'Deepest Wreck', USS Johnston (DD-557), Located-- Part 2

The explorers located the front 2.3 of the USS Johnston in 6,456 meters.  Three of the crew were on the two dives. That front was upright and intact.  They gave their respects to the crew members entombed in the wreck."

Only  141 of the ship's crew survived according to U.S. Navy records.

The Caladan Oceanic company backed the expedition found the bow, bridge and mid-section in tact and with the #557 still visible.  It was the number that definitely revealed the name of the ship

Two full 5-imch gun turrets, twin torpedo racks and multiple gun  mounts remain in place.

The ship still bore damage from the battle that sank it.

Team navigator and historian  Parks Stephenson said the Johnston had taken fire " from the largest warship ever constructed, the Imperial Japanese  battleship Yamato."

Sonar data, imagery and field notes will be turned over to the U.S. Navy.

--GreGen

'Deepest Wreck Dive' Reaches U.S. Destroyer Off the Philippines-- Part 1: Destroyer USS Johnston (DD-557)

From the April 4, 2021, Japan Times.

A U.S. Navy destroyer sunk during World War II and lying 6,500 meters below the surface off the Philippines has been reached in what is considered to be the world's deepest  shipwreck dive.

An American submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the wreckage of the USS Johnston off Samar Island during two eight-hour dives completed late last month.  This was a project by the Texas-based  undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic.

The 115-meter-long ship was sunk on October 25, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf as U.S. forces fought to liberate he Philippines, then an American colony, from Japanese occupation.

It's location in the Philippine Sea was discovered in 2019 by another expedition but most of the wreck was beyond the depth its  remotely operated-operated vehicle could go.

--GreGen

Happy 100th to Arthur Squires, Royal Navy WW II Vet

From April 17, 2021, North Norfolk News  "Happy Birthday, Arthur!  100 up for Second World War naval hero" by Kate Wolstenholme.

At age 19, he was on track to work in the building industry, but then the war broke out.  In 1940, he enlisted in the Royal Navy to be a signalman.

"It was from my scouting days, I always like semaphore ... and I saw a signalman, he was up on the bridge ...and I thought,  it's healthier up there, but it meant reading Morse Code and semaphore at a very fast rate," he said.

Beginning his naval career on the North Atlantic convoys, Arthur went on to win honors  in Minesweepers on operations at Dieppe, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and South France.

He was then promoted to leading signalman and joined C in C Mediterranean in Naples.  Once back in the UK to the Naval Air Station Belfast.

--GreGen

Death of Oldest Pearl Harbor Veteran, Clayton Schenkelberg

From the April 26, 2021,  People "'Outstanding' Navy 'Hero,' Thought to be oldest American who survived  Pearl Harbor, dies at 103" by Rachel  DeSantis.

Clayton Schenkelberg had a 30-year Navy career.  He was 24 on December 7, 1941 and died April 14, 2021.

He recalled that he was just 10 minutes shy of  ending his shift as a Navy torpedoman that day.  He was looking forward to spending the rest of the day with his girlfriend Alithea, whom he married a year later.

As the attack unfolded, he volunteered to move a  train from an area  that was loaded with 550 pounds of explosives that would be extremely dangerous if hit.

There is no register of how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still alive, but it is estimated to be less than 100.

He died in San Diego and his burial will be May 6.

--GreGen

Some More Georgia Pearl Harbor Deaths

There are another six Georgians who were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, who will never be coming home.  They were all aboard another American battleship, the USS Arizona.

Asbury L. Booze

Hiram D. Harris

Robert L. Mims

Harvey L. Pike

Lewis J. Pike

Robert G. Thompson

I wonder if Lewis J. Pike and Harvey L. Pike were related?

--GreGen

Two More USS Oklahoma Unknowns Identified: William E. Blanchard and Wallace G. Mitchell

WALLACE G. MITCHELL

April 26, 2021

The Defense Department POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)  announced today that  Navy Seaman 1st Class Wallace G. Mitchell, 19, of Los Angeles, killed on board the USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941, was accounted for on December 16, 2020.

He will be buried on May  28, 2021, in San Diego.

*****************************

WILLIAM E. BLANCHARD

April 23, 2021

The DPAA announced today that  the remains of 24-year-old Georgia sailor William E. Blanchard.  He was from the tiny community of Tignall, near Athens, Georgia, and will be buried June 7 in North Carolina.  On December 7, 1941, he was on the USS Oklahoma

*****************************

Three other Georgians aboard the USS Oklahoma have been identified in the last several years:

JOHN M. McDONALD of Cherokee County in 2018

ARCHIE CALLAHAN, JR. of Atlanta in 2017

JU;IAN B. JORDAN of Southwest Georgia in 2016.

--GreGen

Medal of Honor Recipient Desmond Doss Buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 2

While serving with his platoon in 1944 in Guam and the Philippines, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals with a "V" Device for exceptional valor while aiding wounded soldiers under fire.

But it was his action at Okinawa that earned him his highest praise.  Again, while under fire, he saved the lives of 50-100 wounded Americans atop an area known as the Maeda Escarpment, but called Hacksaw Ridge by Americans.  (Hence the movie title.)

Doss suffered a left arm fracture from a sniper's bullet while being carried back to Allied lines, one of four wounds he suffered in this action.  At one point he had seventeen pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body from stepping on a grenade.

For his actions there, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Quite the Hero.  --GreGen

Medal of Honor Recipient Desmond Doss Buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery (from Movie 'Hacksaw Ridge')-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919-March 23, 2006)

United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with the infantry.  he was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal  for actions in Guam and the Philippines.

Doss further distinguished himself by saving the lives of 75 men at the Battle of Okinawa.  He is the only conscientious objector in history to receive the medal of Honor.  His life has been the subject of books, a documentary and the 2016 Oscar-winning film "Hacksaw Ridge."

He was from Lynchburg, Virginia, and was a devout Seventh-day Adventist who are firm believers in  nonviolence.

Before the outbreak of the war, he was employed as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia,.  he chose military service, despite being offered a deferment because of his shipyard service.  

He was sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for training with the reactivated 77th Infantry Division.  Meanwhile, his brother served aboard the USS Lindsey.

Doss refused to kill an enemy soldier or carry a gun dur to his Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.  He consequently became a medic to the 2nd Platoon, Co. B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.

--GreGen

Monument Placed By Nazis at Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 4: What To Do With It?

There are other monuments around the United States dedicated to German POWs who died in captivity during World War I.  One stands in Asheville, North Carolina and another in Utah.  Unlike the monument in Chattanooga, however, they were  erected with the help of the American Legion and their inscriptions included both German and English versions.

This begs the question these days of should the monument be allowed to stand or removed in this day of Woke and Cancel Culture.  We al know of the campaign to remove Confederate monuments, whose adherents consider Confederates to be essentially American Nazis.

After World War II, symbols of Nazi Germany were removed by order of the victorious Allies.  But, according to one expert, a monument like the one at Chattanooga would have been allowed to remain.

From time to time, members of the German consulate in Atlanta have traveled to Chattanooga to lay a wreath at the monument.    Every year, a detachment of German soldiers stationed at Georgia's Fort Benning visits the graves of the buried POWs.

As for the monument itself, there are no plans to move or remove it.

According to a member of the National cemetery Administration: "Federal statute directs [the Department of Veterans Affairs] to maintain all memorials and monuments transferred to the department.  In keeping with national shrine standar5ds, these sites are maintained in the same manner as other sites."

--GreGen

Monument Placed by Nazis at Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 3: Erected in 1935 and Dedicated in 1939

The German consul from St. Louis visited the cemetery on December 3, 1934, visited the World War I German graves and started plans for a monument to them.  The U.S. Quartermaster General at the time, Major General  L.H. Bash,  approved the plans on March  21, 1935.  The monument would be erected in the middle of the 76 German graves.

The granite monument was standing  by May 5, 1935.

It is a simple memorial with the names of  the Germans buried there etched  on the sides, along with 14 others not buried there.  Then, a message in German:  "During the war years did here far from home, and Germany will ever remember you."

It stood there as Hitler and the Nazis started all of their horrific things.

On March 13, 1939, Nazi German diplomats made a surprise visit to Chattanooga to dedicate the monument.  About 20 people were at the ceremony and a wreath was laid.

The monument then stood throughout World War II and in 1944, the cemetery was transferred to the War Department and in 1973, ownership was once again transferred, this time to the  Department of Veterans Affairs and the National cemetery Administration.

--GreGen

Monument Placed By Nazis in Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 2: World War I German Sailors and Soldiers

In February1933, the Chattanooga Daily Times reported  that the German government  was planning to place a monument  in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.  Days before, on February  4, the remains of 22 German sailors who had died at Hot Springs, North Carolina, were reburied there, joining the graves of  dozens of German POWs who had died at nearby Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.  A local Presbyterian  minister delivered the prayer service.

The remains were buried in secret and the local newspapers did not learn about it until the next day.

All this came five days after Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany.  A few weeks after that, the Nazi paramilitary  organization, the SS, started the first concentration camp for political prisoners at Dachau.

Meanwhile, the German diplomatic mission in the United States was also changing.

Thanks to President Roosevelt's New Deal, the U.S. military handed the Chattanooga National Cemetery over to the Department of the Interior on August 10, 1934.

--GreGen

Monument Placed By Nazis Sits Quietly in Tennessee Cemetery-- Part 1

From May 25, 2018, Courthouse News Service by Daniel Jackson.

This would seem to be an oddity in these days of rage against statues and monuments.  

There's little indication from looking at it that a pillar in the Chattanooga National Cemetery in Tennessee was erected by representatives of Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II.

It bears no swastika and though the inscription is in German, there is no mention of the Third Reich

Members of Nazi Germany's diplomatic mission to the United States quietly installed the pillar in 1935, to memorialize German prisoners of war who died in America during World War I.

Strange to have these prisoners buried in a national cemetery dedicated to American military.

How Did This Come To Be?  --GreGen

German Prisoners Buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery

From Wikipedia.

Along with over 50,000 internments for American military at this cemetery, there  are graves of German prisoners who died both during World War I (78) and World War II (108).  After the war, the German government paid to have other POWs disinterred from Hot Springs National Cemetery and moved to Chattanooga.

There is a German World War I monument on the grounds of the cemetery.

******************************************

From the Chattanooga National Cemetery site.

In addition to Civil War veterans, there are 78 German German prisoners of war from World War I buried at Chattanooga.  Pursuant to provisions included in the peace treaty between the United States and Germany at the end of World War I, the German government sought the location and status of Germans who died while  detained in the United States.

An investigation conducted by the War Department found that the largest number of German POWs was interred at Chattanooga.  For a short time, thought was given to  removing all other German  internments to Chattanooga.

In the end, however, the German government decided that only 23  remains from the Hot Springs National Cemetery  should be reinterred here.  The German government  assumed the cost of disinterment and transportation to Chattanooga, and erected a monument  in 1935 to commemorate their POWs.

--GreGen

Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 2: Notable Internments

Notable Internments:

8 bodies of the Famed Andrews' Raiders from the Civil War, including James J. Andrews, the leader of the raid.

********************************

3, now 4, Medal of Honor recipients:

Master Sgt.  Ray E. Duke from the Korean War

Corporal Desmond Doss, World War II.  The first conscientious objector.  The 2016 movie "Hacksaw Ridge" was about his life.

Private  William F. Zion, Boxer Rebellion

********************************

Two Union generals from the Civil War:

William P. Sanders

Timothy Robbins Stanley

*********************************

186  foreign prisoners from World War I and World War II

One Canadian soldier from World War I

--GreGen

Chattanooga National Cemetery

From Wikipedia.

Charles H. Coolidge, one of the country's remaining two World War II Medal of Honor recipients died recently and was buried at the Chattanooga National Cemetery in Tennessee.  I'd never heard of it and wondered if their were any famous people buried there.

As of 2014, it had over 50,000 internments.

It was established in 1863 by the order of General George Henry Thomas after the Civil ar battles of Chattanooga as a place to bury dead Union soldiers.  It became Chattanooga National Cemetery in 1867 and by 1870, had more than 12,000 internments, most of them unknown.  Many were reinterred from other Civil War battlefields, including 1,500 from he Battle of Chickamauga.

During World War I, 78 German prisoners and World War II, 108 German prisoners  who died in captivity were buried there.

--  GreGen

Charles H. Coolidge, Medal of Honor Recipient, Die-- Part 2: For Action in France

After North Africa, his unit was sent to Italy where he was a sergeant and machine gun section leader.  He was awarded a Silver Star for action there on May 31, 1944.

On October  24, 1944, Coolidge was a technical sergeant in charge of a group of machine gunners and riflemen  of M Company and were ordered to hold a vital hilltop position in France near the German border.

During four days of attacks at Hill 623, east of Belmont-sur-Buttant in France, Coolidge and his group held off numerous enemy infantrymen, plus two tanks on October 27 using grenades.  One tank unsuccessfully fired five separate rounds directly at Coolidge.

For his actions above and beyond the call of duty during the battle, Coolidge was presented  the Medal of Honor by Lieutenant General  Wade H. Haislip during a ceremony at an airfield near Domstadt, Germany, on June 18, 1945.

He is interred at the Chattanooga National Cemetery beside his wife.

--GreGen

Charles Henry Coolidge, Medal of Honor Recipient-- Part 1: From Tennessee

The article I used about this man's death didn't have much about his military career or the action that got him his Medal of Honor, so I had to go elsewhere.

From Wikipedia.

(August 4, 1921-April 6, 2021)

United States Army technical sergeant and recipient  on the military's highest decoration of valor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in France during World War II.

At the time of his death, he was the only surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the European Theater of the war.

Born in South Mountain, Tennessee, and graduated from Chattanooga High School.  Received basic training at Fort McClellan in Alabama  and then sent to Camp Butner in North Carolina and Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, where he was assigned to M Company, 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division.

In April 1943, he unit was shipped overseas to Oran, Algeria, to participate in the North Africa Campaign.

--GreGen

Who Is the Only Living World War II Medal of Honor Recipient?

In the last post, I wrote that Charles Coolidge had died and that he was one of the two remaining World War II medal of Honor winners.

So, who is the only one left?

His name is Herschel W. Williams, 97, who was recognized for his bravery on Iwo Jima.

--GreGen

One of Last Two WW II Medal of Honor Recipients Dies, Charles Coolidge, 99

From April 7, 2021, 6 WBRC "Tennessee World War II hero passes away at 99" by Peter Zampa/Gray DC.

Charles Coolidge, 99, died in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  He was one of the last two living WW II Medal of Honor recipients.  His death Tuesday April 6 serves as a stark reminder  that the Greatest Generation is getting smaller every day.

The Charles Coolidge Medal of Honor  Heritage Center in Chattanooga confirmed the sad news.

Coolidge was one of 472 Medal of Honor winners during the war.  He received it for fighting off dozens of German soldiers to save his own men.

--GreGen

Some More USS Oklahoma Unknowns Identified

Taken from the previous post.

On Monday, the Agency reported that it had identified the 300th of the previously unknowns from the USS Oklahoma.  He was Marine Corps Pfc John F. Middleswart, 19.  

And there are even more identifications coming for those unknowns.

Right after the 300th id, that of Navy Pharmacist's Mate 3rd Class George L. Paradis, 23, of Washington was posted.

A Great Thing Our Government Is Doing.   --GreGen

Remains of USS Oklahoma Sailor William Blanchard Identified

From the April 3, 2021, Magic Valley (Idaho) "Idaho View:  Nearly 80 years after Pearl Harbor,  a sailor's remains are going home to North Carolina" by Scott McIntosh, Idaho Statesman.

The obituary of William Eugene Blanchard that ran in the  Sunday Idaho Statesman was standard.  It noted his military service as a Boilermaker 1st Class in the U.S. Navy, the medals he earned, survivors, services and where to send donations.

But one thing really different was the date of his death, and that was some 80 years earlier on December 7, 1941.

Boilermaker William Eugene Blanchard from Tignall, Georgia, was only 24 years old when he died.  It wasn't until January 2021 that his remains were identified by DNA testing done by  the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Since the 1950s, the remains of 394 unidentified sailors and Marines had been buried as unknowns at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

But starting in 2015, they were disinterred and DNA testing done.

--GreGen

Holocaust Survivors Get COVID-19 Vaccine in Austria and Slovakia

From the Jan. 28, 2021, Chicago Tribune by Kirsten Grieshaber and Philipp Jenne.

Hundreds of Holocaust survivors in Austria and Slovakia got their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine Wednesday, an acknowledgement of past suffering and a tribute to resilience 76 years after Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

More than 400 Austrian survivors, most in their 80s or 90s, were expected to get shots in Vienna.  Some were brought by shuttle or by ambulance, while others were accompanied by their children.  The fittest among them took the subway.

This was set up by the Jewish community of Vienna, the Austrian Health Ministry and the City of Vienna.  Twelve Jewish doctors volunteered to administer the shots.

Earlier this week, the president of the European Jewish Congress called onall countries in the European Union to ensure that Holocaust survivors have access to coronavirus vaccines as quickly as possible.

--GreGen

Japan Marks 75th Year of Surrender

From the August 16, 2020, Chicago Tribune by Mari Yamaguchi.

On Saturday, Japan marked the 75th anniversary of its surrender in World War II, with emperor Naruhito expressing "deep remorse" over his country's wartime actions at a somber annual ceremony curtailed greatly by the coronavirus pandemic.

Naruhito pledged to reflect on the war's events and expressed hope the tragedy would never be repeated.   However, there was no apology from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who gave thanks for the sacrifices of Japan's war dead but had nothing to say about the suffering of Japan's neighbors.

Japan's surrender came on August 15, 1945, but the formal proclamation was not signed until September 2, 1945.

Abe said the peace Japan enjoys today is built on the sacrifices of those who died in the war.  He pledged that Japan will reflect on lessons from history and will not repeat the war devastation.  He listed damage inflicted on Japan and its people, including the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, massive firebombings of Tokyo and the fierce battle of Okinawa.

Of course, Japan is facing the great loss of the World War II generation due to age like with the United States and the rest of the world.  

I would like to see more of an effort to recover the bodies of Japan's war dead and still MIA, like what the United States is doing.

--GreGen

MOH Recipient Robert Maxwell Dies in 2019-- Part 4: Recovery, Honors and Postwar Life

"I draped an arm over his shoulder, bled all over him, and we left," Maxwell said.  A jeep picked them up and ferried them to an aid station, where Maxwell received medical treatments as artillery obliterated the farmhouse and courtyard.

The grenade had wounded his right foot, torn his left bicep and struck his temple near his left eye.  But although Maxwell was "permanently maimed" according to his Medal of Honor citation, his actions "saved the lives of his comrades in arms and facilitated maintenance of vital military communications during the temporary withdrawal of the battalion's forward headquarters.

Maxwell was presented with the Medal of Honor in May 1945, while convalescing at Camp Carson in Colorado.  Days earlier his former commander, Ramsey, had helped lead the 3rd Infantry into Austria, where members of the division liberated Salzburg and Berchtesgaden and pressed on toward Hitler's Eagle's Nest, his mountaintop retreat.

Robert Dale Maxwell was born in Boise, Idaho, on October 26, 1920 and raised by his grandparents in western Kansas.  He left school to work on their farm and received his high school diploma in 2011 at age 90.

Although he had a Quaker upbringing, Maxwell decided against being a conscientious objector and enlisted in the Army in 1942.  He received two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts during the war.

After the war, he taught auto mechanics at high schools and county colleges in central Oregon.

Quite the Hero.  --GreGen

Medal of Honor Recipient Robert Maxwell Dies in 2019-- Part 3: The Fight at the Farmhouse

As a hail of bullets sheared tiles from the roof, Maxwell leaped to the ground, taking shelter behind a short rock wall topped with a mesh wire fence.  The German forces had evidently outmaneuvered the American rifle companies nearby, coming within ten yards of the wall and nearly as close to Maxwell's battalion commander, Lt. Col.  Lloyd B. Ramsey, who was inside the post with other officers.

Maxwell and his three comrades marshaled a defense, armed only with their .45s.

"Maxwell's courage was what held us together, " Cyril McColl, a technician fourth grade later told Collier's Magazine.  "The machine-gun fie was just clearing his head, but he sat there taking pot shots at everything that moved.  Our wall was beginning to crumble, and I was thinking how nice it would be to get out of there, when a grenade came over the chicken wire, and hit the cement floor right at our feet."

It was about 2 a.m. when Maxwell fell on the grenade and lost consciousness.  By most accounts, when he came to, the post was deserted, his fellow soldiers apparently believing he had died, had been ordered to evacuate.

Maxwell stumbled into the house, where he found the last American left in it, a lieutenant gathering phone wire.

--GreGen