Leonard’s Story: Introduction

“Who better to tell Leonard’s Story, the brief story of my life, but me? I am U.S. Army Pvt Leonard J. Lippert … one of two brothers who gave their lives during WWII in support of our country during a critical time in world history. I was the youngest brother, scared about going off to war … yet proud to have answered the call to arms against the Germans. I became a proud “Dogface Soldier” … the type of WWII soldier that I explain later. To this day, I remain steadfast and ask that you not forget the many American soldiers who have been laid to rest in so many foreign and domestic cemeteries. Every soldier appreciates a visit to their grave site. When you visit, take a knee, say a brief prayer … and maybe, quite possibly, leave a small American flag to honor us with the red, white, and blue … for our departed souls still ‘salute’ when we see her planted in the ground beside our graves. On the 19th of November 1943, nine months after my older brother Edward was drafted into the Army, I also left our Mt. Oliver, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania home to enlist in the Army. I was 18 years, 3 months, and 19 days old at the time and had only finished two years of High School. My generation of young men was being called to serve in the battle for liberty and freedom against the Japanese and Germans. After Ed left for the Army in February of 1943, we would never see each other again. We both would die … myself in Germany, about 10 months before Ed died in China. My dad, mom, younger sister, and two much younger brothers, Norbert and Dale, would grieve our deaths. If you have read Edward’s Story, you know it was written from his birth to his death. My Leonard’s Story will be more or less told in reverse … from death to birth … as my life and military experiences were pretty limited. I was not part of the historic June 1943 “D-Day” invasion onto the beaches at Normandy. I left Boston on August 17th and arrived in England by ship on the 25th. I sent my 1st letter home on the 27th. My 2nd letter to home came 7 days later on the 3rd of September from the battlefields in France. The war was now my daily companion and my faith and relationship with God gave me constant strength. I was assigned to the 30th Infantry Division, the 117th Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Battalion, E Company. Together we fought our way through France, through Belgium, the Netherlands, and then into Germany over the next several months. We entered western Germany and captured the 1st German city of the war at the battle of Aachen from 3-21 October. Little did I know that I would die a month later in the nearby German town of Kinzweiler.  After Aachen, we headed southeast on our way to the Roer River. Our next battle took place from the 16th to 19th of November, a battle that has been called the “Perfect Infantry Attack” after WWII. I lived every day thinking that this day might be my last … that day finally came. It was a grey, cold, wet, and muddy day. My platoon took the lead into capturing Kinzweiler. Entering the town over an open field, I was killed instantly from enemy machine gun fire. My unit chaplain sent a letter describing my death to my family eight months later.  (Click here to view letter)  Ironically, this was 1 year from my joining the Army, and sadly, only 77 days from my entry into the battlefields of France. If I had not died at Kinzweiler, the odds were against me that I would live until the end of the war … for the 30th Infantry Division would fight many more horrific and deadly battles, like the Battle of the Bulge, before Germany would ultimately surrender in mid 1945. Death would have been at my doorstep for many more months. My parents informed Ed of my death. You can read the heartfelt letter that Ed sent home from Burma on the 31st of January 1945. At that time, little could they fathom that Ed would die with 15 other aircrew and fellow soldiers in a mountain top plane crash 8 months later in China on 28 September 1945. This was only weeks after the Japanese had formally surrendered. This flight was to be one of his last missions before leaving China on his way back home to the United States and awaiting family. Sadly, only gruesome remains, identified and buried as unknown X-22, were recovered at the crash scene. Yes, X-22 was later identified as Edward. Although I died in November of 1944, my body was not returned to the U.S. for permanent burial at the St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Mt. Oliver until 11 September 1948, almost 4 years later traveling on a train from Columbus, Ohio along with my brother. My mother’s strongest wish was to have both her sons sent home from overseas to be buried together.  Click on this “Correspondence” link to read several letters written to my family about plans to ship the both of our bodies back to Pittsburgh for burial together.

Even in death, I feel fortunate. In the cemetery there are two simple, white marble gravestones with our names inscribed on them. We are buried next to our parents. I am grateful to have a 450 pound gravestone finally resting over my body, next to my brother, back home on a Brownsville Road hillside where I grew up. The Burial Mass that September day at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church still saddens me. My father died a month earlier and he would not be present to witness the Church ceremony to honor and remember his two sons. You might be asking: Where was I for those 4 years? It would take my sister’s eldest son, my nephew, to feel compelled to research the deaths of his two long-since gone uncles and write about his findings … uncles he never met. My nephew was born on November 1st, 1945 … only 34 days after my brother’s death … and he was baptized Edward Gary in his honor. Almost 67 years later in 2011, his research uncovered that I was interred at the American Cemetery at Margraten in the Netherlands … only 23 road miles from my death at Kinzweiler. Through the kindness of the thankful people of the Netherlands towards American soldiers who gave their lives for their freedom, my stay at Margraten was a wonderful and heartwarming story in itself … a story you can read about later. What my two much younger brothers and future generations of family did not know was that my parents were told where I was buried, shortly after my death, from the War Department. Unfortunately, this knowledge got lost over the decades. It made finding where I was buried a very difficult research task for my nephew. Within the Lippert family plot at the old St. Joseph’s Cemetery, now called St. John Vianney, lies a single row of four gravestones … my father Edward L., my mother Marie A., my brother Edward S, and myself. The gravestones at the site deteriorated greatly over time … the white marble stained and tarnished, the stones uneven and sunken into the ground. Decades of harsh Pittsburgh weather had taken its toll. During August of 2011, to my surprise, a crew came and restored our gravesites … the white marble sparkles again … we are now level and straight … and we now stand taller anchored more securely to the earth above us. I thank my living family members who contributed to this restoration. It looks beautiful and I can’t wait for the 1st American flag to be placed here. If you ever visit Pittsburgh, you are welcome to stop by to pray with me. I will leave the “bright light of freedom” on for you.”   Leonard

Click here to view gravesite photos.

The Nines

“I’ve added a bit of humor to my story.  My nephew, coincidently, realized that the number 9 figured prominently in my life.   His research uncovered the following:

• My birth was 1 year, 9 months, 13 days after Edward’s birth
• I enlisted in the Army on the 19th of November 1943
• I died on the 19th of November 1944
• My brother died in China almost a year later on the 9th month … 28 Sep 1945
• My Army unit returned home to the States on the 19th of November 1945, exactly one year after my death
• I was assigned to the 117th (sum of 9) Infantry Regiment
• I died at the age of 19 years, 3 months, 19 days
• My body was returned from the Netherlands for burial at home on the 9th month of 1948 (September 11th no less)

Not looking very hard for other coincidences …UNBEKNOWNST to him, the most UNCANNY, UNREAL, UNUSUAL, and UNBELIEVABLE coincidence that he UNCOVERED was having fun playing with the following parts of my life:

• My year of birth (1925) + born in Pittsburgh (10) + died in Kinzweiler (10) + lived in Mt Oliver (8) + last name Lippert (7) + dad Edward (6) + mom Marie (5) + brother Edward (6) + myself Leonard (7) + sister Dorothy (7) + brother Norb (4) + brother Dale (4) = 99 (wow)

There are more interesting facts of my destiny with the numbers 9 & 19 that are highlighted in RED in another segment, written by my nephew, called Leonard’s Story:  Unknown Cemetery Becomes Known.”