Monessen artillery man lost his life in the air
This story is part of Mon Valley Sons of World War II, a series about our sons who lost their lives in service to our country during the war.
By JOHN J. TURANIN
For the MVI
When Monessen’s Joe Skruber entered the U.S. Army in 1942, little did he realize that he would be flying over enemy territory as an observer in the U.S. Army’s smallest aircraft.
His assignment as his artillery battalion’s “eye in the sky” brought a danger that his fellow artillerymen never faced … one that would cost him his life.
The Skruber family of Monessen
Joseph “Joe” John Skruber was born Sept. 28, 1913, to Jakob “Jack” and Maria “Mary” Skruber neé Berkes in Weirton, W.Va. Jack and Mary had married in Hungary in the early 1900s.
Jack immigrated to the United States in 1903 to look for work, which he found in McKeesport. He sent for Mary, and she arrived in 1910 aboard the SS Carpathia, with their first child, Andraz.
Joe was the third of seven children born to Jack and Mary. After Andraz (called Andrew), Kathryn was born in 1911. His sisters Barbara (1916) and Ann Regina (1917) came next, followed by Jacob “Jack” William in 1920. Their last child was stillborn in 1925.
By 1920, Jack purchased a home at 156 Donner Ave. in Monessen after being hired at the tin mill in the city. The family moved into a home at 337 Schoonmaker Ave. by 1930. In 1931, their father, Jack, died of cancer.
Joe left high school after his junior year and was working as a shipper in a Monessen steel mill in 1940. He was living at home with his widowed mother and his brother, Jack.
In September 1940, Congress passed the Selective Service and Training Act that mandated registration by young men for the first U.S. peacetime armed forces draft. On Oct. 16, 1940, Joe joined millions of others and registered for the draft on its first day. He was a 5’11” 160-pound, 27-year-old with brown hair and blue eyes.
By that time, he had been hired by Carnegie-Illinois Steel and was working at the company’s Irvin plant in Dravosburg, downstream on the Monongahela River from Monessen. In April 1941, Joe was involved in a brawl with three other men outside the Monessen Italian Hall. They were arrested and fined.
Drafted
Four months after the United States entered World War II following the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Joe was drafted with 80 other Monessen men into the U.S. Army. On March 28, 1942, he enlisted at New Cumberland, Pa., and Private Joe Skruber was off to training.
A month later, Skruber was training at Camp Chaffee in Arkansas with the 59th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. Camp Chaffee specialized as an armored training base.
The 59th had been formed at Fort Knox, Ky., in February of that year. Its personnel were assigned from Fort Knox, Camp Chafee, Fort Sill (Oklahoma) and several reception centers.
‘The Priest’ at war
The concept of armored field artillery units was formed during the early stages of World War II, mounting the artillery piece upon a mechanized platform as a self-propelled gun. “The Priest” looked like a tank formed by committee, but it packed a punch.
The M-7, 105-mm howitzer motor carriage was a variant of the M-3 tank chassis. It was nicknamed “The Priest’’ because of its pulpit-like .50-caliber machine gun ring mount and was one of the most popular weapons of the war.
It threw a 33-pound shell 12,000 yards and provided mobility for the artillery equal to that of the forces it supported. It also deployed in a hexagonal or circular firing formation, rather than a linear one. This allowed the battery to go into action faster and defend itself better (like settlers circling their wagons).
One of the most important aspects of the armored artillery forces was its fighting spirit. Even in the written doctrine you will find the statement, “In the defense, armored artillery is best used in an offensive posture.” Armored artillery traveled with the maneuver forces, many times finding itself in the directassault role, taking out enemy bunkers and strong points.
By May 1943, Pvt. Skruber had been promoted to staff sergeant and had earned a 1st Class Gunner’s Badge and an Expert Gunner’s Badge. In 1942, the U.S. Army created the rank of technician for non-commissioned enlisted officers with special technical skills who were not trained as combat leaders. Sgt. Skruber’s rank was changed to technician fourth grade, or T/4, but he was still called “sergeant.”
Off to Europe
By October 1943, the 59th AFA and T/4 Joe Skruber had arrived in the Mediterranean Theater of the war, where they were briefly stationed for additional training in Fleurus, Algeria, before marching to Algiers. Two weeks later, they were in Naples, Italy, and were moving up the Italian peninsula through November and December with the 6th Field Artillery Group. The 59th was a highly valued and useful unit that was shared among the Allies and was attached to the British 46th and 56th Divisions to provide mobile and forward artillery for the advancing British forces.
Their introduction to combat was both welcome and impactful. Their success would result in their being reassigned to whatever unit of ground troops required their expertise and their wallop.
By March 1944, the 59th had marched northward and was supporting New Zealand’s 4th Field Regiment in the brutal Battle for Monte Cassino. During this time the 59th’s own “air arm,” forward air observers flying small liaison aircraft such as L-4 Grasshoppers and L-5 Sentinels, began to make their mark.
Grasshoppers in Italy
The ubiquitous civilian J-3 Piper Cubs of the early 1940s — repurposed for the U.S. military for training, transport and combat reconnaissance — were called L-4 Grasshoppers. The 59th AFA deployed both Grasshoppers and Sentinels to locate enemy targets and direct their artillery fire to hit them.
Skruber had demonstrated strong mapping, communication and leadership skills, so he was assigned to the 59th’s air section as a forward aerial observer/scout on Grasshoppers.
His new role was to accompany a Grasshopper pilot, scout enemy positions and radio in artillery firing coordinates and instructions. They would remain in the vicinity of the target, observe the incoming artillery fire, and call in corrections as necessary. Flying at low altitude, they were vulnerable indeed.
The 59th AFA fought with the Allies further up the Italian Peninsula as Allied forces engaged in the fourth Battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944. That month, Skruber was wounded by shrapnel when an artillery shell exploded near his position. He survived and returned to duty, and was awarded the Purple Heart.
The Allies took Rome in June, and the 59th AFA was the first artillery unit to enter the city. They departed Rome attached to the 85th Infantry Division and fought their way north toward Viterbo. The commanding officer commented about the success of the unit, adding that “The air observers also did a very fine job.”
By July, the 59th was reassigned to the 34th Infantry Division. From May through July, the unit had fired 56,000 artillery rounds. At the end of July, the 59th was sent to Naples and informed that they were reassigned to the 45th Infantry Division for an impending operation: the Allied invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon.
France and the final departure
On Aug. 15, 1944, the 59th AFA landed with the 45th near St. Tropez, France. They fought their way northward, and by September were near the French town of Montelimar. The 45th was rapidly advancing northward east of Lyon, France.
Skruber joined 2nd Lt. Robert R. Freeman on Sept. 3, 1944, for an aerial reconnaissance mission in their L-4 Grasshopper. It was their last flight.
While taking off over a small stream, the plane hit a high ferry cable that snapped, crashing the plane into a bank where it burned near the village of Marcilleux, Isère, France.
According to the 59th AFA Historical Report for September 1944: “At 1015 hours, Lt Robert Freeman, our liaison pilot, and Tec 4 Joseph Skruber, his observer, were killed when their plane crashed and burned after hitting a cable near Cremieu. Lt Freeman had flown very gallantly at Montelimar from dawn until dusk and was responsible for breaking up numerous counter-attacks during that battle in August 1944. Almost every time that he had taken to the air he had been fired upon by every weapon that the enemy could turn on him. Despite these dangers, he had remained in the air constantly and played a considerable part in the success of the battle at Montelimar. Sgt Skruber had been his observer on many occasions there. Their loss is felt greatly by members of this battalion.”
In November 1944, his family was informed that their son had been killed in action.
Joe Skruber arrives home
T/4 Joseph Skruber and 2nd Lt. Robert Freeman were initially placed in caskets by French citizens near the location of the crash. Skruber was subsequently buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Montelimar, France. In 1945, he was reburied at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Luynes, France. In October 1948, his remains were placed aboard the U.S. Army transport ship Carroll Victory to be brought to the United States. He was finally interred Nov. 19, 1948, at Grandview Cemetery in Monessen.
The name of Joseph Skruber is inscribed on the World War II Veterans Memorial Tablet, located at the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Euclid Drive in Monessen City Park.
John J. Turanin is a retired Western Pennsylvanian and grandson of the Mon Valley. He is one of hundreds of volunteers with the nonprofit organization Stories Behind The Stars who are writing memorial stories for every one of the 421,000 U.S. service members and 31,000 Pennsylvanians who lost their lives during WWII. Those interested in joining the effort are encouraged to visit www.StoriesBehindTheStars. org.
