T-5 William Marvin King, 20, son of Thomas Elijah King and Mary Melvina Droke King, drowned in the Mittelland Kanal in Germany on May 8 when the boat in which he was a passenger capsized, his parents have been notified by the War Department. T/5 King entered the service May 10, 1943 and had been overseas since October 15, 1943. He trained at Camp SIbert in Alabama.
T/5 King had seen much heavy fighting and had won a number of medals for courage and efficient service. He landed in France on D-Day with a quartermaster trucking outfit servicing American armored units with fuel, often delivering gasoline to tanks within sight of retreating Germans and under heavy artillery fire. He remained with his unit through Allied campaigns in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. His announced death preceded his 20th birthday by two days.
Surviving are his parents, two brothers, Thomas A. King, F1c in the South Pacific and Pfc Raymond A. King, somewhere in India, and one sister, Mrs. Robert Lawson, Williamson, West Virginia.
- Rank: Technician Fifth Class
- Date of birth: 24 March 1925
- Date of death: 8 May 1945
- County: Sullivan
- Hometown: Bristol
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: Quartermaster Trucking Company
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Gunnings Cemetery, Gunnings, Sullivan County, Tennessee
- Contact us to sponsor William M. King
Image Gallery
Click a thumbnail below to view at full size.
