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Brothers and Shipmates: Loss of Two Families


kcmo
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Today I wanted to honor the service and sacrifice of two sets of brothers both lost during WWII. These two families both lost sons onboard the USS Honolulu (CL-48) and at the hands of their enemy captors as Prisoners of War.  Although these families probably never met, they both shared the loss like so many others during the war that lost multiple sons, fathers and brothers. 

 

SGT Robert T. Shields and AMM2C Kenneth P. Shields were from San Bernardino, California where they both enlisted shortly after the attack of Pearl Harbor. Both were noted as athletics in High School. 

 

S2C James R. Kerr and PFC George W. Kerr were from Fountain, Colorado.  Unfortunately, I could find little on them online on the brothers prior to joining and serving in the war. 

 

The USS Honolulu supported the invasion of Leyte on 19 October 1944 and was screening the landings when on 20 October when it was struck by a torpedo from an enemy plane. This torpedo killed 64 of the crew including SGT Robert Shields and S2C James Kerr. Both were buried at sea on October 21st. 

 

AMM2C Kenneth Shields was a flight engineer on a PBY Catalina (VP-33 Black Cats) was shot down on the night of 11 March 1944 during operations over Hollandia.  It is believed the whole crew of 8 survived only to be captured and beheaded by the Japanese.

 

PFC George W. Kerr (753rd Tank Battalion) was captured in Italy and during the transfer of all prisoners from POW Camp No. 54 on January 26th to POW camp in Germany or Austria the train they were in was bombed/strafed. At least 8 POWs escaped the wreckage including PFC Kerr.  The group was eventually captured by I./SS-Polizei-Regiment-20 and were executed on April 13th, 1944, at the Hermitage of San Benedetto, near Montebuono, Province of Rieti, Italy 

 

Most of the posted documents were part of the Kerr grouping including a couple of letters from the ships chaplain, photos, and dog tags.  Copies of the USS Honolulu burial ceremony were provided by USMF member Kastauffer

 

RIP

 

The Shield brothers were posted before years ago at the below link for more information: 

 

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/239946-wwii-kia-brothers-usnusmc-phngcm-grouping/&tab=comments#comment-1914760

 

 

 

RIP

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