Pvt. Thomas F. LeVangie  

 

Mil# 11048894

Enlisted: 4 March 1942, Boston, MA

 A. Company 643rd TD BN

Transferred to 702nd TD BN (1943)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born: 15 September 1917  Place: Weymouth, MA  

 Died: 24 August 1944   Place: France

Date of Temp Burial:    at: American Military Cemetery St. Andre, Evreux, France

Location: Plot: A Row: 9 Grave: 180

Date Final Buriel:   at: American Military Cemetery Normandy, France  

Location: Plot: A  Row: 18  Grave: 23

 

Father: Patrick LeVangie   Mother: Christine LeVangie (Beaton)

Siblings: Irene, John, Wilfred, Joseph, Mary, Catherine, Myrtle, Hazel and Helen

 

Awards

 

  Purple Heart

 

 

 

 

 

Written story Russell Littlefield about Thomas LeVangie. KIA August 24, 1944.

Both, Thomas and Russell served in the 643rd TD BN and where in 1943 transferred to the 702nd TD BN. 

Russell Littlefield, I will try to tell his story as best I can. 

We had trained together for about 3 years. Tom was from Braintree, Massachusetts. I was from the state Rhode Island and Jack Collins was from Connecticut. On the LST crossing the channel the three of us exchanged home addresses in case something happened to us. TOM was the one. Jack and I where later wounded, but slightly. Tom did not drink or smoke (Jack and I did) and he only thought about getting home and taking care of his mother and building here a home. One day we came back from patrol and I saw a body covered with canvas. I asked the medic who it was and he said “LeVangie”. Then I cried like I never cried before. It was August 24, 1944. The same day Paris was liberated. Tom was in the turret of a Tank Destroyer and a German sniper hit him in the head. He had fallen into the breechblock as the gun recoiled, he had died instantly.

 
 

Article South Braintree Plant about Thomas

  

 

 

 

  

Thomas was first buried on Champigny Saint André (Temp) Cemetery, France

Saint-André Cemetery was originally the site of a battlefield cemetery, established by the United States Army Graves Registration Service in August 1944 during the push towards Paris across the Seine. Fallen American and German soldiers and airmen were buried in two adjacent grave sites.Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, the American Battle Monuments Commission began exhuming the remains of American servicemen and transferring them in accordance with the wishes of their families. Beginning in 1945, the Americans transferred two-thirds of their fallen from this site back to the United States while the remainder were re-interred at the new permanent American Cemetery and Memorial Normandy at Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks the Omaha Beach landing site.

This site is now a German Military Cemetery

With agreement between the French and German authorities after the war, fallen German soldiers buried in the departments Eure, Orne, Seine-Maritime, Eure-et-Loire and Seine-et-Oise were moved to Champigny Saint André

 

Thomas gravemarker on Normandy AMC, France

  

 

 

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