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Lucas Alan Moore

Name:
Alan Moore Lucas
Rank:
Technician 4th Class
Serial Number:
33549382
Unit:
Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion
Date of Death:
1944-12-17
State:
Maryland
Cemetery:
Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery
Plot:
B
Row:
9
Grave:
32
Decoration:
Purple Heart
Comments:

Alan Moore Lucas was born on November 30, 1922 in Vandergrift, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He resided in Anne Arundel County, Maryland prior to the war. He enlisted in the Army on January 9, 1943 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was noted as being employed in surveying and also as Single, without dependents. Alan served as a Technician Fourth Grade in the 285th Field Artillery OBSN Battilion, U.S. Army during World War II. He was Killed in Action on December 17, 1944 at the age of 22 and is now buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, Hombourg, Belgium. T/4 Lucas was one of the victims of Malmedy massacre when German SS soldiers of the 1st Panzer Division captured over 100 American soldiers at Baugnez Crossroads outside Malmedy, Belgium, on 17 December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge and, under orders to take no prisoners, placed them in an open field and then machine gunned them. When the machine guns stopped, the SS went through the field where some victims were still alive and systematically finished them off with pistols at short range leaving 84 soldiers dead when they had finished. Fortunately, when the machine guns first started shooting, a number of soldiers ran and some managed to escape and tell the story of how the Germans had treated the others who had not survived.