DOB/DOD: January 22, 1902 (Warehouse Point, CT) – February 20, 1942; 40 years old
NOTE: Other sources show the Date of Birth as January 22, 1906, in Westfield, Massachusetts.
MARITAL STATUS: Married Eva Mae Ledoux Kibbit (1906-2005) on December 21, 1936, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
LOCAL ADDRESS: Warehouse Point (East Windsor)
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-086516
FAMILY: Born to Joszeph “John” F. (1881-1957) and Anne Katowski Kibbit (1883-1924). Two sisters, Helen M. Kibbit Norris Golen (1910-1983) and Sophie Kibbit Mayo (1904-1969). Three brothers, John (1907-1989), Leon P. (1911-1954), and Edward (1913-1992).
CIRCUMSTANCES: On February 19, 1942, the unescorted SS Lake Osweya (Master Karl E. Prinz) followed three miles behind the Empire Seal, while they approached Halifax. When the British ship was sunk by U-96 at 2329 hours, the Lake Osweya tried to escape by changing course and zigzagging. But at 04.53 hours on February 20, the vessel was struck amidships by one torpedo fired by U-96 from a distance of 500 yards, broke in two, and sank quickly by the bow. Lehmann-Willenbrock reported that three lifeboats were launched, but none of the eight officers, 22 crewmen, and nine armed guards (the ship was armed with two 3-inch guns) were ever found.
The fate of U-96
Decommissioned on February 15, 1945, at Wilhelmshaven. Sunk on March 30, 1945, in the Hipper Basin at Wilhelmshaven by bombs during a United States air raid by the 8th Air Force.
Memorialized in St. Mary’s Cemetery, 203 Southampton Road, Westfield, Massachusetts.
