Leighton Barracks Würzburg

01/09/2026

Down memory lane: This video was filmed in April 2013, almost five years after the Americans had left Leighton Barracks (and Würzburg) for good.

Two thirds of what used to be Leighton Barracks are still closed to...

31/07/2026

Around 1960: Who knew
Arnold Lee Wilson Jr.?
We have received another request for information. Here it is:
„Hey, im looking for informations about my grandfather. His full name was Arnold Lee Wilson Jr., born on September 7, 1923, in Proctor, North Carolina.
He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was later stationed at Leighton Barracks in Würzburg, Germany, around 1960, as a Staff Sergeant.
During his time in Würzburg, he had a relationship with my grandmother. My father was born in 1960, and Arnold officially acknowledged his paternity in 1961.
Through my research, I also found out that Arnold was married to Mae Treat Wilson and had three sons: David, Peter and Terry Wilson.
Arnold died in 1986 in Georgia.
My family knows very little about his life in Würzburg, and I am trying to learn more about him. I would be incredibly grateful if anyone remembers him, has a story about him, served with him, or perhaps even has a photograph.
I know this is a long shot after more than 60 years, but I thought it was worth asking.
Thank you so much for your help. It really means a lot to me.
Paula Sofie Speyer“

The photo shows Würzburg’s town square around 1960. © Geschichtswerkstatt im Verschönerungsverein Würzburg

13/07/2026

Hello,
My name is Daniel and I’m working on a documentary about the history of the barracks in Schweinfurt.
I found the following video on the Leighton Barracks YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6gDxSWe9Ww

I’d like to use this in my film. I’m looking for any clues as to who filmed or uploaded the video.
Can anyone in this group help me?
Thanks in advance!

Daniel Asadi Faezi

Join the Ledward and Conn community on Facebook:http:///www.facebo...

02/07/2026

Again we forward a question from a member of the Leighton Barracks Würzburg community. Barbara Smith Gueltzow sent us the following message:
„This is a long shot, but it's worth a shot.
My father-in-law supposedly married a young German girl in approximately 1957 on Leighton Barracks. The marriage was annulled by the girls parents due to it not being blessed.
During that time a baby was conceived. My father-in-law came down orders back to the states.
After 65 years my husband found his sister, who was born in Wurzburg.
We would just like to find out some confirmation that he did try and did marry
her.
The girls name was Helga Maria Troll (photo) and my father-in-law's name is Wayne Allen Gueltzow Sr. Both are deceased.
If anyone could help or where I could find out any information from then would be greatly appreciated.“

19/06/2026

Eighty years ago, American cameramen were filming in Würzburg. They witnessed the first reconstruction efforts and they saw citizens who went on with their daily lives („Alltag“ in German), however difficult the circumstances might have been in this largely destroyed city.

Ein amerikanisches Kamerateam filmt am 28. Mai 1946 Alltagsszenen im zerstörten Würzburg: Männer arbeiten auf einem Gerüst am Dom, am Main werden Sand und Ki...

29/05/2026

There is a new development in the case of Tina Grogan and her two children, Dale Jr, and Stephon, who disappeared from their apartment on Rottendorfer Straße in Würzburg on November 28, 1992.
On May 29, 2026, Manfred Schweidler published the following article in the Würzburg daily newspaper Main-Post which we have translated for you :

The Unsolved Case of Tina Grogan:
Will a Trial in Florida Confirm
a Triple Murder in Würzburg?
In 1992, a young American woman and her young sons disappeared without a trace in Würzburg. Her husband, a former U.S. soldier, is now on trial in the United States.
By Manfred Schweidler
A child abuse trial in distant Florida could help investigators in Würzburg solve the unsolved case of Tina Grogan. The mother and her two young sons vanished without a trace 34 years ago. The suspect: her husband, a U.S. soldier stationed in Würzburg at the time.
Dale Grogan, now 59, is accused in the U.S. of contacting a girl under the age of 14 for sexual purposes. He initially tried to avoid trial - in vain.
According to U.S. Justice Department documents, the former soldier is fit to stand trial, and proceedings against him are set to begin on June 1. Grogan faces a prison sentence of at least ten years.

Apparent confession
to the murders while
in pretrial detention

But that’s not all: According to U.S. investigators, the 59-year-old surprisingly admitted while in pretrial detention to having murdered his wife Tina and their two sons during his deployment in Würzburg in 1992.
The family of missing Tina Grogan now hopes that the defendant will reveal further details during the upcoming trial. An intensive but fruitless search was conducted 34 years ago for the bodies of the then 27-year-old mother and her four- and six-year-old children.
The U.S. Army in Germany confirmed to this editorial team a year ago that it had reopened the investigation into Dale Grogan on suspicion of murder and had offered a $15,000 reward for information.

Disappeared without a trace
in 1993 after screams were
heard from the apartment

The Grogans had lived in an apartment building near Leighton Barracks in 1992. According to the U.S. Army, police had been called to the area repeatedly due to domestic violence.
On the morning of October 27, 1992, neighbors heard a child screaming from the Grogans’ apartment. After that, the young mother and her children were never seen alive again.
At the time, the U.S. soldier claimed that his wife had left him and taken the children with her. An intensive search for the three missing persons a few months later in Würzburg and at the U.S. base in Giebelstadt yielded no results.
Then came a dramatic turn of events: In March 2025, Dale Grogan was arrested during a police raid targeting 23 suspected child molesters in Florida. While in custody, he reportedly confessed to killing his wife.
In response to an inquiry, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command is investigating Grogan “for possible murder.”

Tina Grogan’s family
hopes for an official
confession

Tina’s niece Arielle Garcia has informed this publication that the announcement of the verdict in the upcoming trial is scheduled for September 9, 2026.
The 59-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to “a federal charge related to contact with a minor” motivated by sexual intent.
“Once he is convicted, the Army Criminal Investigation Command can finally question him. We hope this will lead to an official confession that can be used in court,” said Tina Grogan’s relative.
For years, Tina’s mother, her sister, and niece Arielle received support only from a program at the University of Florida specializing in cold cases.
In 1993, the U.S. Army in Würzburg took five months just to begin the search for the missing persons – and in 1994 claimed there was insufficient evidence to charge Grogan.
The investigation was suspended at the time on the orders of the U.S. commander of the 3rd Infantry Division in Würzburg.

01/05/2026

A w**e dedicated
to the „Big Red One”

By Roland Flade.
This is a rather unusual Bocksbeutel (Bocksbeutel is the name for the typical Franconian bottle shape). In 1999 or 2000, the Staatliche Hofkeller in Würzburg (a large w**ery, owned by the Bavarian state) produced a special white w**e dedicated to the 1st US Infantry Division (“Big Red One”). Perhaps someone remembers the occasion?
The bottle was recently acquired by Alexander Kraus who collects all kinds of memorabilia from Leighton Barracks and Frauenland, the Würzburg district where he lives.
The 1st US Infantry Division was only due to remain in Würzburg until 2006. The last German-American Volksfest took place in this year. On 6 July 2006, the Big Red One finally lowered its flag at Leighton Barracks. The soldiers of this historic division, who had been deployed on military missions to many parts of the world from Würzburg, were based at their new location in Fort Riley, Kansas.
Also in July 2006, the nearby US hospital on Mönchberg was converted into an outpatient clinic; complex surgical procedures were no longer carried out there. At the end of 2007, the hospital closed its doors completely. The gigantic building from the Third Reich was sold shortly afterwards and converted into 156 luxury flats.
Following the demolition of the annex erected in 1990 at the rear of the site, seven new residential blocks were built.
On 13 May 2008, the American garrison in Würzburg officially ceased to exist. In June 2008, tears were shed when all three American schools closed their doors at the end of the school year. The very last flag was taken down by US troops on 13 January 2009.
The photos:
Front and back of the Bocksbeutel dedicated to the Big Red One © Alexander Kraus collection. Victory Park at Leighton Barracks. The park still exists in the new district Hubland, but the memorial stones and statues were transferred to Fort Riley.

01/04/2026

The man after whom Leighton
Barracks was named

By Roland Flade

On June 17, 1947 the Würzburg airfield and barracks which the Americans had occupied at Easter 1945 was named after Capt. John A. Leighton of Beverly, Massachusetts. The orders naming Leighton Barracks were issued by the U.S. Army’s European Command Headquarters and were signed by two generals. The orders call the captain „a capable, understanding and courageous leader“.
His family did not know that a barracks in Germany had been named after him in 1947 until shortly before Leighton Barracks was closed in January, 2009.
John A. Leighton, Commanding Officer, Company G, 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, 4th Armored Division, was a war hero who had been killed in action July 19, 1944 in France. He was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with his division. Naming a barracks after him was an honor.

„Man of leadership
and compassion“

On November 11, 2008, John A. Leighton’s nephew Paul Leighton, a reporter for the Salem News, published an article about the uncle he never knew. For his article, Paul used the memories of his father, John’s brother, the diary of the 4th Armored Division, the book „Patton’s Vanguard“ about the division, and an interview with a veteran who had fought alongside his uncle.
This veteran, 92 years old in 2008, was Eugene „Lucky“ Luciano. He called John Leighton „a man of leadership and compassion“. „He was a great guy“, Luciano said, „he was a brave guy. He was nice and tall, a good-looking guy.“ He looked like a soldier to him.
John Leighton was born February 1, 1919, the oldest of six children of Andrew and Ellen Leighton. The family grew up during the Depression on Grant Street in the Gloucester Crossing section of Beverly.
John excelled at everything he tried, Paul wrote. „He was so smart he skipped the first and third grades and graduated from Beverly High School at age 16. He won a ballroom dancing competition at the United Shoe Country Club, the golf championship at Wenham Country Club, and became a foreman at the Hygrade Incandescent Lamp Co. in Salem at age 18.“

Promoted to captain
before leaving for Europe

The following details are also from Paul Leighton’s 2008 article.
When the Americans entered the Second World War, John volunteered to join the Army. He enlisted as a private, then applied for and graduated from Officer Candidates School. In a ceremony at Ford Hood, Texas, he married Gertrude Hayes of Lynn, a secretary at Hygrade Lamp.
Before leaving for Europe, John stopped in Beverly and got a letter notifying him that he had been promoted to captain. The last image Paul’s father had of his brother was of him pinning his new captain’s bars onto his uniform.
Capt. Leighton was assigned to the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, a tank unit that was part of the 4th Armored Division led by Gen. Georg 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.
On July 19, 1944, Capt. Leighton’s company and four others were given orders to move forward through an area filled with enemy snipers. Leighton led two squads on an attack in the village of Raids (Saint-Sébastien-de-Raids).

„The captain was
hit in the stomach“

According to the 10th Battalion’s diary, quoted by Paul Leighton, this is what happened next: „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 withdrawal 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.“

John Leighton had
slowly bled to death

On July 28 the body was finally found by a search party. John A. Leighton had died of his stomach wound, slowly bleeding to death. He was buried next to other American soldiers in a temporary cemetery in the town of Sainte-Mère-Église.
One month after John Leighton’s death, his son, Jack, was born.
The bodies of American soldiers eventually had to be moved when France wanted to reclaim the temporary cemeteries for farmland, Paul Leighton wrote. In 1949, the body of Capt. Leighton was buried again, this time at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Why did his family only learn about Leighton Barracks in 2008, when John Leighton’s niece accidentally discovered it on Google? This is what Paul Leighton had to say about this mystery in his article: „How could this place have existed for more than 60 years, with thousands of soldiers and civilians serving and living there, without us knowing about it?“
„How could my father, a World War II veteran himself, be unaware of the honor that had been bestowed on the older brother he so admired?“

Maybe the Army never
informed the family

„My father said his parents would have told him about Leighton Barracks if they knew. John Leighton’s son, Jack, who was born a month after his father died, said his late mother would have told him. Maybe the Army never informed the family. Maybe they sent a telegram and it never arrives. We’ll probably never find out.“
Today, former Leighton Barracks is being turned into the new Würzburg city district Hubland. One third, including Elementary School, Middle School, and High School, is used by the University of Würzburg.
John A. Leighton is remembered by a street bearing his name („Leightonstraße“) in the former Skyline Housing area and an information board telling his story and that auf Leighton Barracks.

Photos: John A. Leighton and Gertrude Hayes on their wedding day; the church in Saint-Sébastien-de-Raids; John A. Leighton’s grave at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y., Leightonstraße in Würzburg.

01/03/2026

Eighty years ago,
Würzburg Cathedral collapsed.
I know, of course, that Leighton Barracks had a chapel for services of various religious denominations. But surely soldiers stationed in Würzburg and their families also occasionally visited Würzburg Cathedral.
What probably only few people know is that the cathedral collapsed 80 years ago and was left in ruins. It wasn't reopened until 1967.
The cathedral had survived the bombing raid of March 16, 1945, in which Würzburg's city center was destroyed and around 3,600 people died. Although the wooden roof truss had burned down, the stone vault beneath it and the columns that supported it still held.
In the winter of 1945/46, a new steel roof was erected to protect the vault from rain and snow. This was obviously too late, as the church's columns had already been weakened by the rain.
On the night of February 19-20, 1946, the wall of the north nave collapsed, taking with it the vaulted ceiling of the main nave and the north aisle, including irreplaceable stucco work.
(Roland Flade)

The large photograph (© Main-Post, Walter Röder) shows the collapsed cathedral in 1946. The smaller photographs show (from top to bottom) the interior of the cathedral before 1945, Domstraße in the 1970s, and the current interior of the most important church in Lower Franconia.

01/02/2026

Anyone here who actually took an ashtray from the Leighton Barracks NCO Club home? This one was used in 1962 and was legally (!) bought decades later on the Internet by Alexander Kraus of Würzburg who collects (almost) everything relating to former Leighton Barracks and the surrounding district.