ANDERSON-HARRY

DIED  IN  CAPTIVITY AS  POW

There are many Log pages posted to the Navy Memorial with the simple phrase, “Lost At Sea,” which fails to adequately describe the man’s death.  Such is the case of the Log posted for CPL Harry Edward Anderson.  Records report that on December 8, 1941, CPL Anderson was stationed on Guam where he was a member of the Marine Barracks at Sumay.  A mere few hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, which was December 7 because of the International Date Line, Guam as well as other military bases across the Pacific was vigorously attacked from the air by Japanese planes.  On December 10, the second day of World War II, a Japanese invasion force estimated to number almost 5,000 landed on Guam and after a short defense the meager detachment of about 400 men and nurses comprising the Navy and Marine force on Guam was forced to surrender to a vastly superior force.  Records report that only a very few U.S. personnel were killed during the brief battle.  Although records fail to describe the circumstances of CPL Anderson’s death, combat records indicate he was briefly in enemy hands at the fall of Guam and suffered death that day while in captivity.  U.S. survivors of the Battle of Guam have reported that a number of U.S. personnel were killed after their capture when they failed to quickly respond to Japanese orders and were thereupon bayonetted.  The final resting place of CPL Anderson has not been recorded.

 

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)