© Picture ~ Copyright Michael V. Drachman 2014 ~ All rights reserved

Joseph A. Auclair

Private, U.S. Army
262nd Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division
Service / ASN #: 31466138
Entered the Service From: Maine
Enlisted: May 1, 1944, Fort Devens, Massachusetts, USA
Rank @ ToE: Private
Residence: Cumberland County, Maine, USA
Nativity: Maine
Education: 1 year of high School
Occupation: Semiskilled chauffeurs and drivers, bus, taxi, truck, and tractor
Marital Status: Married
Born: 1921, Maine, USA


Date of Death: December 25, 1944

MIA's
Wall of the Missing ~ Army-Army Air Forces Tablet 02 Veteran 12
GPS: 49.359373,-0.853173
Lorraine American Cemetery & Memorial
Department de la Moselle
Saint Avold, Lorraine, France

Citations and Awards:

Purple Heart

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States who after 5 April 1917 have been wounded or killed in action against an enemy of the United States or an opposing armed force, while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict, as the result of acts of enemy or hostile opposing forces, as a result of terrorist attacks or attacks on peacekeeping forces since 28 March 1973, or by friendly fire in circumstance as described above

Christmas Eve Sinking of the SS Leopoldville

Joseph, along with 782 of his fellow American soldiers perished when their Troop Transport Ship, the Belgian Trooper SS Leopoldville was struck by a torpedo fired by the German Submarine U-486, a type VIIC U-boat, fitted with a rubber skin on anechoic tiles designed to counter the Allies asdic sonar devices. The Leopoldville was just 5 miles of the coast of Cherbourg, France on Christmas Eve, 1944,, just 15-20 minutes from port.

Many were killed by the initial explosion of the torpedo when it struck the ship. Accounts indicate men were topside observing the convoy of vessels but many were still in their hammocks below decks when the torpedo hit.

After general quarters was sounded confusion followed while ships company secured stations. Many of the men being transported went to the deck, awaiting orders which came slow or not at all because the men being transported had boarded in Southampton in a unorganized manner, units being scattered throughout the ship which added to the confusion in command and accounting for fellow soldiers.

Those who did not make it to the nearby destroyers which attempted to tie up with the Leopoldville, died from drowning or hyperthermia as the ship listed and slowly slipped beneath the waves during the late evening and into the morning hours of December 25, 1944.

© Picture ~ Copyright Michael V. Drachman 2014 ~ All rights reserved

The entrance to the Garden of the Missing. To the right are the Army ~ Air Forces tablets, to the left are the Navy and Coast Guard tablets.

Joseph Albert Auclair, Portland Evening Express 18 Jan 1945

Joseph Albert Auclair, Portland Press Herald 11 Mar 1945