State History

This article originally appeared on the Washington Post website in June 2018.

They were twins and did everything together, even in death.

Two weeks after Allied forces swept over northern France in the D-Day invasion, 19-year-olds Julius and Ludwig Pieper, Navy radiomen from Nebraska, were stationed off the coast of Normandy on a vessel called Landing Ship Tank 523. Its nickname was Stardust.

But on June 19, 1944, Stardust hit an underwater magnetic mine, killing an unknown number of men, including the Piepers (pronounced “Peepers”). But only Ludwig’s remains were found, and he was later buried at the Normandy American Cemetery in France. Julius’s name was inscribed on the cemetery’s Wall of the Missing. Read more...