More than 60 years ago Capt. John A. Leighton of Beverly, received one of the greatest honors when the U.S. Army named a military base in Germany after him, officially calling it Leighton Barracks.
John Leighton was the oldest of six children of Andrew and Ellen Leighton. The family grew up in a triple decker on Grant Street in the Gloucester Crossing section of Beverly.
When 2nd world war broke out, John volunteered to join the Army.
He enlisted as a private, then applied for and graduated from Officer Candidates School.
In a ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas, he married Gertrude Hayes of Lynn, a secretary at Hygrade Lamp.
Before leaving for Europe, John stopped home in Beverly and got a letter notifying him that he had been promoted to captain.
Capt. Leighton was assigned to the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, a tank unit that was part of the 4th Armored Division led by Gen. George 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 and took up a defensive position just south of the town of Carentan.
On July 19, 1944 Capt. Leighton's company and four others were given orders to "execute plan 'A,'" Missing in action
"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 with drawal 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."
"This was a hard blow to this unit as Capt. Leighton had been with the unit from the time of its activation on 10 September 1943 until killed in action in the preceding operations," the diary entry said. "He was a capable, understanding and courageous leader, well liked by those who served under him and worked with him. His
body was removed to a rear division burial collecting point."
Capt. Leighton's body was buried next to other American soldiers in a temporary cemetery in Sainte Mere Eglise, the town in Normandy that had been the landing point for U.S. Army paratroopers during the D-Day invasion.
A small air base near Wuerzburg, Germany, was officially named Leighton Barracks. The Germans had built the base during the war, but it was captured by American troops on Easter in 1945.
The orders naming Leighton Barracks were issued by the U.S. Army's European Command Headquarters and are signed by two generals. The orders recount the circumstances of the captain's death, calling him a "capable, understanding and courageous leader," and state that he was awarded the silver star.
"His gallant and heroic stand in the vicinity of Raids, France on 18 July 1944, which cost him his life, will ever be an inspiration to the men of his company and the entire battalion," the orders state.
The bodies of American soldiers eventually had to be moved when France wanted to reclaim the temporary cemeteries for farmland. In 1949, the body of Capt. Leighton was buried again, this time at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Over the years, Leighton Barracks grew to become a major military base in Germany, about 70 miles south of Frankfurt in Bavarian wine-growing country. In 2005, the U.S. Defense Department announced plans to
relinquish control of 11 military bases in Germany.
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