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Those Who Died That Others Might Be Free

 

Leonard Berry

 

Date and Place of Birth: 1917 Bowman, South Carolina
Date and Place of Death: December 24, 1944 English Channel
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Pitcher
Rank: Sergeant
Military Unit: Company B, 264th Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division US Army
Area Served: European Theater of Operations

 

Leonard E "Link" Berry was born in Bowman, South Carolina in 1917. He was signed by the Macon Peaches of the South Atlantic League in 1937 and assigned to the New Bern Bears of the Coastal Plain League the same year where he had three wins and three losses. In 1938 he was 12-4 with the Bears, and was 18-8 with a 3.06 ERA in 1939. His fourth season at New Bern produced a 17-8 record and 3.08 ERA, prompting his sale to the Charleston Rebels of the South Atlantic League where he was 12-14 in 1941. When he entered military service with the Army in June 1942, Berry was placed on the National Defense Service List of the Southern Association's Nashville Vols.

 

Berry served with Company B, 264th Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division, and arrived in England in November 1944. On Christmas Eve 1944, Sergeant Berry was among 2,235 American soldiers from the 66th Infantry Division who boarded the troopship SS Leopoldville bound for France. In the dead of night, and just five miles from the port of Cherbourg in France, the Leopoldville was spotted by German U-boat U-486. Oblt Gerhard Meyer launched torpedoes at the huge vessel. Everything that could went wrong. Emergency calls for help were mishandled, rescue craft were slow to the scene and the weather was unfavorable. 763 American soldiers died that night including Sergeant Leonard Berry, making this the worst loss an American Infantry Division suffered from a U-boat attack during the war. U-486 was later sunk by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Tapir on 12 April, 1945 in the North Sea.

The Allied authorities were highly embarrassed by the incident and decided to bury the case. News that he was missing reached his hometown in January 1945, but it was not until January 1946, that The Sporting News was able to confirm his death and even then circumstances were not revealed.

 

"Uncle Link's mother, Metta Berry, died never having known exactly how her son died," explains Rhonda Berry, the wife of Leonard's nephew, Jerald Berry. I believe she died sometime in the 1970s ... the military was so embarrassed about the entire Leopoldville incident that the details of what happened were not revealed for quite some time which would explain why his mother never knew how her son died." 

 

 

"Uncle Link's baseball legacy lives on within the Berry family, though," says Rhonda Berry.  "My husband was a good high school player (pitcher) and our own son, Rhett Berry, is now playing Junior College baseball with the desire to continue playing as far as his talent will take him.  Uncle Link is Rhett's "touch stone" and when he learned of his playing and his sacrifice for his country, he has inscribed Uncle Link's initials in every baseball cap he has worn since he started playing high school ball."

 

Staff-Sergeant Howard DeMartini, a minor league pitcher, was also killed when the SS Leopoldville was sunk.

 

Thanks to Rhonda Berry and family for help with this biography.

 

Added November 11, 2006. Updated JJune 19, 2008.

Copyright © 2008 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.