.jpg)
Pages of History
On Monday morning, March 5, 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Kint of Laurel received the dreaded telegram from the War Department informing them their eldest son John had died of wounds received in action on Feb. 19 somewhere in Germany. No other details were provided.
John Daniel Kint was born in Belden on July 31, 1918. He attended school there through the 10th grade but did not continue his education after the family moved to Laurel in 1933. Instead, he began working with his father in an automobile repair shop.
In 1941 John married Marjorie Klocke of Randolph. The couple lived in Laurel until 1942 when John began working for the Randolph branch of the Home Oil Company.
In March 1944, John was ordered to report for his pre-induction physical. He was inducted into the army in July and sent to Fort Hood, Texas for basic training. At Fort Hood he was one of only 17 men out of 1200 who earned a Sharpshooters’ badge.
Kint received his first and only furlough in December. He returned home to spend two weeks with his wife, their two small children, and his parents. This would be the last time he would see them. On Dec. 19, he boarded a troop train for Fort George Meade near Baltimore.
On Jan. 3, 1945 John was shipped to France where he joined the 53rd Replacement Battalion while awaiting assignment to combat duty. Around that time, the 137th Infantry Regiment of the 35th Division was engaged in heavy fighting in central France. The Regiment suffered heavy casualties.
The following information was found in a declassified document entitled “FROM HEADQUARTERS 137TH AFTER ACTION REPORT.” The report was filed with the Adjutant General on March 1, 1945, and also in the morning reports filed with company headquarters.
On Jan. 19, the 137th was billeted in the city of Metz in northeast France where the regiment rested and was rehabilitated. On Jan. 22, the regiment moved to Conthil, a small French community near the German border. The next day Company “C” received a number of replacements. One of the replacements was Pfc. John D. Kint.
On Jan. 30, the 137th began moving by train to the Belgian town of Vise. From there, the men were transported by truck to Banholt, Holland, located just across the Belgian border and not far from the German border.
On Feb. 5, the 137th was ordered to enter Germany to relieve the British 52nd Infantry which had been holding defensive positions just west of the Roer River near the town of Heinsberg. The 137th continued holding these positions for some time while trading artillery and small arms fire with the enemy on the opposite side of the river.
Plans to cross the Roer were delayed when the Germans opened the floodgates on a large upstream dam on Feb. 11. A wall of water cascaded down the Roer Valley flooding a large area near the 137th’s position.
While they waited for the flood waters to subside, the 137th conducted assault boat training in preparation for crossing the Roer.
Because of increasing enemy infiltration at night, it was decided to install trip wires around the company’s position.
Contact with a trip wire would trigger a flare which would warn of a possible enemy incursion.
At 11:50 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 19, three men of Company “C” were sent to the front to install trip flares. But before completing the task, they were hit by enemy machine gun fire.
The wounded men were transported to a nearby field hospital for treatment. Two of the men survived. One did not. The man who died was John Kint. This can be verified by the morning report filed on Feb. 22. The report stated: “Kint, John D. Serial number 37735327, Pfc. Fr DY to SWA 19 Feb 1945 to DOW 19 Feb 1945.”
Translated from army lingo to English: Pfc. John D. Kint went from being on duty (DY) to Seriously Wounded in Action (SWA) to Died of Wounds (DOW) all on the same day, Feb. 19, 1945. As only one member of Company C was reported to have died of wounds that day, the deceased man must have been John D. Kint. At the time of his death Kint had been overseas less than six weeks.
A letter to Marjorie Kint from the chaplain of the 137th Infantry stated her husband had received a dignified Christian burial in an American cemetery in Holland. “John was held in highest esteem by all who knew him. He was a good soldier and a valuable asset to this organization.”
Memorial services were held at Saint Frances Catholic Church in Randolph on Tuesday, April 10. All business houses were closed during the services and all flags were lowered to half mast. Survivors included his wife Marjorie (died 2018), three-year-old daughter Dorothy (d. 2023), and infant son Robert who still lives in Randolph. Other survivors included his parents: Walter and Tillie Kint of Laurel; brothers Kenneth (“Jiggs”) and Warren (“Breezie”) Kint, both in the service; brother Jim of Colorado; and sisters Mary Ann and Virginia (“Tiny”) — later Mrs. Lowell Burns.
In 1946 a massive effort to recover, identify, and bring home the remains of fallen American soldiers was undertaken. Families were given three options: 1. The remains could be returned to the next of kin at government expense and would be given $50 to help defray private funeral costs; 2. The remains could be returned to the United States and buried in a national cemetery at government expense; or 3. The remains could be buried in an American cemetery overseas also at government expense.
The Kint family opted for the third choice. After the war John Kint’s remains were moved to the Netherlands-American cemetery in Margraten, Holland, where they rest today.
All of the more than 8000 graves are marked by identical white marble crosses. His reads: JOHN D. KINT, PFC. 137 INF 35 DIV. NEBRASKA, FEB 19, 1945.”
