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Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Pahl, Gerald Franklin, WT3c.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Wyandot, OH
Last Address 349 Frederick St Carey, OH
Casualty Date Jun 06, 1944
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Artillery, Rocket, Mortar
Location Atlantic Ocean
Conflict World War II
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Upon arriving off the coast of Normandy, France, USS Corry (DD-463) headed for Iles Saint-Marcouf, her station for fire support on the front lines at UtahBeach. On D-Day morning 6 June 1944 she fired several hundred rounds of 5-inch ammunition at numerous onshore targets. As H-Hour (0630) neared, when troops would begin fighting their way onto the beaches, the plane assigned to lay smoke for Corry to conceal her from enemy fire was suddenly shot down, leaving Corry fully exposed to German gunners, who were now firing at her in full fury. At approximately H-Hour, during a duel with a shore battery, Corry suffered direct heavy-caliber artillery hits in her engineering spaces amidships. With her rudder jammed, she went around in a circle before all steam was lost. Still under heavy fire, Corry began sinking rapidly with her keel broken and a foot-wide crack across her main deck amidships. After the order to abandon ship, crewmembers fought to survive in bone-chilling water for more than two hours as they awaited rescue under constant enemy fire from German shore gunners. Of her crew, 24 were killed and 60 were wounded.
WT3 Pahl was listed as missing in action and later declared dead.
Description The Naval Battle of Casablanca was a series of naval engagements fought between American ships covering the invasion of North Africa and Vichy French ships defending the neutrality of French Morocco in accordance with the Second Armistice at Compiègne during World War II. The last stages of the battle consisted of operations by German U-boats which had reached the area the same day the French troops surrendered. Allied military planners anticipated an all-American force assigned to seize the Atlantic port city of Casablanca might be greeted as liberators. An invasion task force of 102 American ships carrying 35,000 American soldiers approached the Moroccan coast undetected under cover of darkness. French defenders interpreted the first contacts as a diversionary raid for a major landing in Algeria; and Germany regarded the surrender of six Moroccan divisions to a small commando raiding force as a clear violation of French obligations to defend Moroccan neutrality under the Second Armistice at Compiègne. An escalating series of surprised responses in an atmosphere of mistrust and secrecy caused the loss of four U.S. troopships and the deaths of 462 men aboard 24 French ships opposing the invasion.
