Donald Anthony Barnes
Private Donald A. “Don” Barnes served with Queen Company, Fourth Marine Raider Battalion.
He was killed in action at Bairoko Harbor, New Georgia, on 20 July 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 474483
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
May 26, 1924
at South Milwaukee, WI
Parents
Percy Leroy Barnes
Esther (Fischer) Barnes
Education
Bay View High School (1942)
Occupation & Employer
Black Bear Beverages
Service Life
Entered Service
September 22, 1942
at Milwaukee, WI
Home Of Record
4018 South Lipton Avenue
Cudahy, WI
Next Of Kin
Father, Mr. Percy L. Barnes
Military Specialty
Raider
Primary Unit
Q/4th Raider Battalion
Campaigns Served
New Georgia
Individual Decorations
Silver Star
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Donald Barnes served with Company Q, Fourth Marine Raider Battalion, during the New Georgia campaign. He saw his first combat at Wickham Anchorage / Vura Village on 30 June 1943, and by 12 July, his battalion was back at Guadalcanal, pleased with their success and believing their part in the fighting over. Six days later, however, they were disembarking from transports at Enogai Inlet, reinforcing the First Raider Battalion and preparing for an assault on the Japanese stronghold at Bairoko Habor.
The attack began on 20 July 1943. The First and Fourth Raider Battalions, advancing along the Enogai-Bairoko Trail, formed the northern wing of the assault, with 3/148th Infantry supporting along the Triri-Bairoko trail to the south. “Between the two trails was tangled jungle and vile swampland, which we all knew meant there would be no opportunity for fancy maneuvering,” recalled Raider Marlin Groft (B/1st Raider Battalion). “When we attacked Bairoko it would be a desperate, head-on frontal assault.” At 1015, the Raiders hit the first Japanese outposts and pushed through with grenades and bayonets – only to run headlong into an impassible main line of resistance. “A wall of lead came at us from Nambus firmly placed in nests chiseled into the hard coral,” Groft continued. “Our advance was brought to a halt…. If combat men ever experienced a Hell on Earth, this was it.”
Captain Lincoln Holdzkom’s Queen Company was the last unit of the 4th Raiders to deploy, arriving at the front line just before 1500 hours. It was hoped that the relatively fresh Marines could launch a decisive counterattack. Private First Class Walter W. Gibbins fulfilled the classic role of a Marine leader, shouting “Let’s go!” and running out ahead of his squad. “It was Gibbins’s last command,” wrote correspondent Jim Lucas. “From the ridge ahead, the Japs opened up. As Gibbins fell, his squad sought cover. They were pinned down,unable to move under the fierce enemy barrage which skimmed over their backs and nicked the banyan trees behind them.”
Then Private Barnes edged forward. “I’m going after him,” he declared.
Barnes was the baby of the platoon. He'd been promised by the chaplain he could swear when he reached 20, but not until then. He took two steps toward Gibbins. Ahead, a machine gun barked. Barnes quivered, turned, and grinned at his friends.
"They got me where it hurts," he said. And laughed.
The machine gun chattered again. Barnes fell, his back riddled. Three feet away lay Gibbins, dead....
The squad had a huddle. Don Barnes was still alive. Gibbins was dead. If they withdrew, it meant leaving Barnes to the Japs. They made up their minds. They wouldn't go back without Barnes....
[PFC Ed] Salsman gave Barnes an opiate, while [Cpl. Carl] Olson bandaged his wounds. [PFC Robert] Thornton made a litter out of a discarded poncho.... Inch by inch the rescuers backed away, Jap mortar fire still breaking about them.
Another Marine, Private Gerald Ayers, was also involved in the rescue attempt. “Ayers was killed in action just before dark by snipers,” recalled a veteran. “Dark came real fast as the light didn’t penetrate the thickness of the jungle. Everyone simply dug foxholes where they were, as the battle lines were really unknown. You could not tell just where the enemy was, or how close your next squad was…. Ayers, Pvt. Donald Barnes, and PFC Walter Gibbins were killed attempting to rescue each other.” Barnes would be recommended for the Silver Star Medal for his attempt to rescue PFC Gibbins.
The Raider withdrawal to Enogai began at 1700 hours, and would take an entire day to complete. The “screwed up affair” of Bairoko was the worst defeat ever inflicted on a Raider unit; the 4th Raider Battalion alone suffered 127 wounded and 29 killed in action.
Burial Information or Disposition
According to Jack Lucas, the party carrying Don Barnes found a makeshift field hospital “midway between Enogai and Bairoko” where the Raiders set up a perimeter for nighttime defense. Barnes was dead on arrival. “There, on the jungle trail that leads from Enogai to Bairoko, Chaplain Paul J. Redmond laid a small blood-stained American flag on Don’s chest, and they buried him in a foxhole,” Lucas concluded. “Next morning, Father Redmond crept inside the enemy’s lines and buried Gibbins.”
The muster roll for Company Q notes that Barnes’ body was never recovered from the field “due to intensity of enemy fire.”
In the days that followed, small American patrols ventured back to the battlefield to collect equipment and locate the fallen. They had some success, as noted in the 1st Raider Regiment’s war diary:
22 July 1943, 1200 – ENOGAI-BAIROKO patrol salvages communication gear, recovers some Blue [Amerian] dead, reports some Jap activity.
23 July 1943, 1200 – BAIROKO patrol buries 4 Marines, reports Jap activity.
24 July 1943, 1230 – BAIROKO patrol reports Jap defensive positions still manned, buries two dead Marines.
With Japanese troops active in the area, it was deemed to difficult and dangerous for a small patrol to carry remains back to Enogai, and thus they were buried in the field. More than a month would pass before a general retrieval and recovery effort could be made. Photographs of this process show Marines carrying blanket-wrapped bundles, suggesting an advanced state of decomposition. Individually identifying the dead would have been challenging, but was accomplished in most cases before burial in the Enogai cemetery. The dead Raiders were later moved from Enogai to the New Georgia Cemetery, and finally to the Finschaffen cemetery complex in New Guinea.
Gerald Ayers and Walter Gibbins were among the Marines reburied in the Enogai cemetery and eventually returned to their families. Barnes has never been identified. He may have been recovered from the field and buried as unknowns, or may still lie somewhere near Bairoko on the Dragons Peninsula.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of father, Mr. Percy Barnes.
Location Of Loss
Private Barnes was killed in action near Bairoko (Mbaeroko), New Georgia.
