Remembering World War II

Name: Thomas E Thompson Rank: Private 1st Class Service Number: 31320923 Service: 72nd Engineer Company (Light Ponton), US Army Date of Birth: August 5, 1923 Place of Birth: Charleston, Queens Co., Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: March 23, 1943 Age at Enlistment: 19 Place of Enlistment: Portland, Maine Address at Enlistment: Cumberland, Maine Trade: Driver Marital Status: Single (at enlistment) Religion: Protestant Next of Kin: Mother Date of Death: April 27, 1945 Age: 21 Cemetery: Forest City Cemetery, South Portland, Maine Thomas E Thompson was the son of John Edwin Thompson (1901-1940) and Maude Thelma (Baker) Thompson (1902-1957), and the brother of Dorothy C. Thompson (1925-2001). His father was born in River Head, Nova Scotia; his mother – in Charleston, Queens County, NS. His parents married December 21, 1921 in Liverpool, NS. The family moved to Maine after Thomas’ birth in 1925. Thomas’ sister was born in Maine in 1926. His father died sometime in 1940 and her mother re-married Austin Winston Davis (1914-1944) of Machias, Maine. Thomas enlisted March 23, 1943 in Portland, Maine. Less than 7 months later, his step- father enlisted also enlisted in Portland on October 11, 1943. Thomas married Billie D. Stevens while on furlough on December 16, 1943. Thomas’ unit the 72nd Engineer Company, was re-designated the 72d Engineer Light Ponton Company, or ‘72nd Engineer Company (Light Ponton)’ on April 1, 1942 until after the war. It was a combat engineer company of the US Army; primarily a highly mobile pontoon bridge construction unit, though it also provided both M2 assault boats and a selection of infantry support bridging, ferries, and rafts. Private 1st Class Thomas E. Thompson died in Germany on April 27, 1945. Thomas’s body was repatriated to the United States and he was laid to rest in the Forest City Cemetery in South Portland, Maine. Of the approximate 280000 American WWII dead, over 170000 were repatriated under the “Return of the Dead” Program (Families could leave remains abroad in a permanent overseas cemetery maintained in perpetuity by the American Battle Monuments Commission, have them returned home at the government’s expense for burial in a private or national cemetery, or have them sent to a foreign country for burial if it was the homeland of the deceased or family). Name: Austin Winslow Davis Rank: Private Service Number: 31399291 Service: 313th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division, United States Army Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: October 13, 1914 Place of Birth: Machias, Washington County, Maine Date of Enlistment: October 11, 1943 Place of Enlistment: Portland, Cumberland County, Maine Age of Enlistment: 28 Address at Enlistment: Cumberland County, Maine Occupation: Driver Marital Status: Married Next of Kin: Maude T. Davis (Wife) Date of Death: September 20, 1944 Age: 29 Cemetery: Lorraine American Cemetery, Saint-Avold, France Grave: Plot J, Row 22, Grave 11 Austin Winslow Davis was son of Samuel Wallace Davis (b. 1894) and Julia Alma (Marston) Davis (1896-1982), the second husband of Maude Thelma (Baker) Thompson Davis (1902- 1957), and step-father of Thomas E Thompson and Dorothy C. Thompson after his marriage to Maude in 1940. Austin eight siblings were Philip Ray Davis (1917-1993), Woodrow Wilson Davis (1919- 1983), Donald Richard Davis (1920-1920), Ralph Eaton Davis (1921-2015), Gertrude M Davis (1923-1980), Clinton Manson Davis Sr (1924-2001), Herbert Wallace Davis (1926-1989), and Carl Emerson Davis (1928-1995). Austin enlisted in the US Army in October of 1943 and served with the 313th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Infantry Division in the US Army. He had previously worked as a driver and was employed at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation before entering the service. The 313th was crossing the Meurthe River into Lunéville and Moncel (Moncel-les-Luneville), France on September 20, 1944. Austin was killed in action the same day, on September 20th. Private Austin Winslow Davis was interred at the Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold in the Moselle department of France. The Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France covers 113.5 acres and contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II in Europe, a total of 10,481. Their headstones are arranged in nine plots in a generally elliptical design extending over the beautiful rolling terrain of eastern Lorraine.

Thomas E Thompson

Sources: findagrave - Thomas E. Thompson findagrave - Austin Davis American Battle Monuments Commission – Austin W. Davis American Battle Monuments Commission – Lorraine American Cemetery