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| Electrician's Mate 3/c Herbert Brown served on the destroyer USS Gwin at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. His brother Sgt. Harold Brown served in the 90th Bombardment Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56759198/herbert-mancele-brown Boston Globe, 6 April 1943 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gwin_(DD-433) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/319th_Missile_Squadron#World_War_II |
Herbert Mancele Brown, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Herbert was born on February 20, 1920 in Massachusetts. His parents Herbert and Laura were both born in Maine. His father worked as a house painter. Herbert had two older brothers, one younger brother, and one younger sister. By 1940 Herbert had completed four years of high school. He was still living at home and worked as a mailman. He also served in the National Guard.
He enlisted in the navy on November 18, 1940. He eventually reached the rank of electrician's mate third class and was assigned to the destroyer USS Gwin. In April 1942, Gwin was part of the task force escorting USS Hornet for the Doolittle Raid. It joined the USS Yorktown task force the day after the Battle of Midway and was present when Yorktown was sunk. It was next part of the American effort to take Guadalcanal.
In the early hours of November 13, 1942 Gwin took part in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. It faced off against a Japanese light cruiser and two destroyers. One shell exploded in her engine room and another hit the fantail. EM Brown was wounded and died two days later on November 15, 1942.
His older brother Harold enlisted in the Army Air Corps in November 1939. He was at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese December 7, 1941 surprise attack. Later he became a sergeant and an army aerial photographer serving in the 319th Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. He was reported missing when his plane went down on a bombing mission in the South Pacific on December 19, 1942. In March 1943, his status was changed to killed in action. Two months later, 17 year old brother Dickie, with his mother's permission, enlisted in the US Navy. The other Brown brother Roger served in the war in the 9th Armored Division. Dickie and Roger came home.
Hebert's memorial is at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. Applications for headstone or marker at Dell Park Cemetery in Natick, Massachusetts for both Hebert and Harold were filled out by their mother in 1960. I don't know if they are buried there.
Last year on this date I profiled B-24 pilot Winfred Russell. You can read about Winfred 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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