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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.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.
