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Last week I found myself talking about the Second World War with a co-worker, and somehow the conversation made its way around to a discussion of relatives who served during the war. While I'm two generations removed from World War II, so many members of my grandparents' generation served that I can help feel connected to that conflict.
Only one member of my family died as a result of hostile action during the war. His story is ironic on a couple of levels. He was actually killed prior to the US entry into the war, and today very few people remember his ship or its unfortunate fate.
My mother's brother (my grandmother's brother) was a seaman first-class on the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245). In 1941, this ship was assigned convoy escort duty, protecting the supply ships crossing the North Atlantic to the U.K. In the early morning of 31 October 1941, near Iceland, the ship took up a protective position between a ship carrying a cargo of ammunition and a wolfpack of German U-boats. Torpedoed by U-552, the ship's magazine exploded. The ship sank in minutes, taking the majority of its crew (and all of its officers) with it. My grandmother's brother was one of over 100 men killed that morning.
The Reuben James was the first U.S. Naval ship lost to hostile action during the Second World War (though this was not the first attack by U-boats on the U.S. Navy in the North Atlantic). At the time, very few Americans took note of its loss, and even today, few people realize that U.S. ships had been attacked prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 07 December 1941.
My great-uncle is memorialized in England at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, where his name is one of the more than 5,000 names carved on the "Wall of the Missing." Someday, I hope to visit the cemetery to pay my respects.
Only one member of my family died as a result of hostile action during the war. His story is ironic on a couple of levels. He was actually killed prior to the US entry into the war, and today very few people remember his ship or its unfortunate fate.
My mother's brother (my grandmother's brother) was a seaman first-class on the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245). In 1941, this ship was assigned convoy escort duty, protecting the supply ships crossing the North Atlantic to the U.K. In the early morning of 31 October 1941, near Iceland, the ship took up a protective position between a ship carrying a cargo of ammunition and a wolfpack of German U-boats. Torpedoed by U-552, the ship's magazine exploded. The ship sank in minutes, taking the majority of its crew (and all of its officers) with it. My grandmother's brother was one of over 100 men killed that morning.
The Reuben James was the first U.S. Naval ship lost to hostile action during the Second World War (though this was not the first attack by U-boats on the U.S. Navy in the North Atlantic). At the time, very few Americans took note of its loss, and even today, few people realize that U.S. ships had been attacked prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 07 December 1941.
My great-uncle is memorialized in England at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, where his name is one of the more than 5,000 names carved on the "Wall of the Missing." Someday, I hope to visit the cemetery to pay my respects.
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