Lonial J. Martin
Biography: Lonial James Martin was born on February 2, 1923, in Chapel Hill, Indiana, and was the son of Perry T. Martin and Menza L. Smith. He completed schooling through the grammar level and the 1940 U.S. Census shows he was working as a farmer.
Service Time: Lonial entered the Army on December 16, 1942, at Indianapolis, IN. On the 28th, he was assigned to and joined Company C of the 607th Tank Destroyer Battalion which was stationed at Camp Hood, Texas, at that time. He trained at several locations including Camp San Luis Obispo, Hunter Liggett Military Reservation, the Desert Training Center and Camp Cooke, all in California. While they originally trained with M10 self-propelled tank destroyers, the unit was converted to a towed battalion, utilizing the M5 3” anti-tank gun, on December 15, 1943.
Arriving at Liverpool, England, on April 21, 1944, they continued training. Company C landed at Utah Beach, Normandy, France on June 23rd and the 607th supported the advance on Cherbourg, fighting along the Seves River in July. They joined the drive to Le Mans and envelopment of the Falaise Pocket in August, advancing to the Moselle River in September. By early October, the unit was approaching Metz, France, attached to the 90th Infantry Division.
During the night of October 4th, two soldiers from Company C were manning an outpost (#14) somewhere in the vicinity of Sainte-Marie-aux-Chenes and Roncourt, NNW of Metz. At 340 in the morning, an enemy patrol of 2-10 men was encountered and the soldier manning the outpost machine gun fired his individual weapon 3 times. The other man went to alert others. Upon return, the machine gun man was found dead from a gunshot wound, and the machine gun had been removed. We believe the man killed in this incident was Private First Class Martin as he is the only casualty listed by the 607th for that date. Lonial was awarded the Purple Heart Medal for his wounds along with the European-Africa-Middle East medal with credit for the campaigns of Normandy and Northern France.
He was originally buried in a temporary cemetery in Europe but was disinterred in 1949 and re-buried in the Chapel Hill Cemetery, Chapel Hill, Indiana. We would like to thank Lonial for making the ultimate sacrifice for his country. We would also like to thank Lonial’s niece, Jessica, for providing the main photo and some of the information used in this tribute. Thank you also to FindaGrave contributor Jim Bohn for use of the grave marker photo.