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Allison Albert (SBTS Writer)-Historian
to remember
Christian, William Garnet, SC2c.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Bluefield, WV
Last Address Harriman, TN
Casualty Date Dec 07, 1941
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Hawaii
Conflict World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Attack on Pearl Harbor
Location of Interment Willard Park Cemetery - Harriman, Tennessee
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Petty Officer Second Class William Christian was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed aboard the USS West Virginia BB-48.
Service number: 2953059
Comments/Citation:
William Garnett Christian-2953059
William Garnett Christian was born on October 30, 1916, in McDowell, West Virginia to George Washinton Christian and Bessie Alice Critchfield. Both George Christian and Bessie Critchfield were born in Tennessee. George Christian died the year of William’s birth from an unknown cause. William had one older brother, Stanley Christian. According to census records, William lived with an aunt and uncle when he was under the age of ten and later lived with a stepdad and three other siblings. William’s highest level of education was completing his first year of high school.
William went on to marry Bertha Louise Kersey on June 13, 1936, at age 19. That same year, Bertha gave birth to their son Wendall on December 8th.
William enlisted in the US Navy on March 11, 1936 and was assigned to the Battleship USS West Virginia from 1936-1941. He earned the rank of Petty Officer Second Class and was a baker on the ship. The USS West Virginia was stationed with the US Pacific Fleet and was in port on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48) was moored in an outward position on battleship row and was hit by at least seven torpedoes, which blew two immense holes in her port side. The crew counter flooded so she did not capsize but sank to the harbor bottom. West Virginia was further damaged by two bombs. When the attack was over, 106 of her crew were killed. She was salvaged, repaired, and returned to active service in July 1944.
William Garnett Christian was killed in action after serving in the US Navy for five years. He was twenty-four years old and had been married for five years. His son was four years old at the time of his father’s death. William Garnett Christian was buried with his crewmates in Hawaii and was later transported in 1948 to Willard Park Cemetery in Harriman, Tennessee. His wife Bertha Louise passed away in 2005 in Orange County, California, and his son Wendall passed away twelve years later in Meridian, Idaho.
Story written by Cassidy Baugh from Brigham Young University
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Together We Served and on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.
If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please click HERE to email Together We Served directly.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Attack on Pearl Harbor
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
December / 1941
Description The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940,[19] disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
From the 1950s, several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing the U.S. into war. However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.