This Military Service Page was created/owned by
William Krueger, SM2
to remember
Hollister, Lyle Eugene, RM2.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Sioux Falls, SD
Last Address USS Plunkett in the Mediterranean.
Remembered at the American Cemetery in Sicily-Rome.
Casualty Date Sep 15, 1943
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Mediterranean Sea
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Buried at Sea - N/A, Mediterranean Sea
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.