If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Roper, NC
Last Address Santa Rosa Sonoma County California
Date of Passing Jan 08, 2009
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
LCDR Cecil Edward "Red" Blount C. E. Blount, USN, designated Naval Aviator (LTA) #6751 in 1940
Cecil ("Red") received his congressional appointment to the U.S.Naval Academy from North Carolina. He graduated with the Class of 1935. Upon graduation, he served on the USS RANGER (CV-4) and then went to ComAirBatFor. In '38 he served on the FARRAGUT and then to NAS Lakehurst, NJ, for his LTA wings. In '40 he served on the TEXAS. In '42 blimp duty took him to Elizabeth City, Santa Ana, South Weymouth, and Trinidad. In '43 he went to the Naval War College. He then went to Brisbane Australia on Com 7th Fleet Staff and then CO of the CARTER HALL (LSD-3) for the Leyte Landing. He was in Pearl Harbor on Com14's staff - Exec of the OBERON and the WRANGELL. In '53 he went to San Juan on ComCarib staff.
LCDR Blount retired in '55 while stationed in Panama. In 1955 he relocated with his family to Corvallis, OR, to pursue a geology degree at Oregon State University. In the '60s and '70s he lived in Rhodesia, Congo, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada returning to Virginia in 1977. In 2006 he relocated to California to be closer to family, and passed away at the age of 97.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Borneo Operations
From Month/Year
April / 1945
To Month/Year
July / 1945
Description The Borneo Campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area during World War II. In a series of amphibious assaults between 1 May and 21 July, the Australian I Corps, under Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, attacked Japanese forces occupying the island. Allied naval and air forces, centred on the U.S. 7th Fleet under Admiral Thomas Kinkaid, the Australian First Tactical Air Force and the U.S. Thirteenth Air Force also played important roles in the campaign. They were resisted by Imperial Japanese Navy and Army forces in southern and eastern Borneo, under Vice-Admiral Michiaki Kamada, and in the north west by the Thirty-Seventh Army, led by Lieutenant-General Baba Masao.
The plans for the Allied attacks were known collectively as Operation Oboe. The invasion of Borneo was the second stage of Operation Montclair, which was aimed at destroying Japanese forces in, and re-occupying the Netherlands East Indies, the southern Philippines, Sarawak and British Borneo. Borneo in particular was considered at the time a strategic location for its natural resources, oil.
The Borneo campaign was criticized in Australia at the time and in subsequent years, as pointless or a "waste" of the lives of soldiers. Modern historians such as Max Hastings have said that attacking these forces, already cut off from Japan, was a waste of resources.
"Any rational strategic judgment would have left them to their own devices screened by token allied forces until their nation's defeat enforced their surrender."
It has been argued that the campaign did, however, achieve a number of objectives, such as increasing the isolation of significant Japanese forces occupying the main part of the Dutch East Indies, capturing major oil supplies, and freeing Allied prisoners of war, who were being held in increasingly worse conditions (see, for example, the Sandakan Death Marches and Batu Lintang camp articles).
The initial Allied plan comprised six stages: Operation Oboe 1 was to be an attack on Tarakan; Oboe 2 against Balikpapan; Oboe 3 against Banjermasin; Oboe 4 against Surabaya or Batavia (Jakarta); Oboe 5 against the eastern Netherlands East Indies; and Oboe 6 against British Borneo (Sabah). In the end only the operations against Tarakan, Balikpapan and British Borneoâ??at Labuan and Brunei Bayâ??took place.[3] The campaign opened with Oboe 1, with a landing on the small island of Tarakan, off the north east coast on 1 May 1945. This was followed on 10 June 1945 by Oboe 6: simultaneous assaults on the island of Labuan and the coast of Brunei, in the north west of Borneo. A week later, the Australians followed up with attacks on Japanese positions around Weston on the north-eastern part of Brunei Bay. The attention of the Allies then switched back to the central east coast, with Oboe 2, the last major amphibious assault of World War II, at Balikpapan on 1 July 1945. These operations ultimately constituted the last campaigns of Australian forces in the war against Japan.
Â
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
April / 1945
To Month/Year
July / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories CO: USS Carter Hall LSD-3, Borneo operation Balikpapan operation, 26 June to 4 July 1945
