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Contact Info
Home Town Fall River, MA
Last Address Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, Nel lived in Fall River for many years and in Tiverton, Rhode Island, for the past 47 years.
Date of Passing Jan 27, 2007
Location of Interment Notre Dame Cemetery - Fall River, Massachusetts
Navy veteran of WW II, USS Halford (DD-480).
Commissioned: 10 April 1943
Decommissioned: 15 May 1946.
Received 7 Battle Stars for service in the Pacific during WWII.
USS HALFORD DD 480
COMMANDING OFFICERS & BATTLE STARS
Lieutenant Commander G.N. Johansen, USN 10 April 1943 to 1 March1944
Lieutenant Commander R.J. Hardy, USN March 1944 to 1 March 1945
Commander R.J. Oliver, USN 1 April 1945 to 1 April 1946
Lieutenant Commander M. Johnson, Jr., USN April 1946 to Inactivation
During World War II, USS HALFORD earned seven Battle Stars on the Asiatic-Pacific Area Service Medal for participating in the following operations:
1 Star/Consolidation of the Northern Solomon Islands - 1 February 1944
1 Star/Bismarck Archipelago Operation
Green Islands Landing'- 15 February to 19 February 1944
Antishipping sweeps and bombardments of Rabaul and New Ireland - 24 February to 1 March 1944
1 Star/Pacific Raids - 1943
Marcus Island Raid - 31 August 1943
Wake Island Raid - 5-6 October 1943
1 Star/Marianas Operation
Capture and Occupation of Saipan - 14 June to 16 July 1944
Capture and Occupation of Guam - 12 July to 9 August 1944
1 Star/Western Caroline Islands Operation
Capture and Occupation of Southern Palau Islands - 6 Septembe to 14 October 1944
1 Star/Leyte Operation
Leyte Landings - 10 October to 29 November 19
Battle of Surigao Strait - 24 October to 26 October 1944
Ormoc Bay Landings - 7 December to 13 December l944
Battle of Surigao Strait - 24 October to 26 October 1944
Ormoc Bay Landings - 7 December to 13 December l944
1 Star/Luzon Operation
Mindoro Landings - 12 December to 18 December 1944
Lingayen Gulf Landings 4 January to 18 January 1945
HALFORD has also earned the Navy Occupation Service Medal for the period 7 to 20 September 1945.
Other Comments:
CINCPAC MSG TO PACIFIC FLEET
October 30, 1944
DATE: OCT 30, 44 FROM: RDO HONOLULU TO: PACIFIC FLEET INFO COMMANDER IN CHIEF UNITED STATES FLEET USS HALFORD DD480
THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF PACIFIC FLEET DESIRES TO EXPRESS TO ALL OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE FLEET HIS PRIDE AND GRATITUDE FOR THE COURAGEOUS AND AGGRESSIVE MANNER IN WHICH THEY HAVE DONE THEIR UTMOST TO DESTROY THE ENEMY IN THE RECENT FIGHTING IN THE PACIFIC.
TO THOSE WHO HAVE FOUGHT IN THE AIR ON THE SURFACER AND IN OUR SUBMARINES "WELL DONE".
TO THOSE BRAVE MEN WHO HAVE GALLANTLY GIVEN THEIR LIVES TO ACHIEVE VICGORY FOR OUR COUNTRY OUR REVERED AND LASTING RESPECT X THEIR HIGH EXAMPLE WILL INSPIRE US ALL IN THE COMPLETION OF OUR TASK OF DESTROYING THE ENEMIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Description The Bougainville campaign (Operation Cherry Blossom) was fought by the Allies in the South Pacific during World War II to regain control of the island of Bougainville from the Japanese forces who had occupied it in 1942. During their occupation the Japanese constructed naval aircraft bases in the north, east, and south of the island; but none in the west. They developed a naval anchorage at Tonolei Harbor near Buin, their largest base, on the southern coastal plain of Bougainville. On the nearby Treasury and Shortland Islands they built airfields, naval bases and anchorages. These bases helped protect Rabaul, the major Japanese garrison and naval base in New Guinea, while allowing continued expansion to the south-east, down the Solomon Islands chain, to Guadalcanal.
The Allied campaign, which had two distinct phases, began on 1 November 1943 and ended on 21 August 1945, with the surrender of the Japanese.
Before the war, Bougainville had been administered as part of the Australian Territory of New Guinea, even though, geographically, Bougainville is part of the Solomon Islands chain. As a result, the campaign is referred to as part of both the New Guinea and the Solomon Islands campaigns.
The Battle of the Treasury Islands was a Second World War battle that took place between 27 October and 12 November 1943[2] on the Treasury Islands group; part of the Solomon Islands as part of the Pacific Theatre. The Allied invasion of the Japanese held island group intended to secure Mono and Stirling Islands so that a radar station could be constructed on the former and the latter be used as a staging area for an assault on Bougainville. The attack on the Treasury Islands would serve the long term allied strategy of isolating Bougainville and Rabaul and the elimination of the 24,000 strong garrison in the area.
The invasion, to be conducted primarily by the New Zealand Army, supported by American forces, was codenamed Operation Goodtime. The New Zealand 8th Infantry Brigade Group, assigned to the United States' I Marine Amphibious Corps, launched the invasion of the Treasury Islands at 06:06 hours on 27 October. 3,795 men landed in the assault wave with the remainder of the Allied force landing in four waves during the following 20 days. The operation was the first amphibious assault launched by New Zealand troops since the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915.
On 1 November the flag was raised over the ruins of Falamae, the islands' capital, and civil administration was restored. Eleven days later the islands were declared clear of Japanese forces; although Japanese holdouts were sighted in the jungles into January 1944.
The operation, in conjunction with Operation Blissful, served to divert the attention of the Japanese Seventeenth Army from the next major Allied target in the Solomon Islands campaign. The success of the operation also helped to improve the planning of subsequent landings in the Pacific.
