WW2 Bougainvlle Fallen - Harry Saunders, Americal Division

PFC Harry Saunders served with the Americal Division on Bougainville.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8211661/harry-harmening-saunders
https://www.ww2online.org/image/23rd-infantry-division-attacking-japanese-pillbox-bougainville-island-0 

Harry Harmening Saunders, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

Harry was born on March 25, 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents Harry and Marie were also both born in Pennsylvania. The family moved to New Jersey in the 1920s. His father worked as a chauffeur and later as a WPA laborer. Harry had one older sister, three younger sisters, and three younger brothers. By 1940 he had completed eight years of schooling and was working as a laborer for a soap manufacturer while living at home.

He was drafted into the army in February 1942. He reached the rank of private first class in Company M, 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry Regiment, Americal Division. He arrived in the South Pacific in April 1944. At that time, the Americal Division had been in Bouganville since December 1943. In March 1944 it had to withstand the last Japanese ground offensive of the war. PFC Saunders was a much needed replacement. For the rest of the spring and summer, the Japanese were not an offensive threat, but there were many thousands remaining inland who refused to surrender. PFC Saunders was killed in action on July 14, 1944 when he stepped on a landmine. There were still Japanese who had not surrendered in September 1945 when the war ended.

His grave is at Berlin Cemetery in Berlin, New Jersey. His gravestone misstates that he served in the 34th Infantry which was in Italy during the war.

Thank you PFC Saunders for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Harry.

Last year on this date I profiled Battle of Midway fallen, DFC hero and Dauntless radioman Harry Nelson. You can read about Harry 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.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org