Name and Rank, First Lieutenant Donald R. Gabriel.
Unit/Placed in, 83rd. Chemical Battalion.
Donald was born approx. on 1918 in Kings County, New York.
Father, Joseph Gabriel.
Mother, Margaret Gabriel.
Brother(s), Joseph and Raymond Gabriel.
Donald entered the Service from New York with service number # 0-1036151.
Donald R. Gabriel was Killed in Action when his landing ship (LST-422) was hit by a mine for the coast of Anzio, Italy, on Jan 26, 1944, and he is honored with the Purple Heart, , Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, Army Presidential Unit Citation, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, WW II Victory Medal.
Donald is buried at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, Nettuno, Provincia di Roma, Lazio, Italy.
Thanks to, http://www.4point2.org/hist-83.htm#anzio http://www.dvrbs.com/history-mil/LST-422.htm
Jean Louis Vijgen.
Air Force Info, Rolland Swank.
ABMC Website, https://abmc.gov
Marines Info, https://missingmarines.com/ Geoffrey Roecker
Navy Info, http://navylog.navymemorial.org
POW Info, http://www.mansell.com Dwight Rider and Wes injerd.
Family Info, https://www.familysearch.org
Medals Info, https://www.honorstates.org
Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com
Pictures and Info: http://www.wwiimemorial.com/
LST-422 departed Naples, Italy the night of January 25th, 1944, loaded to capacity with trucks, Jeeps, M3 halftracks, ambulances, and other vehicles. She also carried many 50-gallon steel barrels of gasoline lashed to the deck, plus a variety of ammunition. The personnel were Companies C, D and Headquarters of the American unit 83rd Chemical Battalion, Motorized. This unit operated batteries of 4.2″ mortars, firing white phosphorous, smoke, gas, and high explosive shells. Many of the trucks were loaded containing the very volatile white phosphorous 4.2 inch mortar shells. The LST-422 was part of a convoy of 13 LSTs. She was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Broadhurst, Royal Navy.
The LST-422 arrived off the coast of Anzio, Italy without incident about 1:00 A.M. on January 26, and set anchor due to the back log of ships unloading at the Anzio docks. During those early hours an intense storm whipped up with gale wind velocity and waves 20 to 30 feet high. The winds blew the LST into a known mine field, about 12 miles offshore. At 0520 hours, Captain Broadhurst was resting in a bunk built by the ship’s magnetic compass, when a flash was followed by a terrific explosion toppled the compass onto Captain Broadhurst. He managed to slide from beneath it and make his way to the brodge. The resulting explosion had blown a huge hole in the bottom and starboard side of the ship, and the ship’s fuel oil supply had immediately ignited.
From the bridge, Broadhurst could see twenty foot flames coming from all the tank deck ventilators. The vehicles in the tank space deck had begun to explode, which had set fire to the ship’s diesel fuel oil, much of which had been sprayed out the moment lST-422 hit the mine. The explosion had ripped a massive fifty foot hole on the starboard side in the region between the main and auxiliary engine rooms.
Most of the men of the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion were asleep in the tank deck, which was the first to flood. It sealed the fate of over four hundred men who had no chance of getting out. The men on the main deck had a grim ultimatum…….abandon ship or be consumed by the raging inferno.
The after hatch collapsed allowing exploding ammunition and rockets to escape, then fall onto the vehicles on the upper deck. Tanks of gasoline had been fractured by shrapnel and within two minutes the entire upper deck was a sheet of flame. Soon the bridge was on fire, and the ship’s LCP (Landing Craft- Personnel) was ablaze and fell into the sea from its davits. Captain Broadhurst was unable to contact the engine room, all power had been lost. It was found to be impossible to reach the mess deck where the smoke helmets and asbestos suits were kept. An attempt was made to start the auxiliary fire foam motor, but this had been damaged by flying metal from the exploding objects.
U.S. Army personnel were ordered to abandon ship. Only four Carly floats (liferafts) were left undamaged, so all floatable materials such as loose timber, oil drums, and such were thrown overboard to assist the men in the water.
Many of those who took to the water perished in the frigid sea before anyone could come to their rescue. LST-301 stood nearby to assist. Sadly, one of the men who had escaped LST-422 was picked up by LST-301 but fell to his death between the 301 and LS-422. The disaster was compounded when LCI-32, which had gone to assist LST-422, hit a mine and sunk herself. 30 of her crew were lost, and 11 wounded. Rescues were effected by the minesweepers USS Pilot, USS Strive, LST-16, YMS-34, YMS-43, and other YMS craft. 150 survivors of LST-422 and LCI-32 were rescued from the water in storm conditions.
