English, Leonard Jr.
Army Corporal

Leonard Jr. English, age 20, from Baltimore County Baltimore, Maryland .

Parents: Ozie English

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Sergeant Leonard English Jr., who joined the U.S. Army from Maryland, served with Battery C, 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was killed in action on November 30, 1950, near Kunu-ri as he and his fellow artillerymen provided supporting fire to the soldiers of the 38th Infantry Regiment during their withdrawal to Sunchon. Due to conditions on the battlefield, Sergeant English’s body could not be recovered, and his remains have not been identified among those returned to U.S. custody by North Korea. Sergeant English is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associated Press (1954)