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Casualty Info
Home Town Appleton, WI
Last Address Appleson, WI
Casualty Date Feb 04, 1942
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Indonesia
Conflict World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/East Indies Campaign (1941-42)/Battle of Java Sea
Location of Interment Golden Gate National Cemetery (VA) - San Bruno, California
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1942
To Month/Year
December / 1942
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories On 4 February 1942, Marblehead stood out of Surabaya, Java, as part of a mixed American-Dutch cruiser-destroyer force under Rear Admiral Karel W. F. M. Doorman, RNN. Japanese flying boats from the Toko KÅ?kÅ«tai (Toko Air Group), however, spotted the force as it attempted to transit the Madoera Strait to attack the Japanese invasion fleet bound for Borneo. Thus forewarned, Japanese naval land attack planes bombed the allied force. At 10:27, a stick of seven bombs from a Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" bomber[1] of Kanoya KÅ?kÅ«tai straddled Marblehead. The first of the two bombs to hit the ship penetrated the main deck and exploded near â??wardroom country,â?? the blast ripping through the light sheet metal bulkheads that comprised the boundaries of the compartment. Blessman, who, as the shipâ??s senior aviator had no air defense station and was in the wardroom at the time, was killed instantly by the concussion.