At The request of Jim Wilson, nephew of Louie O. Wofford, I did a little research in the rosters and various books available on the Glider Riders, also with the aid of my good friend Dave Bronson (LST and Glider Borne researcher), we were able to come up with a little info about Louie.
Louie did his training with A Company 401st GIR along with his good friend Wiley H. Wilson, who would marry Louie's sister after the war. Louie was later transferred to C Company 401st shortly before D-Day. It was with Cco that Louie was wounded on or about June 9th or 10th 1944 while fighting was at it's height for the area around Carentan.
According to the book "Fighting With The Screaming Eagle's" by SSGT Robert M. Bowen, Greenhill books, Louie Wofford, a quiet soft spoken man, was wounded and placed aboard an LST on June 11th for tranport back to England to care for his wounds. The LST struck a mine off UTAH beach and sunk, killing most of the wounded being transported.
Since my buddy Dave Bronson has done extensive research on LST's and is in the process of having a book about his father's ship the LST 325 published, (Mosier's Raider's), I thought this would be right up his alley to find out which LST this was.
The complete story is still not in as of yet, 5-25-02, but it looks like it could of been LST 496, which from deck logs on the LST 325 is written that the LST 496 struck a mine off of UTAH beach on June 11th 1944.
Other sources say that the LST 496 was attacked by a German E-boat, firing a torpedo into her hull, sending her to a shallow bottom.
Research is still being conducted into the exact ship Louie was on.
I am also looking into more about how Louie was wounded and the circumstances which led to his untimely death. |
