Pfc. John Thomas DiMauro

42132279

E Company, 331st Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division

Januar 23, 1926 - January 13, 1945

Pfc. John Thomas DiMauro

42132279

E Company, 331st Infantry Regiment
83rd Infantry Division

Biography

John Thomas DiMauro was born January 23, 1926 in New York, New York to Joseph (Giuseppe) and Josephine (Giuseppina) DiMauro. John had one brother, James C DiMauro. His father Joseph DiMauro emigrated to the US from Italy in 1907 and would go on to serve with the 152nd Depot Brigade (part of the 77th Division) during World War One. John's father passed in 1938.

John DiMauro was registered for the draft one day after his 18th birthday, on January 24, 1944. He was drafted a few months later and entered military service at Camp Uphank, New York on April 26, 1944. He was send overseas as a replacement and joined E Company, 331st Infantry Regiment out of the 92nd Replacement Depot on January 2, 1945 along with 23 others.

Military Service

Battle of the Bulge and death

After their actions in the Hurtgen Forest the 331st Infantry Regiment was assigned defensive positions around Hotton in the final days of December 1944. After New Year some much needed replacements joined the unit to strengthen their numbers in anticipation of the Allied counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge. E Company eventually came out of Battalion reserve on January 11, 1945 and started their attack around 0330 through the woods SE of Bihain eventually reaching their objective. On January 12 their previously captured ground was defended and during the afternoon Company E joined in the attack which continued on during the night. At about 0415 they reached the objective at the edge of the woods South of Langlire. Daylight also revealed a German tank and entrenched troops had been bypassed which split E Company and these had to be taken care of.

On January 13, 1945 E Company defended its positions until they were able to move away from the frontline after dark. They received heavy artillery barrages all through the day and repelling a German counterattack. John DiMauro was killed at an unknown point during the terrible fighting of January 13, 1945. Taking into account testimonies of that day and official reports Pfc. DiMauro was likely killed during the German counterattack. The Morning Report of that day mentions the following: Company encountered stiff opposition from the moment of bypassing Co. F's objective at 1700 12 jan 45 SE of Bihain, Belgium and were held up by 2 tanks and automatic weapons. At 0700 13 jan 45 Company again resumed attack meeting very stiff resistance. At 1400 the Germans launched a counter-attack thru Company's position with 5 tanks approximately 1 company of infantry. Attack was repulsed at 1700.

The original MR can be found at 83rdinfdivdocs.org

Testimonies about January 13

Pfc. Fiore DeCarolis

The following testimony was written by Tom DePiano, son-in-law of Pfc. Frank DeCarolis who joined E Company on the same day as John DiMauro. The wounds Pfc. DiMauro received as described in his IDPF are consistent with the testimony of Frank DeCarolis

First published by Thijs Hodiamont - 83rdinfdivdocs.org

This brief story was told to me years ago by my father-in-law, Private First Class Fiore “Frank” DeCarolis, who was a member of the same unit as that of John Di Mauro. They both were assigned to E Company on 2 January 1945 along with many other new replacements according to researched Company E Morning Report. On 13 January 45, the Company’s position was hit by a severe German artillery barrage while occupying their positions in the densely wooded Ardennes forest. Company After Action Reports (AAR) listed this area as outside of Bihain, Belgium but DeCarolis said he had no idea of their map location. That was the plight of the infantryman – just keep moving without knowing where you are or where you were. He stated that the barrage produced a lot of tree bursts which were just as deadly as the shrapnel in causing wounds or death and was terrifying. The AAR entry for 13 Jan 45 referred to severe artillery barrages in the area of operations. A sterile comment considering the AAR listed 127 casualties for the company that day.

After the barrage, DeCarolis leaned his M1 Garand rifle against a tree for unexplained reasons. The rifle would have been a new one as he was a new replacement recently having completed training. I never thought to ask what was he doing that caused him to leave the rifle – tending to wounded? We will never know. He said when he came back, his M1 rifle had been replaced with a rusty, battered and inoperable rifle. Obviously the soldier who did this was a veteran of previous time in the field under harsh conditions and did not properly care for his rifle. Realizing the rifle was useless, DeCarolis took possession of another M1 rifle – the one that had been issued to Private First Class Di Mauro. He said Di Mauro had been killed by the artillery barrage and had suffered a severe leg wound which ultimately led to his death. My father-in-law apparently was deeply moved by this experience and never forgot it or Private First Class Di Mauro. Being a 19 year old soldier, newly assigned and placed in to the harshest of field conditions in the Battle of the Bulge, and seeing your fellow soldier, a 19 year old replacement just like you, die with only 11 days in combat is something no one would forget. As far as I know, DeCarolis carried that M1 garand through the end of the war.

Pfc. Orlando Gasparini

Pfc. Orlando Gasparini was among the same group that joined E Company, 331st Infantry Regiment on January 2, 1945. He is pictured together with John DiMauro in London two weeks before they shipped out to France. According to his account of that day he was with John when he was shot in the leg receiving the wound which eventually led to his death. After that Pfc. Gasparini was surrounded by German tanks and taken Prisoner of War. He would spend the remainder of World War 2 in Stalag 12A.

Taking both testimonies into account it is a likely conclusion John DiMauro was killed either during the fighting in the morning of January 13, 1945 or during the German counter-attack. Pfc. DeCarolis most likely happened upon John later or after the German attack had been repelled.

Foy American Cemetery

Initially John DiMauro was listed as Missed in Action on January 13, 1945 in the Company Morning Report of January 19, 1945. This might be a result of E Company moving to a different position on the evening of January 13, 1945. It is unclear what happened after that and the records only offer little insight, this of course could be a consequence of the chaos of war. A hospital admission card reveals he was admitted in January 1945 but had passed before he arrived there. In the IDPF his initial burial report states he was buried on March 2, 1945 at US Military Cemetery No 1. alongside S Sgt Richard Fitzpatrick a fellow member of E Company, 331st Infantry Regiment. Interestingly both John DiMauro and Richard Fitzpatrick were still listed as MIA with their unit. This was only changed to Killed in Action on April 8, 1945.

Pfc. John DiMauro was first buried at the US Military Cemetery No.1 in Foy, Belgium, four miles north of Bastogne in Plot G, Row 3, Grave 71. He was buried there on March 2, 1945, at 10.10 Hours. On July 16, 1946, John DiMauro's mother was informed about her son's burial location and, as next of kin, offered the opportunity to have her son returned to the US. In a very emotional letter from July 23, 1946, his mother Josephine requested Major General Larkin to leave her Dear son John in Belgium. After becoming a widow in 1938 she did not want to believe the death of her young son after only a few months in the service.

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