WW2 Fallen 100: WW2 Saipan Fallen - Silver Star hero Israel Aronovitz, 2nd Marine Division

Silver Star hero PFC Israel Aronovitz served with the 2nd Marine Division during the Battle of Saipan.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65292182/israel-aronovitz
https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/pacific/saipan/marines-hit-by-japanese-sniper-on-saipans-red-beach-1944/

Israel Aronovitz 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.

Israel was born on August 26, 1920 in Detroit, Michigan. His parents, William Aronovitz and Zelda Sarah Morachnick were both born in Romania. His father worked as an auto manufacturing assembler and later as a peddler. Israel had 3 brothers, Abraham, Morris, and Harry. He had four sisters, Rose, Esther, Marion, and Dorothy. According to the 1940 federal census, Israel had an education to the first year of high school.

He enlisted in the US Marine Corps on June 15, 1942. According to Marine muster rolls, he was stationed in San Diego, California. In October 1943 he was assigned to the First Battalion, Tenth Marine Regiment, Second Marine Division. On October 17, 1943, he embarked on the USS Middleton from Wellington, New Zealand. The Second Marine Division sailed to Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, where they fought from November 20-23. This action was later criticized as an unnecessary loss of life for an island of no strategic significance, as the Second Division incurred 3166 casualties in 76 hours. PFC Aronovitz earned a Silver Star for his actions on November 21, with this citation:

“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Private First Class Israel Aronovitz (MCSN: 404869), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against enemy Japanese forces while serving with the SECOND Marine Division on Tarawa Atoll,Gilbert Islands, on 21 November 1943.

With utter disregard for his personal safety, he carried his pack howitzer forward to the limit of the beachhead, there assembled it under enemy fire. He destroyed by direct fire a pillbox sheltering an enemy anti-boat gun which was causing heavy casualties among reinforcements landing on the beach. The entire section remained in this exposed position under close sniper fire, until the mission had been accomplished. His heroic conduct was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

In June 1944, the 10th Marines were assigned to take the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands. The Japanese fleet relied on this base, which had an airfield, resupply ports and a large civilian population. On June 13, the US began bombarding the shore from fifteen battleships. Unfortunately, this bombardment, which was meant to take out shoreline defenses, missed many Japanese emplacements. On June 15, 1944, the landings on the western shore faced heavy fire, and the Second Marines took heavy losses. Aronovitz died in action that first day. The island wasn’t declared secured until July 9, with terrible civilian and military losses. This strategic position would help significantly in future US operations to bomb Japan.

His grave is at Hebrew Memorial Park in Clinton, Macomb County, Michigan.

Thank you, Israel Aronovitz, for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Israel.

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This profile was written by Marilyn N. Clark. "I have a long-standing interest in World War 2. My grandfather and numerous great-uncles served in that conflict. I have a BA in history from the University of Utah and have a lot of experience with volunteer genealogical research. It’s an honor to find and share information about these heroes that made such great sacrifices. Many thanks to Don for organizing this effort to share their stories.”

This is one of the final 10 stories (8) 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 Navy Cross hero Barney Sterling, 1st Marine Division. You can read about Barney 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.

Follow on Twitter @ww2fallen100

Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100

WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org

Sources:

Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65292182/israel-aronovitz

Military headstone application https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2375&h=976877&tid=&pid=&queryId=8f8cd2b5e7e79020f3551b100e844bc2&usePUB=true&_phsrc=uTN886&_phstart=successSource

Silver Star citation https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/35137

USMC muster rolls for Aronovitz on ancestry.com, six in total