Julius Heinrich Otto ‘Henry’ Pieper and Ludwig Julius Wilhelm ‘Louie’ Pieper; twins reunited

Julius Heinrich Otto ‘Henry’ Pieper and twin Ludwig Julius Wilhelm ‘Louie’ Pieper were both killed on June 19, 1944 during the invasion of Fortress Europe when the boat they were taking on a rescue operation struck a mine and shattered the vessel. From the Daily Mail;

Louie’s body was soon found, identified and laid to rest at what is now the Normandy American Cemetery, but Julius’ remains were not recovered until 1961, when French salvage divers found them in the vessel’s radio room.

Julius — given the identifier ‘Unknown X-9352’ — was interred as an ‘Unknown’ at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, which is devoted to the fallen of World War II in the region that saw the bloody Battle of the Bulge.

Julius’ remains might have stayed among those of 13 other troops from the doomed LST-523 still resting unidentified at the Ardennes cemetery, had it not been for a U.S. agency that tracks missing combatants, establishing case files for each from witness accounts to DNA testing.

That agency’s efforts led to Julius’ proper identification in 2017.

Julius’ remains were laid next to his brother’s at the Normandy Cemetery yesterday. Their nieces Linda Suiter and Susan Lawrence were on hand for the reburial.

The Pieper twins, callow fellows born of German immigrant parents, worked together for Burlington Railroad and enlisted together in the Navy. Both were radio operators and both were on the same unwieldy flat-bottom boat, Landing Ship Tank Number 523 (LST-523), making the Channel crossing from Falmouth, England to Utah Beach 13 days after the June 6 D-Day landings.

The LST-523 mission was to deliver supplies at the Normandy beachhead and remove the wounded. It never got there.

The vessel struck an underwater mine and sank off the coast. Of the 145 Navy crew members, 117 were found perished.

Thanks to Another Pat for the link.

Category: We Remember