Loss of War: World War II

In going through records, it always makes me pause when I run across a young man who died during years of war. World War II seems to have taken the most young male relatives. It's difficult to run across a man from that era who did not serve, though most of them returned home. I'd like to tell the stories of some of those who didn't return, to keep their names alive in our memories for their valor in a dark time in our history.

Lt (JG) Melvin Laverne Butler, US Navy Reserve, was the son of Thomas Jefferson Butler and Grace Brown (who is related on the Monteith side of the family). Melvin was born in Chadron, Nebraska in 1917.

Melvin entered the Naval Reserve when the war broke out and was trained as a pilot. He was sent to the Pacific Theatre. He flew the PBY Catalina, a patrol bomber with long-range capabilities that served the Navy well in a number of capacities the makers of the craft never imagined, including sea rescue of downed pilots. Melvin survived a shoot down earlier in 1942 when he was able to land his aircraft, hide out until dark, and be rescued. On October 14, 1942, his luck would run out. While flying a mission to locate a Japanese fleet, he and another pilot spotted the fleet east of the Solomon islands and north of the Santa Cruz islands. Both pilots were shot down. Butler was able to transmit a brief tactical message prior to crashing. He was declared missing at that time and declared dead in December 1945. In 1946, he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

(based on information provided by his great niece, S. Teddei in a copyrighted 2011 article on Ancestry.com)

Harry Frederick Bradshaw, Seaman 1st Class, US Navy

Harry was the son of Raymond and Macie Bradshaw of Belle Plaine,
Benton County, Iowa. He was born 15 Oct 1921 in Charles City, Iowa and died in the Coral Sea on 08 May 1942. He was buried in the cemetery at Fort William McKinley, in Manila, Phillipines. To learn about the battle which took Harry's life, visit this earlier post.

PFC Robert "Bob"L Opperman, US Army, was the son of Harold Opperman and Wilma Barr, who at the time, resided in Bremer County, Iowa. He was born on 25 Jun 1923. Bob was a nose gunner stationed in the 422nd Base Unit at Tonopah Army Airfield in Nye County Nevada. The base had recently started running training flights for the larger bomber aircraft. On 19 May 1944, the B-24D Liberator on which he was flying crashed shortly after takeoff due to engine failure. Seven other aviators lost their lives on this flight. Though there were several accidents at the base, there is very little information regarding this flight and its crew.

Private Robert Harold Arthur, US Army, was born in Maynard, Fayette County, Iowa on December 15, 1917 as the oldest child of Herald Arthur and Laura "Ranney" Arthur. He married the former Evelyn Simpson. He entered the service as a draftee on November 18, 1943 at Camp Dodge, Herrold, Iowa. Robert received his basic training at Camp Blanding, Florida before he was sent overseas in June, 1944, as a Private in the 83rd Infantry Division, 330th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, C Company.

From Into the Hornet's Nest: 

By the beginning of August, the 83rd was part of Patton's 3rd Army, and while most of the 3rd Army turned east out of the Cotentin Peninsula toward Paris, the 83rd Division turned west into Brittany through Coutances and Avranches. The coastal towns of St. Malo and Dinard belonged to them alone.

Strategically, the battle for St. Malo may not have been one of the "big battles," but that does not detract from the monumental campaign that it was. It is an incredible tale about an American commander with the improbable name of Major Speedie (329th Infantry) and a "mad" German Colonel (von Aulock)--complete with monacle, flapping coat, German Police dog, and a mysterious mistress having a "past" with Russian royalty. He said he would hold out to the last man in an ancient fortress that had been heavily reinforced with concrete and contained underground tunnels, storage areas, power plants, ammo dumps, living quarters, and even a hospital. Read More...

Robert died the day before the first US troops arrived in Brest, their ultimate destination. He left a wife and four children. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for bravery under fire.

PFC Leo I Gulick, US Army, was the son of Herman Gulick and Edna Thomsen born on 25 Apr 1912 in Clarksville, Iowa. He married Eunice Clark and had two daughters before he left to serve his country. Gulick was assigned to the 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division died during battle after the Battle of Aachen. At the time, Nazi defenders were fiercely attempting to keep their hold on whatever they could as the Allies closed in on them from all fronts. No details are available on the battle in which he died, but he received a Purple Heart for his service. He was buried in Henri-Chappelle American Cemetery in Belgium. His parents, wife, and two daughters survived him.

2Lt John William Padget, US Army Air Corps, was the son of Charles
"Ernest" Padget and Hazel Barr. He was born in 1921 in Bremer County, Iowa. He enlisted 01 Dec 1942 and received his basic training at Kelly Field, Texas. He left for overseas in  October 1942.

John was a 2Lt in the 331 Bomb Squadron, 94th Bomb Gp (H) stationed in Bury St Edmunds, England.  John was flying as a bombardier in a B-17 "Bouncin' Annie" tail number 42102577, over Germany on 02 Nov 1944 when his aircraft was presumably struck and went into a tailspin and crashed at Merseburg, Germany. Merseburg was a major target for the Allies due to the oil refinery and other manufacturing in the city. He, along with the crew, were lost and listed as MIA on 02 Nov 1944, then KIA. He is buried in St Avold Cemetery, Lorraine, France, 3503, Block A, Row 19, Grave 37. He received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal.

Tech5 Charles E Sperbeck, US Army, was the son of Ernest Sperbeck, Jr. and Ola Clark of Hillsdale, Michigan. He was born 07 Apr 1923 in Frontier, Michigan. Sperbeck attended Western Michigan for one year in 1942 before being drafted into the Army. He was assigned to the 26th Infantry Division, 101st Infantry Regiment and was killed on 14 Mar 1945 during the "Push to the Rhine" near the end of the war:

The first week in March saw the Regiment outposting the Serrig area
and that area east of Saarburg. It was evident that something of importance was in the wind. On the 12th of March an order was given calling for an attack on the 13th of March in conjunction with the XX Corps attack. Our mission was to clear the area south of the Moselle. Initially, the 101st Infantry was in reserve. At 0300 on the 13th of March the attack began, preceded by a tremendous softening up barrage by the 101st Field Artillery. While the 3rd Battalion was attached to the 328th Infantry, the remainder of the Regiment bivouaced east of Serrig. The 3rd Battalion spearheaded the attack of the 328th Infantry Regiment at Serrig; an attack that broke organized German resistance at that part of the Siegfried Line. On the 15th of March the entire 101st jumped off in a column of battalions. Progress in rugged terrain dotted with pillboxes, was slow but steady. On the 17th of March, "C" Company took the town of Bratdorf.

WWII Brought Home: Harry F. Bradshaw, USN

Photo by C Voukon

I went to hang out with my uncle last week and he had a small treasure trove of old family photos. He also had some idea of who most of them were. Kindly, he let me borrow them and I've scanned as many as I could.

I ran across the photo of a young woman and, my curiosity piqued, I had to do a little research. I discovered the story of Seaman 1st Class Harry Frederick Bradshaw, one of scores of thousands of young Americans who lost their life in WWII.

Harry was raised in Nashua and Belle Plaine, IA, graduating from Belle Plaine High School in 1939 and joined the Navy soon thereafter. While on leave on May 4, 1941, he married my grandmother's sister's oldest (twin) daughter, Jeanette Janis Scoles. According to researcher Evelyn Park Blalock, they were childhood sweethearts. They were married by a local Presbyterian minister. Jeanette went to live with his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Ray Bradshaw in Belle Plaine and also spent time in Nashua, while Harry served.


He was stationed on the USS Arizona until October 1941. He served briefly on the USS Wharton to get stateside to San Francisco. He headed to a training in Virginia from there.  His final leave was in November of 1941 and he returned home to his wife and parent. He returned to Hawaii via the USS Neosha, leaving port in San Francisco on 30 Nov 1941. The USS Neosha arrived in Pearl Harbor on December, 6, 1941.  He was supposed to return to the Arizona on the 6th, but because of the emergency, he did not reboard the Arizona, saving his life.. Having survived the attack, his emergency orders had him transferred permanently to the Neosha on the 7th.

Harry is honored on the list of survivors inscribed at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii, and on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila, the Philippines. The U.S. Navy also placed a cenotaph memorializing Harry in Oak Hill Cemetery, Belle Plaine, Benton County, Iowa.

She was laid down under Maritime Commission contract by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey, 22 June 1938; launched on 29 April 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Emory S. Land, wife of Rear Admiral Emory S. Land (Ret.), Chairman of the Maritime Commission; and commissioned on 7 August 1939, with Commander AV. E. A. Mullan in command.

Conversion at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was completed on 7 July 1941, Neosho immediately began the vital task of ferrying aviation fuel from west coast ports to Pearl Harbor. On such a mission she arrived in Pearl Harbor on 6 December, discharged a full cargo to Naval Air Station Ford Island, and prepared for the return passage.

Next morning, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor found Neosho alert to danger; her captain-Commander John S. Phillips-got her underway and maneuvered safely through the Japanese fire, concentrated on the battleships moored at Ford Island, to a safer area of the harbor. Her guns fired throughout the attack, splashing one enemy plane and driving off others. Three of her men were wounded by a strafing attacker.

For the next five months, Neosho sailed with the aircraft carriers or independently, since escort ships-now few and far between-could not always be spared to guard even so precious a ship and cargo. Late in April, as the Japanese threatened a southward move against Australia and New Zealand by attempting to advance their bases in the Southwest Pacific, Neosho joined Task Force 17 (TF 17). At all costs, the sealanes to the dominions had to be kept open, and they had to be protected against attack and possible invasion.

As the American and Japanese fleets sought each other out in the opening maneuvers of the climactic Battle of the Coral Sea on 6 May 1942, Neosho refueled the carrier Yorktown and heavy cruiser Astoria, then retired from the carrier force with a lone escort, the destroyer Sims.

Neosho burning, 7 May 1942.

Next day at 10:00, Japanese aircraft spotted the two ships, and believing them to be a carrier and her escort, launched the first of two attacks which sank Sims and left Neosho-victim of seven direct hits and a suicide dive by one of the bombers-ablaze aft and in danger of breaking in two. She had shot down at least three of the attackers. One of her crewmen, Oscar V. Peterson, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts to save the ship in spite of his severe injuries suffered in the attack.

Superb seamanship and skilled damage control work kept Neosho afloat for the next four days. The sorely stricken ship was first located by a RAAF aircraft, then an American PBY Catalina flying boat. At 13:00 on 11 May, the destroyer Henley arrived, rescued the 123 survivors and sunk by gunfire the ship they had so valiantly kept afloat against impossible odds. With Henley came word that the American fleet had succeeded in turning the Japanese back, marking the end of their southward expansion in World War II.

Harry was declared missing on May 8, 1942.  He was declared Killed in Action May 8, 1943 and awarded the Purple Heart.

Harry Bradshaw is Declared Officially Dead by Navy Dept 

Word Received here by his widow Monday brings sympathy from Sec Knox

Mrs Harry Bradshaw received word Monday from the Navy Department that on May 8, 1943, he was officially declared to be dead.  He had been reported missing since May 8, 1942 when the tanker, Neosha, was sunk in the Coral Sea.  Harry was in Charge of laundry on the Neosha.  With the official declaration of his death, was a message of sympathy from Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, which read as follows:  "I extend to you my sincere sympathy in your great loss and hope you may find comfort in the knowledge that your husband gave his life for his couuntry, upholding the highest tradition of the Navy.  The Navy shares in your sense of loss of his service.  

Mrs Bradshaw is the former Jeanette Scoles.

Nashua Reporter, 16 Jun 1943, pg 1

My heart felt heavy for Jeanette who really never got a chance to start her life with Harry. I thought of the power of young love and how all of her hopes and dreams were dashed as it would for too many other young wives  She'd remember Harry, though, through the eyes of their child, Dennis, who was born nine months after that leave. Jeanette remarried many years later and died in 2004 in New Hampton, IA.