 |
| Signalman Wendell Hanson served on the USS Peary, shown here sinking in Darwin Harbor. Argus Leader, April 17, 1942 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64457836/wendell-h.-hanson http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/ChiefMachinistsMateJamesE.html |
Wendell H. Hanson never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on July 1, 1918 in South Dakota. His parents Herbert and Anna were born in South Dakota and Sweden, respectively. All four of his grandparents were from Sweden. His father worked as a farmer. Wendall had two older brothers, a younger sister, and a younger brother.
He enlisted in the US Navy on June 22, 1937 right out of high school and reenlisted four years later. He became a signalman second class on the destroyer USS Peary.
Peary was in Manila Bay when the Japanese attacked the Philippines hours after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. It was damaged by a bomb two days later. With local American airpower destroyed, Peary was ordered away. Moving away from Manila, Peary was found more than once by Japanese bombers, but managed to avoid being sunk time and again. It reached Darwin, Australia in early January 1942. For the next few weeks its main job was anti-submarine patrol.
Signalman Hanson cabled home to his family on February 17, that he was okay.
On February 19, 1942 four of the same carriers who launched the attack on Pearl Harbor sent nearly 200 planes to attack Darwin Harbor. Darwin had only a few anti-aircraft guns and just a handful of fighter planes. The Japanese dropped more bombs than they did at Pearl Harbor and sunk or damaged a large number of the 65 ships at Darwin.
Peary was sunk within minutes of the first wave, being hit by 5 bombs. Signalman Hanson was one of 88 men from the destroyer who were killed in the attack.
Signalman Hanson was originally reported missing to his family in April 1942 and his death was later reported.
His cenotaph grave is at Benton Lutheran Cemetery in Crooks, South Dakota.
Last year on this date I profiled D-Day Medal of Honor hero James Monteith, 1st Infantry Division. You can read about James here. His story is one of the top ten profiles on this site.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
No comments:
Post a Comment