Jo Shipley, a historic researcher, from Louisville, KY wrote an article regarding two Franklin County [Massachusetts] WWII veterans, Alexander Kowalski and Robert Kiley, that was published in the Greenfield Recorder on Memorial Day 2010.  Both men were from that area of north-central Massachusetts.

Bob Kiley (Hq 2nd, 508th PIR), Alex Kowalski (1st Division, 7th Field Artillery Bn), and her uncle (367th Squadron, 306th Bomb Group B-17) were all on a POW train that was strafed by Allied P-47s while stopped in the Langeais, France rail yard, on 6 & 7 August 1944.

Kowalski was killed and her uncle was wounded but Bob Kiley escaped without further injury to add to his wounds suffered prior to capture.  Bob and the other survivors were then force marched 20 miles to another rail station and eventually ended up in Stalag VIIA Moosburg.

Kiley survived his internment but died only a couple of months after his discharge from the Army. Before his death, he visited the Kowalski family and told them what happened to Alex.

Robert Kiley apparently was a good friend of Irv Shanley, also of Hq 2nd, and through that connection Jo Shipley was able to correspond with Irv as she researched the incident at Langeais.

The story she presented to the Greenfield Recorder is a result of her overall research.  It is reprinted here with not only her permission but also that of Tim Blagg, the newspaper's editor.

As a side note, Jo also wrote to us saying; In addition to Kiley, another member of the 508th, Cyril De Vay of New Orleans, was on the train and he was killed during the strafing attack on 6 August along with Kowalski.

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The toll for the two attacks were 23 dead and 70 wounded. About 50 wounded Allied soldiers, including my uncle, were taken to a hospital in Tours France where they were liberated in early Sept. Paul Demciak of the 508th mentioned being in a hospital in Tours and then moved. This matches up with my uncle saying that several Allied soldiers were removed from the Tours hospital during his stay.

The members of the 508th listed below were all at the Rennes hospital. Some were injured; others were medics who took care of the injured at the hospital.

Kiley and De Vay were on the POW train; Archambault, Ramirez, and Schlegel were liberated by the 8th Division on 4 August 1944. In addition to Demciak, Crouch may have been on the POW train with my uncle and Kiley but I cannot confirm that.

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[Company designations in brackets were added by Jumpmaster]