The Commonwealth War Graves Commission: And the Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, Bita Paka War Cemetery

 

Rabaul Bita Paka War Cemetery

100_07641

100_07621

100_07601

The Bita Paka War Cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service in 1945 and is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  There are 1,120 WWII Commonwealth burials in the cemetery.  Three photographs of Bita Paka War Cemetery in S. R. O’Konski Collection.

 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cares for WWI and WWII cemeteries and memorials in 154 countries in 23,000 locations.  Members of the Commission are Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Sir Fabian Ware, the commander of a British Red Cross mobile unit in WWI, had the vision to commemorate the men and women who had sacrificed their lives in WWI.  In 1917 a Royal Charter established the Imperial [now Commonwealth] War Graves Commission.

The Commission established high standards as work began to design and construct memorials and cemeteries.  A literary great of the day, Rudyard Kipling, advised in the selection of inscriptions for the Memorials.

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, was inaugurated on July 24, 1927, by Field Marshal Lord Plumer.  In his speech to those assembled he said,

“… One of the most tragic features of the Great War was the number of casualties reported as ‘Missing, believed killed’.  To their relatives there must have been added to their grief a tinge of bitterness and a feeling that everything possible had not been done to recover their loved ones’ bodies and give them reverent burial. …

But when peace came and the last ray of hope had been extinguished the void seemed deeper and the outlook more forlorn for those who had no grave to visit, no place where they could lay tokens of loving remembrance. … It was resolved that here at Ypres, where so many of the ‘Missing’ are known to have fallen, there should be erected a memorial worthy of them which should give expression to the nation’s gratitude for their sacrifice and its sympathy with those who mourned them.  A memorial has been erected which, in its simple grandeur, fulfils this object, and now it can be said of each one in whose honour we are assembled here today:  ‘He is not missing; he is here’.”

Over 54,000 names of the missing are engraved on panels of the Memorial.  

The CWGC later extended its responsibility to include the war dead of WWII.

The CWGC has ensured that 1,700,000 men and women lost in WWI and WWII will not be forgotten.  

In the United States there are 1,026 graves in 47 States that are commemorated by the Commission. 

 

For more information about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission visit website http://www.cwgc.org/about-us.aspx.

Rabaul, a town in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, was a Australian naval base that was captured by the Japanese in 1942.  It became a major Japanese air and naval installation and was the most heavily defended Japanese fortification in the South Pacific.  It was the assembly point for convoys of ships, known as the “Tokyo Express,” that would race south to bring troops and supplies to areas of conflict in the Solomon Islands such as Guadalcanal.  

Operation Cartwheel (1943 – 1944) was a major Allied plan to neutralize and then to isolate and bypass Rabaul as the Allies moved northward towards Japan.  Allied bombers and fighters first attacked Rabaul in December 1943.  Continuous Allied air attacks on Rabaul rendered it essentially useless in February 1944.  Bombing runs over Rabaul continued until August 1945 when Japan surrendered.  

 

 

S. R. O’Konski, Author
World War 2 History Short Stories
Website: ww2history.org
© All Rights Reserved

 

In Memory Of … Don Jones WWII US 2nd Marine Division

MARINE[1]
Private First Class James Donald Jones, US Marine Corps.

 

On a 2005 WWII in the Pacific cruise I met many WWII veterans who shared their personal experiences in conversations, lectures, and veteran round table discussions.  The trip began in Honolulu, Hawaii, made stops at Midway Island, Majuro, Guadalcanal, Rabaul, Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Nagasaki, and ended in China.  This post is about one of the WWII veterans I met on that trip.

 

James Donald “Don” Jones was born in Eastland County, Texas, on November 14, 1923.  He enlisted in the United States (US) Marine Corps days after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.  By the end of WWII Don was a veteran of Tulagi (August 7- 9, 1942), Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942 – February 9, 1943), Tarawa (November 20-23, 1943), Saipan (June 15 – July 9, 1944), and Tinian (July 24 – August 1, 1944).

These are some of the stories Don shared on the trip.  

 

Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and Savo Island, Solomon Islands

Background.  On August 9, 1942, in the aftermath of the catastrophic defeat of the US Navy at the Battle of Savo Island, US transport ships carrying men, rations, ammunition, gasoline, and other supplies left for safer waters to protect US carriers.  Supply lines to US troops on Guadalcanal were cut off for months as a result.

After first landing on the island of Tulagi, Don and the 2nd Marine Division were sent to Guadalcanal to defend a ridge perimeter around the airfield. 

Don spoke of the hardships on Guadalcanal due to malaria, dysentery, tropical diseases, jungle rot, and malnutrition.  The Marines nicknamed the island “Survival Island.”  Before US supplies began arriving again, they were surviving on rice stolen from the Japanese and native island food sources such as heart of palm.  Don said he never ate heart of palm again after that.  

Don spent much of his time on Guadalcanal in a foxhole on Bloody Ridge (also known as Edson’s Ridge) overlooking the airfield (Henderson Field).  The extreme heat and humidity resulted in leather boots rotting off the feet of some Marines.  While in his foxhole Don made a promise to himself;  if he lived through the war, one day he would return to Guadalcanal and smoke a cigar on Bloody Ridge.

 

100_0576[2]
June 9, 2005, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Don smokes a cigar on Bloody Ridge.

 

Saipan, Mariana Islands 

 

100_0994[2]
June 16, 2005, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Don and his daughter, Nancy, at the American Memorial Park. During the stop in Saipan there was a program at the Memorial honoring WWII veterans. Don spoke at the ceremony and afterwards was interviewed by a Japanese news crew.

 

On June 15, 1944, Don landed with the 2nd Marine Division on “Green Beach” along the southwest coast of Saipan.

When moving up the west side of the island, while crawling on his stomach across a field, Don found a watermelon.  He ate the entire thing while bullets flew overhead.  His thought at the time was, “Nothing ever tasted so good.”

Continuing north Don saw the overwhelming aftermath of the largest Japanese Banzai charge (suicide attack) of WWII on July 7, 1944.  He said there were thousands of dead Japanese soldiers.  The flies there were so thick that a plane had to spray DDT over the area.  

On the northern tip of Saipan at Marpi Point Don witnessed civilian men, women, and children commit suicide jumping off the cliffs.

 

Tinian, Mariana Islands

The island of Tinian is visible from Saipan.  Don landed there in July 1944.

When Don landed on Tinian, he had three 2nd Marine Division replacements with him.  He told them, “Don’t get out of the sugar cane. Cross the field in the cane.”  Two of the replacements were killed by Japanese machine gun fire when they stepped out on a road.  At a Marine reunion years later the third replacement told Don, “For days I only followed you.  You knew what to do.”

Don was wounded on Tinian and evacuated to a battalion aid station.  He said the flies were so bad there that he asked to return to the front lines.

By the time Don left Saipan and Tinian, he had seen civilians jump to their deaths on both the northern cliffs of Saipan and the southern cliffs of Tinian.

 

Back in the US 

After three years in the Pacific Theater, Don was stationed in Washington, DC, standing guard outside the office of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations in WWII.  Don was in Washington, DC, when the war ended. 

Nancy, Don’s daughter, wrote, “James D. Jones was discharged in October 1945.  On his way to the bus stop he nearly cried.  He had only been a Marine.  For the last four years it wasn’t easy, but everything you needed, they provided.  He had a wife and baby waiting in Texas.  What would he do now?”  It was a shared sentiment felt by many who survived the war and were returning to the challenge of reentering civilian life.

 

A Last Tour in the Pacific

Don Jones went on a second WWII in the Pacific cruise in 2008 with his son-in-law, Joe.  Nancy wrote, “For my dad it is more a matter of saying goodbye this time to memories he has lived with for 60 years.  Last time it was an emotional reliving of his war experiences.”

 

James Donald “Don” Jones died in 2008 and is buried in his hometown of Eastland, Texas.  He was a proud Marine his entire life.

Semper Fi, Marine.

 

 

“Midway Atoll:  WWII and Present Day,” a story about the first stop on a 2005 WWII in the Pacific cruise, was posted on this website in November 2015.  Story link is http://ww2history.org/war-in-the-pacific/midway-atoll-wwii-and-present-day/ .

 

100_0816 (1)[1]
Our Valor Tours group at dinner table 32 on the Pacific Princess cruise ship. We were strangers when we started the trip in Honolulu, Hawaii, and family when we disembarked in China. 

 

 

S. R. O’Konski, Author
World War 2 History Short Stories
Website: ww2history.org
© All Rights Reserved

WWII US Navy Corpsman Arnold Cole: A Rock and A Twist of Fate Saved His Life

 

300px-WW2_Iwo_Jima_flag_raising
Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal’s iconic picture of the raising of the US flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. It was the first time during WWII that the American flag flew on Japanese soil.

 

“Among the Americans serving on Iwo island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”    Fleet Admiral Chester A. Nimitz

 

220px-Iwo_jima_location_mapSagredo
Iwo Jima, known as Sulfur Island in Japanese, is eight square miles in size and 660 miles south of Tokyo, Japan.

 

The American invasion of Iwo Jima, designated Operation Detachment, took place from February 19 – March 26, 1945.  The island was of critical importance as a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands.

Arnold “Arnie” Cole was born to homesteaders in Beulah, North Dakota, on October 9, 1924.  The family later moved to Wyoming and then to Billings, Montana, where he lived when he heard about the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.  He was only 17 years old.  His father signed a consent form, so he could enlist.  Arnie joined the United States (US) Navy.

After military basic and specialty training, Arnie was assigned to the 5th Marine Division, 26th Marine Regiment, as a hospital corpsman.  In a 2007 interview with the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, he said, “They assign you to a company of men, and you have to take as good care of them as you can.”

The first day of the Battle of Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945, Arnie landed on the island.  

US Navy corpsmen were issued a .45 caliber pistol, and Arnie managed to “grab” a .30 caliber M-1 Garland rifle also.  He explained in his interview the danger corpsmen face.

 

Interviewer:  Did you get an opportunity to use your weapon or your forty-five or anything or were you just tending mostly wounds?

Mr. Cole:  No, both ways.  I had picked up a little .30 caliber rifle, and I took all my stuff that identified me as a corpsman, threw it all away, and got me a bag and put all my stuff in a bag.

Interviewer:  Did they single out corpsmen trying to shoot them?

Mr. Cole:  They got corpsmen first.

Interviewer:  Is that right?  Is that because he’s supposed to take care of the others?

Mr. Cole:  When they got one corpsman, they got 25 marines.

 

Arnie moved with the marines from the southern Mount Suribachi area of the island up to the Japanese airfields in the middle of the island and then beyond.  His 33rd day on Iwo Jima he was shot.

 

Interviewer:  Oh, you say you got hit?

Mr. Cole:  Oh, yes, I got shot.  An Arisaka got me.

Interviewer:  Where were you hit?

Mr. Cole:  Got me in the chest.

Interviewer:  Oh, right in the chest.

Mr. Cole:  I’m a company aid man.  I do what the hell has to be done, so I immediately stuck a rock in the hole in my back and laid back on it.  I had a sucking chest wound, so I had to lay back, and I held my hand over the hole in the front so I could breathe.  The hospital corpsman is a god, you know, we’re treated like kings by the Marine Corps.  They immediately grabbed me and threw me into a poncho and took me out of there.  That was back to a battalion aid station.  

 

Then his life was saved again by a twist of fate.

 

Interviewer:  Did you go to a hospital ship when they took you offshore?

Mr. Cole:  Yes.

Interviewer:  They had one there?

Mr. Cole:  No, I went back to a battalion aid station, and then they put me on the USS Queens which was a converted transport ship to a hospital ship. From there, they took me back to Guam.  I was bleeding so bad and was losing so much blood that the doctor dumped two of us off at Guam.  He didn’t want to bury us at sea.  He dumped us off on gurneys.  They rolled the gurneys into the morgue.  What happened with me is somebody, I’m told, heard me groan or grunt or something, and they grabbed me and hauled me back in.  When they found me, I had a green tag tied to my toe, dead.

 

Arnie stayed on Guam for a time and then was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and on to San Diego, California.  He spent two years in US Navy hospitals recovering from his wounds.

Arnie was 20 years old when he was shot on Iwo Jima.  He lost his right lung, eight ribs, and shoulder girdle.  And during his interview with the museum he said, “I lost three companies of men” [that he could not save].

 

 

 

Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded for the Battle of Iwo Jima.  Fourteen of the Medals of Honor were awarded posthumously.

US Secretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, was on the island on D-Day plus four (February 23, 1945) and witnessed the raising of the US flag on Mount Suribachi.

The US military occupied Iwo Jima until 1968 when it was returned to Japan.

Arnold Cole’s full interview can be found in the digital archives of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.  The link is http://digitalarchive.pacificwarmuseum.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Arnold%20Cole/order/nosort

 

 

S. R. O’Konski, Author
World War 2 History Short Stories
Website: ww2history.org
© All Rights Reserved

Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery (Part 2): And the Prisoners Of War Who Never Went Home

 

IMG_1554
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas. WWII Prisoner of War burials Section ZA.  Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

They may be far from their homeland but have not been forgotten.

 

After WWII when Prisoner of War (POW) camps closed in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, the POWs who died in captivity were reinterred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. One hundred thirty-two Germans, five Italians, three Japanese, and one Austrian are buried there. If the families of the deceased POWs survived the war and could be located, they would have been given the opportunity to repatriate the remains back to their home country.

Story One. Johnny Barrientez, Lead Cemetery Representative at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, has worked there for 38 years. About 25 years ago (early 1990s) he noticed a gentleman in the POW section and walked over to see if he could be of assistance. The gentleman, a German, had travelled from Germany to Texas to visit his brother’s grave. He knew his brother had been a POW and buried in the United States (US), but it had taken him some time to locate his resting place. The German talked about his brother and showed Johnny pictures of himself and his brother in their German uniforms. Another cemetery employee, an American WWII veteran, also walked over, and the two men exchanged thoughts about the war and fighting for their countries. In the end, after seeing the cemetery and the care given to all the graves there, the German man decided he would leave his brother buried in the US.

Story Two. Corporal Hugo Krauss was born in Germany in 1920. Hugo, his mother, and sister joined his father, Heinrich, in New York City, New York, in 1929. Heinrich had immigrated to the US in 1928. In 1939 Hugo travelled back to Germany to visit relatives and was there when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Trapped in Germany, at some point Hugo became a member of the German Army (Wehrmacht). He was captured during the North African Campaign and was sent to a POW camp (Camp Hearne) in Texas. With his fluency in English and German he became an interpreter. As the story is told, some of his fellow German prisoners thought he had become too friendly with the Americans. On the evening of December 17, 1943, he was severely beaten by Nazi POWs and died on December 23, 1943.

 

IMG_1646
While visiting Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery I found three pennies and a dime on the tombstone of Hugo Krauss. According to some military traditions leaving coins can be a symbol of remembrance of the person. A penny signifies that a grave had been visited. A dime signifies that the visitor had served with the deceased in some capacity.  Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

IMG_1548
An Italian grave.  Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

IMG_1545
A Japanese grave.  Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

IMG_1556
Two of the German tombstones depict the person had been awarded the Iron Cross. The legend at the bottom of the tombstone translates to: “He died far (from) Home for Leader, People, and Fatherland.” Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

 

 

Story One as told to me by Johnny Barrientez.  I want to thank him for his help in the research for this story.

Thank you to G. L. Lamborn for assistance in the German translation on the tombstone.

 

 

S. R. O’Konski, Author
World War 2 History Short Stories
Website: ww2history.org
© All Rights Reserved

 

Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery (Part 1): And A U.S. Marine’s Long Journey Home

 

IMG_1672[1]
Burials at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, began in 1926. The cemetery encompasses 154.7 acres with over 150,000 burials.  Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

SSgt William J Bordelon 12980_jpg[1]
Staff Sergeant William James Bordelon, United States Marine Corps, WWII. Hometown: San Antonio, Texas.  Photograph mysanantonio.com.

 

December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested from the United States Congress and received a declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941.

December 10, 1941, a young man named William James Bordelon from San Antonio, Texas, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.  A graduate of Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, he and two other graduates of the high school would lose their lives in the Pacific Ocean on an atoll known as Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands during the 76 hour Battle of Tarawa which took place from November 20 – 23, 1943. 

On November 20, 1943, Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt) Bordelon was aboard the United States Ship Zeilin awaiting the order to begin the assault on Tarawa. The assault began just after 5 am.  The Japanese had occupied Tarawa Atoll since 1941.  It was heavily defended and fortified with pillboxes, bunkers, and barbed wire.  Ocean tides and a coral reef caused extreme difficulties during the landings.  

For his action during the Battle of Tawara, S/Sgt. Bordelon was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

The CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION:

For valorous and gallant conduct above and beyond the call of duty as a member of an assault engineer platoon of the 1st Battalion, 18th Marines, tactically attached to the 2d Marine Division, in action against the Japanese-held atoll of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands on 20 November 1943. Landing in the assault waves under withering enemy fire which killed all but 4 of the men in his tractor, S/Sgt. Bordelon hurriedly made demolition charges and personally put 2 pillboxes out of action. Hit by enemy machinegun fire just as a charge exploded in his hand while assaulting a third position, he courageously remained in action and, although out of demolition, provided himself with a rifle and furnished fire coverage for a group of men scaling the seawall. Disregarding his own serious condition, he unhesitatingly went to the aid of one of his demolition men, wounded and calling for help in the water, rescuing this man and another who had been hit by enemy fire while attempting to make the rescue. Still refusing first aid for himself, he again made up demolition charges and single-handedly assaulted a fourth Japanese machine gun position but was instantly killed when caught in a final burst of fire from the enemy. S/Sgt. Bordelon’s great personal valor during a critical phase of securing the limited beachhead was a contributing factor in the ultimate occupation of the island, and his heroic determination throughout 3 days of violent battle reflects the highest credit upon the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

S/Sgt. Bordelon was initially buried in Lone Palm Cemetery on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll.  After WWII ended his remains were moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.  In 1995, 52 years after his death on Tarawa, at the request of his family he was returned to his hometown of San Antonio, Texas.  

Prior to his burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, S/Sgt. Bordelon received an honor granted to only four people before him.  He laid in state inside the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas. 

 

IMG_1633
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas.  Photograph S.R. O’Konski Collection.

 

 

Gene Seng, Jr. and Charles Montague were the two other graduates of San Antonio, Texas, Central Catholic High School to lose their lives during the Battle of Tarawa.

Four Congressional Medals of Honor (MOH) were awarded for the Battle of Tarawa.  In addition to S/Sgt. Bordelon, First Lieutenant Alexander “Sandy” Bonnyman, Jr. and First Lieutenant William Dean Hawkins were posthumous recipients of the MOH.  Colonel David Monroe Shoup survived the Battle of Tarawa and was also awarded the MOH.  He later became the 22nd Commandant of the Marine Corps.

The other individuals who have lain in state inside the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas, were MOH recipient (Philippine-American War 1899 – 1902) Major General Frederick Funston, MOH recipient (WWI) Private David B. Barkley, Mrs. Antoinette Powers Houston Bringhurst (daughter of Samuel “Sam” Houston, the first President of the Republic of Texas), and Mrs. Clara Driscoll (philanthropist and historic preservationist who provided the money to preserve the Alamo Mission).

Thank you to Leslie Sitz Stapleton, Director, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo.

 

 

S. R. O’Konski, Author
World War 2 History Short Stories
Website: ww2history.org
© All Rights Reserved

 

The Fathers Who Never Came Home: And the American WWII Orphans Network

2-lt-john-c-eisenhauer
John Charles Eisenhauer, WWII US Army 9th Infantry Division, 60th Infantry Regiment, K Company.

 

Some men came home from WWII and had children.  Some men went to war already having children and never came back.

 

John Charles Eisenhauer was born in New York City, New York, on March 23, 1917.  He was a New York Giants baseball fan, collected stamps, was interested in photography, listened to Jack Benny and Bob Hope on the radio, and enjoyed western movies starring Gene Autry and The Lone Ranger.  He and his friends sailed model sailboats on Jackson Pond in Richmond Hill, New York.  John had a Flying Cloud model sailboat he named “Comet.”

John and his cousin were sanding a chair for their grandmother in January 1941 when he heard his draft number called on the radio.  He was inducted into the United States (US) Army 9th Infantry Division (ID), 60th Infantry Regiment, K Company, and was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In the late 1930s John had met Dorothy Krumm, a New York City Flower 5th Avenue Hospital nursing student, on a blind date.  On February 7, 1942, Dorothy and John were married in Dillon, South Carolina.

October 23, 1942, John sailed with the 9th ID from Virginia on the United States Ship Susan B. Anthony.  They landed at Port Lyautey, French Morocco, as part of the WWII North African Campaign Operation Torch which began on November 8, 1942.

November 9, 1942, John’s daughter, Gail, was born.

In May 1943 the 9th ID moved from French Algeria and French Morocco to Tunisia and then to Sicily in July 1943.  John and his unit sailed to England in November 1943 and prepared for the upcoming invasion of Europe.  June 10, 1944, D-Day plus 4, the 9th ID landed on Utah Beach in Normandy, France.

John received a battlefield commission to Second Lieutenant in late June 1944.

The Allied push continued through France, Belgium, and into Germany.

The Battle of Hurtgen Forest (Schlacht im Hurtgenwald in German) was fought from September 1944 to February 1945.  The Hurtgen Forest is approximately 50 square miles in size and east of the Belgium-German border.  The densely wooded area made Allied artillery and air support problematic. It was also heavily fortified by the Germans.  It was the longest battle of WWII fought on German soil. 

During the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, Second Lieutenant John Eisenhauer was mortally wounded on September 27, 1944, when he and his company attempted to capture a German pillbox.

John never met and held his daughter.  His body was not found until 1948.  He is buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.

Gail Eisenhauer first visited her father’s grave in 1981. She has returned several times since then.  Her regret …”I wish I had had the privilege of knowing him.  And I wish he had lived long enough to get to know me.”  Gail inherited and treasures “Comet,” her father’s sailboat.

 

HPIM0045
Gail Eisenhauer with Marie, a young Belgian girl, at a Memorial Day ceremony in 2015 at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. Citizens in Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg have “adopted” WWII American graves at American cemeteries in their country.

 

The American WWII Orphans Network (AWON) was founded in 1991 by Ann Bennett Mix who is herself a WWII orphan.  The government defines “war orphan” as a child who has lost one or both parents in war.  It is estimated that 183,000 American children were left fatherless as a result of WWII.  The organization has assisted the orphaned children and family members by providing support and in locating information about those fathers killed in action or missing in action in WWII.

 

 

Story and photographs are published with the permission of Gail Eisenhauer and the Achten family. 

For more information about AWON visit http://www.awon.org/awmain.shtml.

Yuri Beckers, a 38 year old Dutch man, has created a WWII website with in-depth information about the US Army 9th ID and the Battle of Hurtgen Forest.  See https://www.9thinfantrydivision.net.

 

 

S. R. O’Konski, Author
World War 2 History Short Stories
Website: ww2history.org
© All Rights Reserved