Tobin still researching B/394 massacre years ago
Was a platoon of B Co., 394th Infantry, massacred near the Losheim crossroads on the Belgian/German border in December 1944?
Many will say they were, some say men were massacred but not an entire platoon. Most of the men who were there are gone.
John R. Tobin, B/394, has been seeking information for years.
At the Philadelphia 99th Convention he shared information with the Checkerboard editor. It was published and several men provided more details.
Tobin lives at 821 South 154th St., Omaha NE 68154.
Noted author, professor, and historian Stephen Ambrose wrote about the "incident" on page 351 of his highly popular Citizen Soldier. Ambrose got the information from War Crimes File 6-123.
More than 100 men from B/394 were captured or carried as MIA. Private Alphonse Sieto was the first remains discovered by "The Diggers," members of the 99th's MIA Project and Onsite Search Team.
The article appeared in the Checkerboard, first issue 2000. It stated that 100 men were missing from B/394 when a morning report was filed Dec. 18, 1944.
Tobin has spent a great deal of time and effort since that article appeared, to authenticate information.
Many survivors of B/394 contacted Tobin. That company suffered greatly on Dec. 16-17.
Tobin said he'd like to pursue the project, "but time and health have caught up with me."
He is certain there must have been more survivors, for as he recalls the First Bn., companies A-B-C were mixed after Sunday the 17th.
He reports some conflicts that he has discovered. He agrees that there was a "massacre" of soldiers who had surrendered.
Tobin has talked with or corresponded with men from all four platoons of B Co.
Trial material states that a lieutenant from Co. B was among the massacred platoon.
Tobin said only two officers of B Co. were listed as MIA, and evidence shows that both Lts. Weeks and Lubick are on the POW roster.
Tobin believes that Co. A had 42 MIA, and Co. C had 62 men and two officers as MIA. That information is taken from the morning reports of those two companies.
B Co. had 100 men missing, and Tobin has located 59 of them, leaving 61 unaccounted for. It is believed that 21 were massacred.
