Notes About N.E. Iowans in the Service
RICEVILLE—Mr. and Mrs. Joe Koenigs, who live at McIntire, six miles west of Riceville, are pleased to have their three sons arrive home from foreign service. They came during the last week.
Private Louis Koenigs arrived Sunday. He had been in the service four years and seven months, of which two years were spent overseas. Tech. 5th Gr. William Koenigs came from the South Pacific. He had served across seas for three years and 10 months. Private Ernest Koenigs, who returned a few days ago, had served 18 months in Germany. He escaped any battle wounds but when he was a few miles out of Austria the jeep in which he was riding overturned and he broke his right leg just below the knee.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, October 17, 1945
Accident Victim Is Buried On Monday
Funeral services for William Koenigs, 27, of McIntire, who lost his life in an automobile accident on the Iowa-Minnesota state line early last Saturday morning, were held on Monday at Adams, Minnesota.
William, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Koenigs of McIntire, was recently discharged from the army after five years in a medical detachment.
Koenigs was returning alone from Austin, Minnesota, to the Joe W. Wettstein farm, where he was employed, at the time of the accident. He was found pinned in his car, which had run into a ditch and upset about four miles south of Taopi, Minnesota. It is believed that his neck was broken.
Koenigs received his basic training at Camp Roberts, Colorado, and was sent to Hawaii in September, 1942.
After spending several months in a hospital recuperating from an operation, Koenigs was transferred to the 33rd Division just in time to be shipped to New Guinea, where he spent several months in conditioning for future combat.
Arriving next at Morotal, Netherland East Indies, his combat team went into action. He was a member of Company "B" 108th Medical Battalion that is a part of the famous 33rd infantry, liberators of the City of Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines.
He received his first contact with the Japs while serving with the 2nd Portable Surgical Hospital on the front lines. In the Luzon campaign he has been up to the front many times, evacuating the sick and the wounded by litter, over tortuous and difficult terrain.
Besides his parents, he leaves three brothers: Pvt. Louis Koenigs, who saw action in the Pacific, and recently received his discharge, and is now at Bay City, Michigan; Pvt. Ernest Koenigs, who saw action in the European theatre of war and is recovering from wounds at the Schick hospital at Clinton, Iowa; Eddie Koenigs of Bay City, Michigan; also eight sisters: Mrs. Elonor La Court of Bay City; Mrs. Lydia Piersol and Miss Margaret Koenigs of Nampa, Idaho; Mrs. Julia Belding of Austin, Minnesota; Mrs. Helen Mullenback of Adams, Minnesota; and Vivian, Mildred and Dorothy, at home.
Source: Mitchell County Press, Nov. 22, 1945
Ernest P. Koenigs was born Dec. 4, 1919. He died Mar. 9, 2005 and is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, CA.
Source: ancestry.com
