Non-profit organization shares stories of World War II victims
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Today is the 79th anniversary of the worst United States Liberty ship disaster of World War II – the sinking of the SS Paul Hamilton by a German torpedo bomber.
The ship, her entire crew and passengers, a total of 580 men, were lost in 30 seconds. Forty-one of those who perished were natives of Pennsylvania, and two were from Washington County: Blaine Robert Dunmire, who was born in Belle Vernon but raised in Charleroi, and Herman John Yeager of Charleroi.
Their stories are among those detailed by volunteers for Stories Behind the Stars, a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring each of the more than 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II, including more than 31,000 from Pennsylvania.
“The goal of this project is to write short stories for all of the fallen from World War II,” explained Kathy Harmon, director for the state of Pennsylvania.
These memorial stories can be found at the fold3 website.
“It’s an all-military site connected with ancestry.com,” Harmon said. “Anybody can access it. They can read any of the stories. It’s also connected with findagrave.com.”
Harmon explained that there is an app for findagrave.com.
“Right now if you walk into a cemetery and you see a tombstone and the dates kind of fall into place and you wonder what’s up with this guy, you can actually look for him on that app and there’s a button that connects you with the fold3 story,” she said. “Within their story, you’ll find a little bit of personal information. It’s really dependent on the amount of information that can be found out there. It really makes you aware of what these guys went through.”
The stories of Dunmire and Yeager lead up to that fateful day – April 20, 1944.
Dunmire was assigned to the 831st Bombardment Squadron, 485th Bombardment Group (heavy) 15th Air Force. Yeager served in the 32nd Photographic Squadron, 5th Reconnaissance Group.
Their units embarked on the SS Paul Hamilton (Hull Number 227) on April 2, 1944, bound for Venusa, Italy, and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The ship was carrying supplies, ammunition and ground personnel of the 485th Bombardment Group and the 5th Reconnaissance Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces.
On the evening of April 20, 1944, the convoy was attacked by 23 German Junkers Ju-88 torpedo bombers, about 30 miles from Cape Bengut near Algiers in the Mediterranean Sea.
One aerial torpedo struck the Hamilton, igniting the high explosives in the hull. Only one body was recovered from the tragedy. The destroyer USS Lansdale (DD-426) and SS Royal Star also were sunk during the attack.
Dunmire and Yeager were listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Carthage, Tunisia. They posthumously were awarded the Purple Heart.
Dunmire was 20 at the time of his death, and Yeager, 24. Dunmire was single. Yeager had married Marie Jean Leonard on Dec. 31, 1940.
Before their deaths, each worked for Corning Glass, the same company for which their fathers worked.