Daniel Dermott Sweeney
Corporal Daniel D. Sweeney served with King Company, Third Battalion, 5th Marines.
He was reported missing in action near Point Cruz, Guadalcanal, on 2 November 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 282942
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered.
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
January 20, 1920
at New York, NY
Parents
James Sweeney
Della (McDermott) Sweeney
Education
High school graduate
(details unknown)
Occupation & Employer
Department store salesman
Service Life
Entered Service
March 11, 1940
at New York, NY
Home Of Record
102 West 92nd Street
New York, NY
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Della Sweeney
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
K/3/5th Marines
Campaigns Served
Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
The “November Offensive” push to the west of Guadalcanal’s Matanikau River began badly for the 5th Marines. On 1 November, determined Japanese troops in well-fortified positions near Point Cruz slowed, then stopped 1/5th Marines with heavy casualties. A heavily-armed bivouac near the base of the Point offered the most resistance; plans for 2 November required the First and Third Battalions to hold the enemy in place, while the Second Battalion maneuvered to get behind the bivouac and cut off reinforcement or retreat.
Item and King Companies of 3/5 were positioned near the base of Point Cruz – where they had a ringside seat to further misery being inflicted on their buddies in First Battalion. “The temperature started shooting up toward 100 degrees,” recalled Jim McEnerey of K/3/5, “and a lot of guys in the First Battalion were still stuck in the open where that coconut grove used to be…. Not only were they frying out there in the blistering sun with hardly any place to take cover, but one of those Jap 75(mm guns) started zeroing in on them again.”
Lieutenant Charles J. Kimmel of I Company was crouched in the middle of a bunch of Marines from I and K Companies and staring down into the coconut grove, when he jumped up all of a sudden and yelled: "Those guys [in First Battalion] are getting murdered by that 75 out there. We got to give 'em some relief. Who wants to help me knock out that damn gun?" The first man to step forward was Corporal Weldon DeLong, a husky Marine just under six feet tall... "Sure," he said. "Let's hit 'em!".... Dozens of guys in K and I companies started jumping up and hollering, "Me too! Me too!" Captain [Erskine] Wells, the CO of I Company, was there too. He jammed his fist in the air to show his approval.
"Okay, fix bayonets!" Kimmel said. "And when I say 'Charge,' just run at the bastards like your pants are on fire." A few seconds later, close to a hundred Marines formed up in a ragged line. Then they yelled like a bunch of lunatics and took off like crazy toward that Jap-held ditch forty or fifty yards away.Jim McEnery, K/3/5, Hell in the Pacific: A Marine Rifleman's Journey from Guadalcanal to Peleliu.
This event – “the only authenticated US bayonet charge of the operation,” according to historian John Zimmerman – cracked the Japanese line. Most of the defenders died at their posts, while a few tried to swim to safety or fled west along the coast. Some reached a fortified ravine, while others ran into the muzzles of the Second Battalion. The momentum carried Item and King companies some 1,500 yards beyond Point Cruz and closed the circle on the remaining Japanese soldiers.
Corporal Daniel Sweeney of K/3/5 joined in the bayonet charge, but disappeared somewhere in the confusion and chaos. He was reported as missing in action after the fight – effective November 2nd or 3rd, depending on the source – and was ultimately declared dead on 4 November 1943.
Burial Information or Disposition
While there is no official report of Sweeney’s burial place, a recollection by Thurman I. Miller (K/3/5) may hold a clue as to what happened. The Americans withdrew from the Point Cruz area shortly after the fight, and the terrain was something of a no-man’s-land crisscrossed by patrols from both sides.
Every day there were patrols. One patrol was directed to seek out and identify the remains of one member of an earlier patrol. They found his grave and upon digging out the remains found that the jungle had already begun to claim the body. They recognized a tattoo on the forearm of the man, but since there were no dog tags on him they simply had to list him as missing in action. The strange thing was, the grave had a crude grave marker – a piece of board with the man's name: Sweeney. Apparently the Japanese had buried him, marked his grave, and kept his dog tags. Why? Our Graves Registration wouldn't have left him there. Was it an apology? A warning? Or was it the natives? We would never know.
Thurman I. Miller, Earned in Blood: My Journey from Old-Breed Marine to the Most Dangerous Job in America
Only one “Sweeney” was lost from K/3/5 during the Guadalcanal operation. Unfortunately, nothing more is known about this patrol, and the marker was likely destroyed in subsequent fighting.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Della Sweeney.
Location Of Loss
Sweeney was last seen before a bayonet charge near Point Cruz, Guadalcanal.