DOB/DOD: March 1, 1901 (Clinton, Maine) – January 16, 1944; 42 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Gladys Bogue (1908-1983) on March 22, 1920, in Norwich, CT; divorced in 1924. Married Sophia Bishop (?-?) on December 16, 1925, in Norwich, CT; divorced in 1927. Married Edna S. Leveille (1910-2003) on December 25, 1928, in Thompson, CT.
CHILDREN: One daughter, Nancy Aileen Bell Asal (1929-2020).
LOCAL ADDRESS: Rural Free Delivery #1, Putnam, Connecticut
FIRST ENLISTMENT: U.S. Navy, April 7, 1917, in Cleveland, Ohio. Discharged August 9, 1919. Service number 111-24-82.
ENLISTMENT: November 6, 1943
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-319210
FAMILY: Born to Gustavus A. (1874-1950) and Edna M. Stevenson Bell (1876-1968). One brother, Graham S. (1906-2000). Two sisters, Pauline E. Bell Joslin (1912-1996) and Marjorie G. Bell Sharples (1918-1971).
CIRCUMSTANCES: The SS Sumner I. Kimball was named for Sumner Increase Kimball, who was born in 1834 in Lebanon, Maine, in York County. When he was 12 years old, his parents moved the family to Sanford, and when he was just 16 years old, he was accepted at Bowdoin College. Kimball graduated from Bowdoin in 1855. After studying law for three years in the office of his father, Kimball passed the York County bar exam. For the next few years, he practiced law, served in the Maine state legislature, and then moved to Boston in 1860, where he practiced law for a short time. During the Civil War, he accepted a clerkship in the office of the Second Auditor of the Treasury in Washington. He continued to be promoted and, in 1871, became chief of the U.S. Revenue-Marine (later known as the Revenue Cutter Service).
The SS Sumner I. Kimball was torpedoed by the German sub U-960 on the night of January 16-17, 1944. The ship’s last position was 52 degrees 33’ N, 33 degrees 45’ W. On January 8, 1944. The SS Sumner I. Kimball, an American steam merchant, as it left Loch Ewe, Scotland, with convoy ON-219, bound for New York. The ship, a Liberty ship, had been built the year before. On the morning of January 16, the steamer straggled from the convoy in mid-ocean, probably due to bad weather and heavy seas. That evening, German submarine U-960 spotted the ship about 900 miles east of Belle Isle Strait and began chasing it. After being hit by one torpedo and missed by two others, the ship tried unsuccessfully to ram the U-boat. Two more torpedoes were fired, both hit amidships, but the steamer stayed afloat. An hour later, the Sumner I. Kimball broke in two but still did not sink. Although U-960 searched for survivors, none were found. The next day, the U-boat found the forward section and sank it. The stern was found by HMS Forester H-74, and it, too, was finally sunk. A distress signal had been received, but neither U-960 nor the Forester reported seeing any survivors, lifeboats, or rafts. There were 39 Merchant Mariners and 30 US Navy Armed Guards on board; none survived.
The fate of U-960
Sunk on May 19, 1944, in the Mediterranean Sea northwest of Algiers, in position 37.20N, 01.35E, by depth charges from the American destroyers USS Niblack, USS Ludlow, two British Wellington (36 Sqn RAF/M & U) and a British Ventura aircraft (500 Sqn RAF/V). 31 dead and 20 survivors. [From uboat.net]
Additional information from granddaughter, Deb Asal Piper
He did marry my grandmother twice. He convinced her to marry him again just before he left for war so she would receive the benefits if he were to pass. I definitely understand the cruelty [in previous marriages] because that was the reason for my grandmother divorcing him.
Lots of story there. He became a Christian just before he left for World War II, and he told her that he asked God to take his life before he ever lays another hand on her. She never saw him again.
The home that I live in now is the family home that I grew up in. We live on the water and the mortgage to this property and this home was paid off before he died in World War II. He and his father built this home.
Memorialized on the Thompson KIA Memorial, 918 Riverside Drive, Thompson, CT
Also memorialized on the Thompson War Memorial, 819 Riverside Drive, Thompson, CT
