WW2 Ie Shima Fallen - Wesley Bottoms, 77th Infantry Division

Private Wesley Bottoms served in the 77th Infantry Division at Ie Shima.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133721311/wesley-m_-bottoms
https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/okinawa/chapter7.htm

Wesley M. Bottoms 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 WWII 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 II fallen in one free-to-access central database. We are going to need a lot of volunteers. 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.

   

Wesley was born on July 13, 1920 in Tacoma, Washington. His parents Wesley Sr. and Vilate were born in Idaho and Utah respectively. His father operated a garage and later worked as a salesman. Wesley had three younger brothers and one younger sister. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Tacoma, and in April 1941 he married the former Leola Mae Rich.

 

Wesley was drafted into the US Army in July 1944 and after completing training was assigned to Company E of the 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division. The 77th Infantry Division began combat operations in the amphibious assault on Guam in July 1944, so Pvt. Bottoms would have joined the 77th sometime afterwards as a replacement. The division later made amphibious landings on the Phillipine islands of Leyte in November 1944 and Ipil in December 1944.

 

The 77th’s next combat assignment was Okinawa. In late March 1944, the division secured the nearby islands of Kerama Retto and Keise Shima in preparation for the assault on Okinawa. On 16 April 1945, the 77th landed on Ie Shima, a small island off the coast of Okinawa, with the primary goal of capturing a Japanese airfield for use in support of the assault on Okinawa and for launching air strikes against the Japanese homeland. Pvt. Bottoms and the rest of the 307th regiment were held in reserve so did not participate in the initial landing. 

 

The 77th quickly captured the airfield on 16 April but made slow progress securing the island, so the decision was made to commit the 307th to action. The 307th went ashore at 1300 hours on 17 April, and over the next two days fought uphill over open ground, through minefields, and in house to house battles in positions that came to be known as "Bloody Ridge" and "Government House Hill”. Pvt. Bottoms was killed in action on 19 April during this bloody combat. By the time le Shima was declared secured two days later on 21 April, 172 American soldiers were killed and 902 wounded.

 

Wesley M. Bottoms is buried in New Tacoma Cemetery, in University Place, Washington. His widow remarried after the war and passed away in 1988.

 

Thank you Pvt. Bottoms for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Wesley.

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This profile was written by Bob Fuerst. "I’m a NASA engineer, B-17 Flying Fortress enthusiast, and amateur genealogist so this kind of research is an ideal outlet for me. But more than anything, it’s a way to express my sincere appreciation for The Greatest Generation and the sacrifices that they made, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice. They should never be forgotten and I’m grateful to Don for allowing me to play a small part in honoring them." 

This is one of the final 100 stories (52) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.

Last year on this date I profiled Iwo Jima Fallen Francis Lane of the 3rd Marine Division. You can read about Francis 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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http://www.tggf.org