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Contact Info
Home Town Born in Carnegie, Crawford County Pennsylvania
Last Address James Wagner's wife and child were living in New London, Conn. He was killed in an airplane accident at East Mountain, near the New York-Connecticut border on route to Groton, Conn.
Date of Passing Nov 03, 1945
Location of Interment Woodlawn Cemetery - Titusville, Pennsylvania
Ensign James Frederick Wagner
Naval Aviator, WWII
Killed while on Active Duty
James Wagner graduated from Colestock High School, Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1940 and enlisted, for six years, in the Navy on 19 December, 1940. He was serving as a storekeeper third class on the USS Beaver AS-5, a submarine tender at Casablanca in North Africa in early 1943, when he received orders to return to the United States to train as a Navy pilot. First he went to pre-flight school at Louisiana State college for three months and on 8 July, 1943, entered the civil aeronautics administration and war training school at Natchitoches, La. He was successively at Athens, Ga., Dailas, Texas, and Pensacola, Fla. At Pensacola he received his wings on 7 November, 1944. Ensign Wagner was afterward stationed at Deland, Fla., and Groose Isle, Mich. Next, he was assigned to an airwing of the new aircraft carrier, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVB-42, which had just been commissioned on the 1st of October 1945.
Wagner was killed in an air crash, of a single-engine two-seater SNJ Navy training plane, one month later on the 3rd of November 1945.
Other Comments:
Ensign James Frederick Wagner, and his wife Anna had a child, a girl named Priscilla Ann - who became: Priscilla (Wagner) Beaulieu Presley, the wife of Elvis Presley.
Ensign Wagner was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was just 5 months old. Her mother, Anna met and married Paul Beaulieu in 1948, he was the only father Priscilla ever knew.
World War II/European-African-Middle Eastern Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories James Wagner graduated from Colestock High School, Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1940 and enlisted in the Navy on 19 December, 1940, and was serving as a storekeeper third class on the USS Beaver AS-5, a submarine tender, at Casablanca in early 1943, when he received orders to return to the United States to train as a Navy pilot. First he went to pre-flight school at Louisiana State college for three months and on 8 July, 1943, entered the civil aeronautics administration and war training school at Natchitoches, La. He was successively at Athens, Ga., Dailas, Texas, and Pensacola, Fla. At Pensacola he received his wings on 7 November, 1944. He was afterward stationed at Deland, Fla., and Groose Isle, Mich. He was assigned to the new aircraft carrier, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVB-42 which was commissioned in October 1945.
