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Contact Info
Home Town Williamsburg, VA
Last Address Scottsdale, Arizona
Date of Passing Mar 06, 1978
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
John Lesslie Hall, Jr., was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, on 11 April 1891. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1909, excelled in athletics, and graduated in June 1913. As a junior officer he served in several ships, among them the battleships North Dakota and Utah. During World War I Lieutenant Hall trained engineering personnel on the old battleship Illinois and was an engineer officer on the new destroyer Philip. During the years immediately following World War I, he had sea duty, mainly in destroyers, and served ashore as a Naval Academy instructor.
From the mid-1920s until 1934, Lieutenant Commander Hall was an Aide to the Naval District commandant at Charleston, South Carolina, was Executive Officer of the submarine tender Camden, commanded the destroyer Childs, spent three years with the Naval Academy's physical training and athletics programs, and was Navigator of the training ship Wyoming. Promoted to Commander in 1934, he went to the Far East to serve in the heavy cruiser Augusta and, while with the Asiatic Fleet, commanded the gunboat Asheville and a destroyer division. During the later 1930s Commander Hall was at the Naval War College, initially as a student, then as a member of that institution's staff. In July 1940 he achieved the rank of Captain and was given command of the old battleship Arkansas. This was followed by staff duty with elements of the Atlantic Fleet.
In mid-1942 John L. Hall was given a temporary appointment as Rear Admiral and during the invasion of Morocco that fall was Chief of Staff to the operation's Naval commander. This was followed by command of the Naval forces and facilities in that region. Holding amphibious force commands from February 1943 onwards, Rear Admiral Hall was in charge of important components of the invasions of Sicily in July of that year and of the Italian mainland in September. He was sent to England in November to participate in preparations for the invasion of France and, in the June 1944 Normandy landings, commanded the amphibious assault on "Omaha" Beach. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet's Amphibious Forces in October, Hall participated in the invasion of Okinawa in the spring of 1945.
In October 1945 he became Commander Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet, receiving the rank of Vice Admiral a few months later. Following service as Commandant, Fourteenth Naval District, and Commander Hawaiian Sea Frontier, in 1948 he became Commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College. Vice Admiral Hall's final assignment was as Commander Western Sea Frontier and Commander Pacific Reserve Fleet from August 1951 until his retirement at the beginning of May 1953. Upon leaving active duty, he was advanced to the rank of Admiral on the basis of a combat award. John L. Hall, Jr., died at Scottsdale, Arizona, on 6 March 1978.
The guided missile frigate USS John L. Hall (FFG-32), commissioned in 1982, is named in honor of Admiral Hall.
Description Operation Avalanche was the codename for the Allied landings near the port of Salerno, executed on 9 September 1943, part of the Allied invasion of Italy. The Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion, but the Allies landed in an area defended by German troops. Planned under the name Top Hat, it was supported by the deception plan Operation Boardman.
The landings were carried out by the US Fifth Army, under American General Mark W. Clark. It comprised the U.S. VI Corps, the British X Corps and the US 82nd Airborne Division, a total of about nine divisions. Its primary objectives were to seize the port of Naples to ensure resupply, and to cut across to the east coast, trapping the Axis troops further south.
In order to draw troops away from the landing ground, Operation Baytown was mounted. This was a landing by the British Eighth Army in Calabria in the 'toe' of Italy, on 3 September. Simultaneous sea landings were made by the British 1st Airborne Division at the port of Taranto (Operation Slapstick). British General Bernard Montgomery had predicted Baytown would be a waste of effort because it assumed the Germans would give battle in Calabria; if they failed to do so, the diversion would not work. He was proved correct. After Baytown the Eighth Army marched 300 miles (480 km) north to the Salerno area against no opposition other than engineer obstacles.
The Salerno landings were carried out without previous naval or aerial bombardment in order to achieve surprise. Surprise was not achieved. As the first wave approached the shore at Paestum a loudspeaker from the landing area proclaimed in English, "Come on in and give up. We have you covered." The troops attacked nonetheless.
The Germans had established artillery and machine-gun posts and scattered tanks through the landing zones which made progress difficult, but the beach areas were captured. Around 07:00 a concerted counterattack was made by the 16th Panzer Division. It caused heavy casualties, but was beaten off. Both the British and the Americans made slow progress, and still had a 10 miles (16 km) gap between them at the end of day one. They linked up by the end of day two and occupied 35–45 miles (56–72 km) of coastline to a depth of 6–7 miles (9.7–11.3 km).
Over 12–14 September the Germans organized a concerted counterattack by six divisions of motorized troops, hoping to throw the Salerno beachhead into the sea before it could link with the British Eighth Army. Heavy casualties were inflicted, as the Allied troops were too thinly spread to be able to resist concentrated attacks. The outermost troops were therefore withdrawn in order to reduce the perimeter. The new perimeter was held with the assistance of naval and aerial support, although the German attacks reached almost to the beaches in places. Allied pilots slept under the wings of their fighters in order to beat a hasty retreat to Sicily in the event German forces broke the beachhead.
