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Casualty Info
Home Town Phoenixville, PA
Last Address 919 W Bridge St Phoenixville, PA (Parents)
Casualty Date Oct 26, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Artillery, Rocket, Mortar
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Buried at Sea - N/A, Pacific Ocean
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 / 1943
To Month/Year
December / 1943
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories George's ship transited the Panama Canal in December to head for the Pacific theater of operations (PTO). The Suwannee then provided air escort to convoys that supplied the battered but steadfast Marines on Guadalcanal for seven months.
In November 1943, his ship provided air support for the Gilbert Island landing on 'Bloody Tarawa' in November. George's ship participated in the Marshall Islands campaign (Kwajalein, and Eniwetok) in January 1944, and the Hollandia landings on New Guinea by shuttling replacement aircraft to the larger fleet carriers in April.
In June, the Suwannee supported the landings on Saipan and Guam in the Marianas and drew first blood in the Battle of the Philippine Sea when she sunk the Japanese submarine I-184 on June 19th.
