Army
Service # 35723215
605th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Mountain Division
Awards: Purple Heart
TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY SPECTATOR, TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1945, PAGE FOURTEEN
KILLED IN SERVICE
Pfc. Leroy A. King, 22 years old, was killed in action in Italy, April 30. Private King entered the Army in January, 1943, and went overseas in January of this year. He was serving with the Field Artillery of the Tenth "Mountain" Division of the Fifth Army. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry King, route 1, West Terre Haute; three sisters, Mrs. Albert Weddle, Mrs. Mabel Douglas, and Miss Agnes Brodie, all of Terre Haute; and a brother, Harry W. King, route 1, West Terre Haute.
The unit was laying communication wire as the 10th Mountain Division pursued German forces into northern Italy’s rugged alpine region, home to the 50-mile-long Lake Garda. When the enemy blew up tunnels through the mountains ringing the lake’s northern end, the division’s commanders sent soldiers across the lake in amphibious six-wheeled trucks, known by their military designation DUKW and known to GIs as ducks.
On the night of 30 April 1945, three DUKWs left the lake’s east side carrying members of the division’s 605th Field Artillery. One of the vehicles, jammed with 25 soldiers and a 75 mm cannon, stalled during the journey and soon began taking on water. According to Cpl. Thomas Hough, the lone survivor, the soldiers desperately tossed their equipment and ammunition overboard in an attempt to keep the vessel from sinking. But the DUKW went down anyway, plunging the men into the frigid waters of the glacier-fed lake. 24 soldiers drowned and their bodies were not recovered. Hough, a former lifeguard from Dayton, Ohio, was rescued by two 10th Mountain soldiers on shore who heard the cries for help, and died in 2005.
Service # 35723215
605th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Mountain Division
Awards: Purple Heart
TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY SPECTATOR, TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1945, PAGE FOURTEEN
KILLED IN SERVICE
Pfc. Leroy A. King, 22 years old, was killed in action in Italy, April 30. Private King entered the Army in January, 1943, and went overseas in January of this year. He was serving with the Field Artillery of the Tenth "Mountain" Division of the Fifth Army. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry King, route 1, West Terre Haute; three sisters, Mrs. Albert Weddle, Mrs. Mabel Douglas, and Miss Agnes Brodie, all of Terre Haute; and a brother, Harry W. King, route 1, West Terre Haute.
The unit was laying communication wire as the 10th Mountain Division pursued German forces into northern Italy’s rugged alpine region, home to the 50-mile-long Lake Garda. When the enemy blew up tunnels through the mountains ringing the lake’s northern end, the division’s commanders sent soldiers across the lake in amphibious six-wheeled trucks, known by their military designation DUKW and known to GIs as ducks.
On the night of 30 April 1945, three DUKWs left the lake’s east side carrying members of the division’s 605th Field Artillery. One of the vehicles, jammed with 25 soldiers and a 75 mm cannon, stalled during the journey and soon began taking on water. According to Cpl. Thomas Hough, the lone survivor, the soldiers desperately tossed their equipment and ammunition overboard in an attempt to keep the vessel from sinking. But the DUKW went down anyway, plunging the men into the frigid waters of the glacier-fed lake. 24 soldiers drowned and their bodies were not recovered. Hough, a former lifeguard from Dayton, Ohio, was rescued by two 10th Mountain soldiers on shore who heard the cries for help, and died in 2005.
Private First Class, U.S. Army
Service # 35723215
605th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Mountain Division
Awards: Purple Heart
TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY SPECTATOR, TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1945, PAGE FOURTEEN
KILLED IN SERVICE
Pfc. Leroy A. King, 22 years old, was killed in action in Italy, April 30. Private King entered the Army in January, 1943, and went overseas in January of this year. He was serving with the Field Artillery of the Tenth "Mountain" Division of the Fifth Army. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry King, route 1, West Terre Haute; three sisters, Mrs. Albert Weddle, Mrs. Mabel Douglas, and Miss Agnes Brodie, all of Terre Haute; and a brother, Harry W. King, route 1, West Terre Haute.
The unit was laying communication wire as the 10th Mountain Division pursued German forces into northern Italy’s rugged alpine region, home to the 50-mile-long Lake Garda. When the enemy blew up tunnels through the mountains ringing the lake’s northern end, the division’s commanders sent soldiers across the lake in amphibious six-wheeled trucks, known by their military designation DUKW and known to GIs as ducks.
On the night of 30 April 1945, three DUKWs left the lake’s east side carrying members of the division’s 605th Field Artillery. One of the vehicles, jammed with 25 soldiers and a 75 mm cannon, stalled during the journey and soon began taking on water. According to Cpl. Thomas Hough, the lone survivor, the soldiers desperately tossed their equipment and ammunition overboard in an attempt to keep the vessel from sinking. But the DUKW went down anyway, plunging the men into the frigid waters of the glacier-fed lake. 24 soldiers drowned and their bodies were not recovered. Hough, a former lifeguard from Dayton, Ohio, was rescued by two 10th Mountain soldiers on shore who heard the cries for help, and died in 2005.
Service # 35723215
605th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Mountain Division
Awards: Purple Heart
TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY SPECTATOR, TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1945, PAGE FOURTEEN
KILLED IN SERVICE
Pfc. Leroy A. King, 22 years old, was killed in action in Italy, April 30. Private King entered the Army in January, 1943, and went overseas in January of this year. He was serving with the Field Artillery of the Tenth "Mountain" Division of the Fifth Army. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry King, route 1, West Terre Haute; three sisters, Mrs. Albert Weddle, Mrs. Mabel Douglas, and Miss Agnes Brodie, all of Terre Haute; and a brother, Harry W. King, route 1, West Terre Haute.
The unit was laying communication wire as the 10th Mountain Division pursued German forces into northern Italy’s rugged alpine region, home to the 50-mile-long Lake Garda. When the enemy blew up tunnels through the mountains ringing the lake’s northern end, the division’s commanders sent soldiers across the lake in amphibious six-wheeled trucks, known by their military designation DUKW and known to GIs as ducks.
On the night of 30 April 1945, three DUKWs left the lake’s east side carrying members of the division’s 605th Field Artillery. One of the vehicles, jammed with 25 soldiers and a 75 mm cannon, stalled during the journey and soon began taking on water. According to Cpl. Thomas Hough, the lone survivor, the soldiers desperately tossed their equipment and ammunition overboard in an attempt to keep the vessel from sinking. But the DUKW went down anyway, plunging the men into the frigid waters of the glacier-fed lake. 24 soldiers drowned and their bodies were not recovered. Hough, a former lifeguard from Dayton, Ohio, was rescued by two 10th Mountain soldiers on shore who heard the cries for help, and died in 2005.
Inscription
PFC 605 FA BN 10 MT DIV INDIANA
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from Indiana.
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