Gardner, Arthur Joseph, WT2c

WT2 Arthur Gardner was killed on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was stationed on board the USS Helena CL-50. He died of 3rd degree burns sustained during the attack.

Watertender Second Class Arthur Joseph Gardner, #2436403
 
Born on April 10, 1920, Arthur Joseph Gardner was the third of four children born to Sylvester and Henrietta Goss Gardner of Junedale, Pennsylvania. Henrietta, Italian by birth, was born in Varena, Italy. She came to American in 1902 with her parents, Angelo and Teresa Goss both of whom died 12 years later in April 1914.  Sylvester Gardner immigrated to the United States from Austria in the early 20th century. He worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, an occupation that drew thousands of men to its dismal, hazardous conditions.  In 1940, he died of pneumonia and influenza when Arthur was at sea. 
 
The Gardner family lived through World War I, the Spanish influenza pandemic and the harsh economic times of the 1920-1930 era. Pennsylvania’s two major industries, mining and steel, declined in the 1920s. The mining industry was fraught with reduced bituminous coal demand, union unrest and strikes and competition from other states. The Great Depression worsened these conditions significantly.  With the onset of World War II, the steel industry revived.
 
In thousands of immigrant mining families, sons were relegated to the gloomy occupation to contribute financial support. Was Arthur Gardner among the young Americans who sought a different life through military service?  Certainly, the prospects of a shipboard career were brighter than those he anticipated as a Junedale teen.
 
Arthur, 19, enlisted in the United States Navy on June 27, 1939. AS Gardner completed basic training and was stationed aboard the USS Helena in September that year. The USS Helena (CL-50,) was a Brooklyn-Class light cruiser, the ninth and final ship within that class. Following its commissioning, the Helena took part in various exercises and deployments before being assigned to the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii in 1940.
 
When the 1930s slipped into history, America and the world sensed an easing of the Depression’s grip. In Europe, far-reaching political issues eclipsed improving economies. Since 1933, Adolf Hitler’s influence and power had grown in Germany through the Nazi Party. Attacking Poland in 1939, his Blitzkrieg exploded into World War II.
 
Another, equally significant threat arose when Japan invaded its Far East neighbors, paralleling Germany’s push become a world power. In 1940, the island nation signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, bonding with the Nazi government and its allies. During 1941, Japan and the United States maintained an uneasy relationship that devolved into resigned anticipation of certain conflict. Neither the American government nor its citizens pinpointed Hawaii as the flashpoint for the next four years’ war.
 
On December 6, President Roosevelt made a direct appeal to Emperor Hirohito, urging the aversion of war between their two nations. As the country awaited the outcome of the diplomatic petition, six Japanese aircraft carriers, with battleships, cruisers and destroyers were less than 300 miles north of Oahu. The attack planned to send 420 aircraft in two waves over Pearl Harbor.
 
The next morning, the ships’ crews prepared for Sunday’s activities. Around the harbor, ninety-six ships were moored. Over the surrounding mountains, scattered clouds were breezed and broken by a ten knot wind. Cumulus puffs concealed the approaching Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, moving from the north against the unsuspected fleet.  At 0755, planes bearing a red disc festooned with rays of the Rising Sun bore down on American ships and their crews. Suddenly, shockingly, Pearl Harbor was under attack.
 
General Quarters! This is not a Drill!
 
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) was in the berth that the USS Pennsylvania usually occupied. Because of this, she became a target of the Japanese. A torpedo hit on her starboard side. She began to flood but her crew managed to get it under control. This allowed for a generator to power her gun mounts. The men aboard the Helena fought back. When the attack was over, 34 men died aboard the Helena.  
 
WT2C Gardner was killed in action during the explosion and fires aboard his ship.  Awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, Arthur was buried in Hawaii until the end of the war.  He was laid to final rest at the Tyrolean Catholic Cemetery in Sheppton, Pennsylvania in 1947. Arthur Joseph Gardner was survived by his mother and siblings.
 
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen serviceperson’s name and read his/her story.
 
Stories Behind the Stars Contributing Author: Pamela C. Baker
 
References:
 
Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1920 United States Federal Census.
Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1930 United States Federal Census.
Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1940 United States Federal Census.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1900_power.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany
Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents.  Arthur Joseph Gardner, photograph, Collection of ET.
U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current. Arthur Joseph Gardner, photograph, Collection of ET.
U.S., Navy Casualties Books, 1776-1941.
U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949.