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| Motor Machinist Mate 1/c John Anderson served on LCT-30 at Omaha Beach on D-Day. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/163075955/john-emanuel-anderson http://www.database-memoire.eu/prive/en-us/normandy-all-soldiers/17-colleville-a-us/316-anderson-john-e-us |
Today the WW2 Fallen 100 project profiled two servicemen instead of the normal one. Be sure to read about Battle of Midway Navy Cross hero Martin Mahannah here.
John Emanuel Anderson never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 25, 1919 in Wilmar, Minnesota. His parents Oscar and Anna were born in Sweden and Minnesota, respectively. His father worked as a house painter and later as a contractor. John had three older sisters. By 1940 John had completed four years of high school. He was living at home and worked as a painter.
He volunteered for the US Navy in March 1942. He rose to the rank of motor machinist mate first class and served on LCT-30, a tank landing craft. He participated in amphibious landings in North Africa and Italy as an LCT pilot.
There were more than 800 LCTs involved with the D-Day landings. Over the next 11 days, 24 of them were destroyed.
On June 6, 1944, LCT-30 had dropped of its supply of tanks at Omaha Beach and moved back out to sea. MMM Anderson was in the boiler room of LCT-30 when he was killed by an enemy artillery shell. The boiler room flooded and the ship sank in shallow waters. Anderson was the only fatality, but some of the sailors who abandoned ship were wounded after reaching the beach. His family was told he was lost at sea, but in the confusion of battle, his body was actually buried in the Normandy-American Cemetery as unknown X-91.
Fast forward 71 years and DNA testing identified the remains of the grave as belonging to John Anderson. His remains were brought home and he was buried in 2016.
His grave is at Fairview Cemetery in Wilmar, Minnesota.
Urho Pitkamaki, 45th Infantry Division, was born one year earlier to the date as John Anderson. You can read about Urho here.
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
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