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Casualty Info
Home Town Johnstown, PA
Last Address St Mary's St Loretto, PA
Casualty Date Jul 30, 1945
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Torpedoed
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Grandview Cemetery - Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section 9, Lot 62 (memorial marker)
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
On 30 July 1945, after delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian, the ship was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58. She sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. Only 317 of the 900 survived.
LTJG Barry was among the men listed as missing in action and later declared dead.
Comments/Citation:
Service number: 31147
The information contained within this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
Marshall Islands Operation (1944)/Battle of Kwajalein Atoll (Operation Flintlock)
From Month/Year
January / 1944
To Month/Year
February / 1944
Description The Battle of Kwajalein was fought as part of the Pacific campaign of World War II. It took place from 31 January-3 February 1944, on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Employing the hard-learned lessons of the battle of Tarawa, the United States launched a successful twin assault on the main islands of Kwajalein in the south and Roi-Namur in the north. The Japanese defenders put up stiff resistance, although outnumbered and under-prepared. The determined defense of Roi-Namur left only 51 survivors of an original garrison of 3,500.
For the US, the battle represented both the next step in its island-hopping march to Japan and a significant moral victory because it was the first time the Americans had penetrated the "outer ring" of the Japanese Pacific sphere. For the Japanese, the battle represented the failure of the beach-line defense. Japanese defenses became prepared in depth, and the battles of Peleliu, Guam, and the Marianas proved far more costly to the US.
