Name: Leo Joseph Comeau Rank: Private First Class Service Number: 31207277 Service: 109th Engineer Combat Battalion, 34th Infantry Division, US Army Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: November 11, 1916 Place of Birth: Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: September 30, 1942 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 25 Height: 5 feet, 8 ½ inches Complexion: Dark Hair Colour: Brown Eye Colour: Brown Occupation: Shoemaking cementer Marital Status: Single Religion: Roman Catholic Next of Kin: Larry Comeau (Father), 22 Swasey Street, Haverhill, Massachusetts Date of Death: May 22, 1944 Age: 27 Cemetery: Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy Grave: Plot G, Row 11, Grave 62 Leo Joseph Comeau was born in Haverhill, Mass. on November 11, 1916, and was baptized three days later November 14, 1916, the son of Hilarion ‘Larry’ Raphael Comeau (1875-1946) and Aimee ‘Emma’ Eulalia (Blinn) Comeau (1884-1926). His father was born in Weymouth, Digby Co., NS, and his mother was born in Church Point in Clare, also in Digby Co. His siblings were Louis Joseph Comeau (1905-1982), Dennis Joseph Comeau (1907-1989), Joseph Charles Comeau (1910-1969), Joseph John Comeau (1913-2005) and Mary Rose Comeau (1919-2005), Joseph Edward Comeau (1921-2006), and Evelyn Mary Comeau (1925-2016). Leo’s paternal uncle was Senator Ambroise-Hilaire Comeau (1860-1911), a local merchant, shoemaker, and Member of the Legislative Assembly in the NS Legislature, and the first Nova Scotia senator of Acadian descent. Leo’s parents both immigrated to New England and married in Beverley, Mass. in 1903. Throughout the 1930’s and in 1940, his father was working as a butcher in Massachusetts. Leo was working as a shoemaking cementer for the Bradford Shoe Company in Hampton, New Hampshire, when he registered for the US Draft on October 16, 1940, in Haverhill at the age of 23. His brother Joseph was working as a pounder at the same shoe factory. His brother Edward served in the US Army during WWII from December 11, 1941, to December 10, 1945. After enlisting in September of 1942, Leo was assigned to the 109th Engineer Combat Battalion and was serving with this unit during the Italian Campaign in 1944. The Battle of Anzio commenced with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle on January 22, 1944. and ended on June 4, 1944, with the liberation of Rome. Before Rome, the Allies needed to break out from Anzio, take Cisterna, and Civitavecchia. “During the breakout from the Anzio beachhead, the 34th Division’s 109th Engineer Combat Battalion had the task of opening and maintaining roads to the front lines, clearing lanes through Allied minefields up to the front, and opening gaps in Allied wire on the front to ensure the safe and uninterrupted passage of another infantry division, the 1st Armored Division, and the 1st Special Service Force through the 34th Division’s sector. Work started during the night of May 14th; enemy observation forced the engineer units to work only after dark. Many of the minefields had been under heavy enemy fire from small arms, machine guns, and artillery. The mines became extremely sensitive and were likely to detonate under the slightest pressure. The engineers completed most of the mine clearing during the night of May 20th, but they had to wait to remove wire and to mark gaps which would disclose the direction of the corps attack. On the night of May 22nd, the engineers removed the wire from the gaps and marked each lane with tracing tape and luminous markers. The breakout was a complete success.” Working under the cover of darkness during the night of May 22, 1944, Private First Class Leo Comeau and 3 other engineers from the 109th Combat Engineer Battalion worked to clear a path for the 34th Infantry Division’s breakout from Anzio the following day. As the men cut wires and marked safe lanes through minefields in front of the division, they came under heavy enemy fire. A mortar round killed Comeau and one of his companions. Leo Comeau was later interred at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. To help honor the members of the US armed forces buried or memorialized at Sicily-Rome Cemetery, a new visitor center was dedicated on May 26, 2014. Through interpretive exhibits that incorporate personal stories, photographs, films, and interactive displays, visitors may gain a better understanding of this critical campaign that contributed to the Allied victory in Europe during WWII. Most importantly, the center connects the visitor with some of the men and women buried or memorialized there on Italian soil, including Private Leo Joseph Comeau.

Source: American Battle Monuments Commission – Leo J. Comeau American Battle Monuments Commission – Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial findagrave Honorstates.org