PRIVATE FIRST CLASS LLOYD LAMAR ANDREWS United States Army, World War II I Company, 262nd Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division (Black Panthers)

Private First Class Lloyd Lamar Andrews, United States Army is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery.

He was born in Enterprise, Coffee County, Alabama on July 16, 1916. His parents were Charlie A Andrews Sr. (1895 – 1977) and Zanada Weeks Andrews (1896 - 1991). The 1930 Shelby County census listed his father as a farmer. He had four sisters, Velma Andrews Harper (1913-2002), Mildred Mozella Andrews (1918-2005), Hazel Andrews (1921-), Jessie Janice Andrews who died in infancy in 1933, and one brother Charlie A. Jr.

Not much is known about his time in Shelby County, Texas. Military records that could be found listed him as single and with a grammar school education. He enlisted in the US Army on October 2, 1942 at Camp Wolters, Texas. He was assigned to I Company, 262nd Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division known as the Black Panther Division.

PFC Andrews was a passenger aboard the ship SS Leopoldville (Belgian Troop Transport) that was attacked by German U-Board U-486 on Christmas Eve, 1944. The SS Leopoldville was torpedoed in the English Channel 5 miles from the port of Cherbourg, France. The troopship was transporting 2235 American soldiers from regiments of the 66th Infantry Division. The ship finally sank 2 1/2 hours later. Everything that could went wrong: calls for help were mishandled, rescue craft were slow to the scene and the weather was unfavorable. 763 American soldiers died that night, making this the worst loss an American infantry division suffered from a U-boat attack during the war.

The Allied authorities were embarrassed by the incident and decided to bury the case. Many loved ones were told the men were missing in action although they were already dead by then, later to be classified as killed in action. The files were not opened to the public until 1996.

U-486 had not said her last word, as she sank the British frigates HMS Affleck and Capel only two days later in the same area, before returning on 15 Jan, 1945 to Bergen, Norway. The wreck of the SS Leopoldville was discovered by Clive Cussler with the help of his shipwreck-hunting organization NUMA (National Underwater & Marine Agency). His book The Sea Hunters contains a chapter on the sinking which describes the incident from eyewitness accounts, and includes the story of the wreck's discovery. (This information came from the website Uboat.net).

The body of PFC Andrews and 492 others were never recovered. Those that were recovered were buried on December 25th and 26th, 1944 in Blosville-Carentan and other nearby areas. He is still listed as missing in action on the Defense Prisoner of War, Missing Personnel Office website files. The date of missing is Christmas Day, Monday, December 25th, 1945.

Lloyd L Andrews