Thomas J. Horvath, Jr.
Biography: Thomas Joseph Horvath Jr. was born on February, 3, 1919, in Amherst, Ohio. He was the son of Thomas Joseph Horvath and Mary Rosta and attended local schools through the ninth grade. He then worked for the National Tube Company, which was a subsidiary of US Steel although his enlistment record lists him as a brakeman for the railroad.
Service Time: Thomas entered the service on March 18, 1942, at Camp Perry in LaCarne, Ohio. After his basic training, he was assigned as a gunner to 2nd Platoon, Company C of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The unit trained at a number of military facilities within the U.S. including Camp Cooke, California, Camp Hood, Texas, Camp Adair, Oregon, Fort Lewis, Washington, and the Desert Training Center, also in California, before moving to Camp Shanks, New York, for final preparations to ship overseas.
On December 9, 1943, while on leave from the unit, Thomas married the former Stella Elizabeth Szabo who was born in Lorain, OH, and was the daughter of Stephan Szabo and Theresa Madaras.
The unit shipped out from the New York port on April 18, 1944, aboard the Queen Elizabeth. They arrived in Gourock, Scotland, on the 27th. Three months later, they were boarding transports and landed at Utah Beach on July 18th equipped with M18 tank destroyers. They joined the Cobra breakout and swept through Brittany to Brest in late July and early August. The 705th helped clear the Crozon Peninsula into September and then moved across France, in October, to the Moselle River. Advancing to the German border at Kitzing in mid-November, they shifted north to the Aachen area in early December.
The unit moved to Bastogne, where their TD’s participated in the famous defense of the town by the 101st Airborne Division. It was on December 21st that one of his crew mates was feeling ill and Thomas volunteered to keep watch. The other members of the crew would have been inside their TD when it was hit by an artillery or mortar shell injuring some of the crew, including Thomas.
They supported the drive to the Rhine River in March, 1945, and crossed on March 29th at Oppenheim. The unit conducted a drive across Germany through Bayreuth in April, arriving in Neukirchen, Austria, by May 6th. The 705th received credit for campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, the Ardennes and Central Europe. They also received a Distinguished Unit Citation for their actions in Bastogne. Thomas was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he received on December 21, 1944. He left the service at the rank of Coproral.
Thomas returned to Ohio and the family made their home in Lorain where he would return to work with US Steel. The couple had three children, Stephaine, born in 1946, Stella in 1948, and Thomas in 1959. The family moved to Elyria and later to Avon, OH. In his spare time, Thomas enjoyed farming, fishing and hunting and was also an avid model train enthusiast. He was a US Steel union member. Thomas passed away on December 20, 1998, and was buried in the St. Marys Catholic Cemetery in Avon, Ohio. As with most veterans, Thomas didn’t talk about his experiences in WWII. It wouldn’t be until his great-granddaughter was in school and working on a veteran’s report that he shared a bit with her.
I want to thank Thomas’ great-granddaughter, Jamie, for providing the main photo and information used in this tribute. Thank you to Find A Grave contributor Linda for the use of the grave marker photo.
