Westmoreland natives killed in Christmas Eve 1944 U-boat attack have lives preserved digitally

Dec. 24—Christmas Day 1944 never came for four Westmoreland County natives and 759 fellow servicemen who were passengers on a World War II troop transport ship headed for Cherbourg, France.

On Christmas Eve, about 5 miles from its destination, the SS Leopoldville was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank, taking with it the lives of Greensburg native Pfc. Frank Joseph Kuchta, Hempfield native Tec. 5 John Michael Vince Jr. and twin brothers Glenn and Jack Lowry, both of whom were privates first class and grew up in Rostraver.

The remains of three of the men never were recovered, but details of their lives have been preserved digitally through the nonprofit Stories Behind the Stars initiative.

Enlisting the help of volunteer researchers and writers, the organization has a goal of compiling online memorial profiles for 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II, including 31,000 Pennsylvanians.

According to his profile, Kuchta was born Jan. 22, 1926, in Greensburg, one of nine children of Frank, a coal miner, and Mary, a homemaker who died when Kuchta was 16.

He completed one year of high school and worked for the Pennsylvania Rubber Co. in Jeannette. He signed up for the draft on Jan. 24, 1944, and enlisted in the Army the following May 4.

Also the son of a coal miner, who shared his first name, Vince was born May 6, 1924, in the Hempfield village of Hannastown. His mother's name was Anna, and he had six siblings.

He registered for the draft June 30, 1942, while he was employed by Bell Telephone. He enlisted in the Army in Greensburg.

The Lowry twins were born April 15, 1924, in Belle Vernon to John, a mill worker and inspector, and Dorothy, who worked as a nurse maid in a home for children.

After graduating from Rostraver High School in 1942, the brothers began work as loaders in the Automatic Finishing Department at Pittsburgh Steel Co.'s Allenport Works.

They enlisted together in the Army Air Corps on Feb. 18, 1943, and trained at Birmingham Southern College in Alabama with the 17th Air Force College Training Detachment. When that training program was disbanded, they were reassigned to infantry.

According to Stories Behind the Stars researchers, all four were assigned to Company I, 262nd Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry "Black Panther" Division. After sailing to England, they were among more than 2,200 troops who boarded the SS Leopoldville at Southampton on Christmas Eve, bound for Cherbourg and meant to serve as Allied reinforcements in the Battle of the Bulge.

Launched in 1929, the 11,500-ton ship was a former Belgian liner converted for troop transport.

According to Allan Andrade, who helped found the Leopoldville Memorial Association and wrote a book about the incident, "Leopoldville: A Tragedy Too Long Secret," friendly vessels took some time to reach the ship after it was torpedoed.

He said it took a half-hour for the HMS Brilliant, a British ship that was accompanying the Leopoldville, to pull alongside the damaged transport. Many jumped to the deck of the Brilliant. But those who missed risked being crushed between the vessels, drowning or succumbing to hypothermia in the English Channel.

In addition, Andrade said, there was a 45-minute delay in response by vessels in the Cherbourg harbor. Because of a difference in radio frequencies, he learned, those vessels didn't find out about the torpedo attack until a message was sent from the Leopoldville to England and relayed back to France.

Because of concern about drifting into a minefield, it was advised that the Leopoldville drop anchor.

But, Andrade noted, "Once you drop the anchor, that creates another problem: the ship was going to sink.

"It was not just one thing. It was a whole series of things. When you put it all together, you have a terrible tragedy."

More than 1,400 troops survived the sinking, but the four Westmoreland soldiers weren't among them.

Stories Behind the Stars reports Kuchta's body was recovered and buried at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

The remains of the Lowry brothers and Vince were never recovered. All posthumously were awarded the Purple Heart and memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the site in Colleville-sur-Mer.

Two memorial markers with the names of the Lowry twins and the message "Lost At Sea" were placed in their honor at Rehoboth Cemetery in Rostraver.

In the immediate aftermath of the sinking, officials instructed surviving soldiers to keep silent about the incident, researchers have learned.

Government documents about the tragedy were declassified in 1959 in the United States and in 1996 in Great Britain. But the incident remained little-known until the release of a television documentary and books about the topic, including Andrade's.

The "decades-long censorship of the tragedy magnified the grief of the victims' loved ones and the trauma of the ship's survivors," Stories Behind the Stars said in a news release.

Visit leopoldville.org for more information about the 1944 sinking.

Stories Behind the Stars derives its name from a banner with a gold star that was presented to the families of fallen service members in World War II.

Don Milne, a blogger for the organization, reported in mid-November that more than 38,000 World War II service member profiles have been completed so far. Visit storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .