01/04/2026
The man after whom Leighton
Barracks was named
By Roland Flade
On June 17, 1947 the Würzburg airfield and barracks which the Americans had occupied at Easter 1945 was named after Capt. John A. Leighton of Beverly, Massachusetts. The orders naming Leighton Barracks were issued by the U.S. Army’s European Command Headquarters and were signed by two generals. The orders call the captain „a capable, understanding and courageous leader“.
His family did not know that a barracks in Germany had been named after him in 1947 until shortly before Leighton Barracks was closed in January, 2009.
John A. Leighton, Commanding Officer, Company G, 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, 4th Armored Division, was a war hero who had been killed in action July 19, 1944 in France. He was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with his division. Naming a barracks after him was an honor.
„Man of leadership
and compassion“
On November 11, 2008, John A. Leighton’s nephew Paul Leighton, a reporter for the Salem News, published an article about the uncle he never knew. For his article, Paul used the memories of his father, John’s brother, the diary of the 4th Armored Division, the book „Patton’s Vanguard“ about the division, and an interview with a veteran who had fought alongside his uncle.
This veteran, 92 years old in 2008, was Eugene „Lucky“ Luciano. He called John Leighton „a man of leadership and compassion“. „He was a great guy“, Luciano said, „he was a brave guy. He was nice and tall, a good-looking guy.“ He looked like a soldier to him.
John Leighton was born February 1, 1919, the oldest of six children of Andrew and Ellen Leighton. The family grew up during the Depression on Grant Street in the Gloucester Crossing section of Beverly.
John excelled at everything he tried, Paul wrote. „He was so smart he skipped the first and third grades and graduated from Beverly High School at age 16. He won a ballroom dancing competition at the United Shoe Country Club, the golf championship at Wenham Country Club, and became a foreman at the Hygrade Incandescent Lamp Co. in Salem at age 18.“
Promoted to captain
before leaving for Europe
The following details are also from Paul Leighton’s 2008 article.
When the Americans entered the Second World War, John volunteered to join the Army. He enlisted as a private, then applied for and graduated from Officer Candidates School. In a ceremony at Ford Hood, Texas, he married Gertrude Hayes of Lynn, a secretary at Hygrade Lamp.
Before leaving for Europe, John stopped in Beverly and got a letter notifying him that he had been promoted to captain. The last image Paul’s father had of his brother was of him pinning his new captain’s bars onto his uniform.
Capt. Leighton was assigned to the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, a tank unit that was part of the 4th Armored Division led by Gen. Georg S. Patton Jr. At age 25, Leighton became the commander of Company C, responsible for the lives of about 300 men. His unit landed at Normandy, France, in early July of 1944.
On July 19, 1944, Capt. Leighton’s company and four others were given orders to move forward through an area filled with enemy snipers. Leighton led two squads on an attack in the village of Raids (Saint-Sébastien-de-Raids).
„The captain was
hit in the stomach“
According to the 10th Battalion’s diary, quoted by Paul Leighton, this is what happened next: „The company was under heavy fire and the captain was hit in the stomach. This serious injury did not deter him from his duty. He continued to direct the operations of his company and when their position became untenable he directed the withdrawal of his company to a better position.“
„Captain Leighton insisted on his being left there so as not to endanger the lives of any other men in his unit. It was only upon his assuring the men in his company that friendly medics would pick him up shortly that they left him there.“
„The company made a successful withdrawal. Captain Leighton was reported missing in action as the medics did not bring him in that day.“
John Leighton had
slowly bled to death
On July 28 the body was finally found by a search party. John A. Leighton had died of his stomach wound, slowly bleeding to death. He was buried next to other American soldiers in a temporary cemetery in the town of Sainte-Mère-Église.
One month after John Leighton’s death, his son, Jack, was born.
The bodies of American soldiers eventually had to be moved when France wanted to reclaim the temporary cemeteries for farmland, Paul Leighton wrote. In 1949, the body of Capt. Leighton was buried again, this time at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Why did his family only learn about Leighton Barracks in 2008, when John Leighton’s niece accidentally discovered it on Google? This is what Paul Leighton had to say about this mystery in his article: „How could this place have existed for more than 60 years, with thousands of soldiers and civilians serving and living there, without us knowing about it?“
„How could my father, a World War II veteran himself, be unaware of the honor that had been bestowed on the older brother he so admired?“
Maybe the Army never
informed the family
„My father said his parents would have told him about Leighton Barracks if they knew. John Leighton’s son, Jack, who was born a month after his father died, said his late mother would have told him. Maybe the Army never informed the family. Maybe they sent a telegram and it never arrives. We’ll probably never find out.“
Today, former Leighton Barracks is being turned into the new Würzburg city district Hubland. One third, including Elementary School, Middle School, and High School, is used by the University of Würzburg.
John A. Leighton is remembered by a street bearing his name („Leightonstraße“) in the former Skyline Housing area and an information board telling his story and that auf Leighton Barracks.
Photos: John A. Leighton and Gertrude Hayes on their wedding day; the church in Saint-Sébastien-de-Raids; John A. Leighton’s grave at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y., Leightonstraße in Würzburg.
