ARTICLE
01° 25’ N, 172° 55’ E:
A Burial At Sea
Using a photograph series and a detailed deck log to reconstruct the final moments and burial of three men killed in action at Tarawa.
The USS Ormsby (APA-49) lay quietly, if not comfortably, in Transport Area Able a few thousand yards from the island of Betio. She was new construction, laid down in July of 1942 and commissioned in June of 1943. In just a few days, the ship would mark five months in the service. Her crew was still learning to work together, but they knew the Ormsby’s role in the war: transporting Marines. On every leg of her first journey – San Diego to Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor to the Ellice Islands, Ellice Islands to Samoa, Samoa to Wellington – she’d carried an increasing number of Marines and their equipment. After more than a month of amphibious landing exercises in New Zealand, the crew knew how to get Marines ashore, too. There were the usual wisecracks and rivalries, but a bond developed between the sailors and the combat troops. Most were relieved to learn that for the next operation, Ormsby would be the floating reserve.(1)
It was now 20 November 1943, and starting at 0509 lookouts reported splashes from shells billowing among the transports lying to in the transport area. Evidently, the Japanese on tiny Betio were going to go down swinging. At 0516, the American naval gunners unleashed their own bombardment, but the troublesome Japanese got the range of Transport Area Able, so Ormsby was ordered out to a safer distance until the threat was eliminated.
By 0923, radio traffic indicated that the first assault waves were ashore on Betio, facing heavy resistance. It didn’t seem possible after the concerted effort of everything from battleships to destroyers and aircraft, but even so a pall of smoke could be seen rising from the tiny island. Combat veterans among the Marines began speculating when they would be called ashore; inexperienced Marines wondered what they would see when they got there.
At 1140 hours, they got a preview of what lay in store.
A small speck trailing a white wake, retreating at a lumbering pace from the inferno of Betio, bore down on the Ormsby. The speck resolved into a Landing Vehicle, Tracked (LVT) – one of the amphibious assault vehicles that carried the assault troops ashore. This particular vehicle was damaged, shipping water from a shell hole, engine running rough, difficult to steer. The number 2-27 was painted in large, confident numbers over a piece of armor plating welded to the cabin to protect the crew. Her weapons were stripped – likely taken ashore by the Marines – and her aft deck and troop compartment were a confused jumble of discarded baggage and equipment. Four heads poked above the gunwales; one asked permission to come aboard. (2)
Half of the boatload tumbled into 2-27’s passenger bay. Among them was 21-year-old PFC George Raymond Hensel of Brooklyn, New York, who carried a spool of telephone wire for the communications platoon. Hensel, a bookkeeper in civilian life, was seeing combat for the first time; he might have been calmed to note that Lieutenant Edwin Joseph Welte, the battalion’s surgeon, was close at hand. Welte, age thirty, was a graduate of the University of Minnesota medical college; more importantly, he was a combat-tested surgeon who had treated wounded and sick Marines on Guadalcanal. The surgeon barely had time to wave goodbye to his fellow Minnesotan, Lt. Jay O’Dell, a Navy air liaison officer from St. Paul.
Moments after they parted, Welte was dead. “The surgeon’s boat was struck by a Jap mortar shell,” O’Dell later reported to The Minneapolis Star. “Welte and some other occupants were killed.”(4) Shrapnel from the exploding shell hit Lieutenant Welte in the face and head, and he fell dead to the bottom of the troop compartment.(5) PFC Hensel suffered similar wounds; his life ended before he ever set foot ashore.(6) And PFC Bittick of the LVT’s crew also died at his post: “killed by machine-gun fire while driving amphibian tank in attempt to make landing against enemy,” noted his official casualty report.(7) Colonel Amey turned to Associated Press correspondent William Hipple. “I guess you’ve got a story; it looks like the Japs want a scrap,” he shouted. Hipple glanced at the “two dead men in the bottom of our boat; bullets were whizzing by, some of them piercing the sides of the craft, and shells were coming so close they threw water over us.”(8)
The rest of the passengers, wounded or not, bailed out over the sides and began wading ashore – following the example of Colonel Amey, who pulled out a pistol and yelled “Come on! Those bastards can’t beat us!” The words barely left his mouth before a machine gun tore out his throat.(9) A bullet creased Hipple’s helmet; he tried to swim underwater, and resurfaced just in time to see Lieutenant O’Dell go down with a bullet in the shoulder. The correspondent and the liaison managed to get ashore and established an ad-hoc 2/2 command post along with 1Lt. Adolph “Swede” Norvik and Lt. Col. Walter Jordan.(10) Later, they were joined by Robert Sherrod; Norvik, relating a casualty report, mentioned “Doc Welte got it, too. He was in our boat.”(11)
None of this drama was known to the four men who remained aboard the damaged LVT 2-27. The surviving crewmen managed to coax the vehicle back over the reef and out to sea, setting a course for the transport area. The other two, spared the chaos of the beachhead for a little while longer, took positions fore and aft for the ride to the Ormsby. As the tractor sidled up to the ship, they secured lines to the mooring cleats and tossed a poncho over the upturned face of one of the dead Marines.
LVT 2-27 was hoisted aboard in short order.
Metalsmiths and machinists from the ship’s company swarmed over the damaged vehicle. The four survivors had plenty to tell about conditions ashore – chiefly, the need for every available tracked vehicle to get reinforcements and supplies over the reef. A patch was welded over the big shell hole in the side, the engine and steering gear were repaired, and the LVT was refueled. At 1410, she was lowered away to paddle back towards Betio and obscurity.(12) The ultimate fate of 2-27 and her four survivors is not certain, but casualties among the amphibian tractors and their crews remained high through the rest of the battle.
As the LVT was being repaired and the crew replenished from their ordeal, the Ormsby medical department attended to the mangled bodies lying in the troop compartment. The ship’s diary recorded “three dead from landing operations on Tarawa, Gilbert Islands. Names of dead: Names of dead: Lieut. E. J. Weldte, MC, USNR; G. R. Hensel, USMC, PFC, and R. E. Bettick [sic] USMC #522273. No tag upon remains of G. R. Hensel; information obtained from clothing.”(13) Having no place to store the bodies for later burial ashore – and, probably, a growing crowd of Marine onlookers – the Ormsby’s skipper, Captain Leonard Frisco, made the administrative decision to hold a burial at sea. The surgeon, the lineman, and the driver were “properly prepared for burial” – bodies cleaned, sewed into white canvas shrouds (with a weight discreetly placed to ensure they would sink), placed on stretchers, and carried to a hatch cover. Flags were draped over the bodies, a podium was produced, and a chaplain stood to conduct the ceremony.
Ormsby hove to for the brief service, which was conducted with reverence and efficiency at 1420 hours. Sailors and Marines alike crowded around the hatch cover, standing eight-deep in places, hanging on to ladders, or leaning over railings. When the chaplain concluded his remarks, all hands stood in contemplative silence for a moment before an honor guard of Marines stepped forward to carry the bodies to the rail. A photographer captured the ceremony from an upper deck; his lens captured a range of emotions on the faces of young Marines as their dead comrades were borne past.
With a final salute, the bodies of Edwin Welte, George Hensel, and Rova Bittick slid over the side and into the Pacific. The position, as noted in the Ormsby’s deck log, was 01° 25’ North, 172° 55’ East.(14)
Burial at sea off Tarawa, November 1943.
While it is not known for certain if these photographs show the burial of Welte, Hensel, and Bittick, the scene aboard the Ormsby would have been very similar.
These were the first casualties for the Ormsby, but far from the last.
At 1417 hours the following day, LCVP 16-4 drew up alongside and offloaded nine wounded men and the body of Corporal Winston Wells of Winchester, Kentucky, who died en route to the ship. Over the course of the operation – including the initial assault on Betio and the later battle of Buariki on 26 November – Ormsby’s medical personnel treated a total of 94 casualties ranging from cellulitis and sprained ankles to traumatic amputations, intracranial injuries, and combat fatigue. Sadly, the burial at sea ritual was repeated seven more times before Ormsby delivered the last of her patients to Aiea Heights Naval Hospital, Pearl Harbor.(15)
| Name (Rank) | Unit | Diagnosis | Date of Death | Burial | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bittick, Rova E. Jr. (PFC) |
2nd Amph. Tractor Bn. (A) |
Gunshot wounds* |
11/20/1943 |
11/20/1943 1420 hours |
01°25’N, 172°55’E |
|
Hensel, George R. (PFC) |
2nd Marines (HQ/2) |
Gunshot wounds, head* |
11/20/1943 |
11/20/1943 1420 hours |
01°25’N, 172°55’E |
|
Welte, Edwin J. (Lt. MO) |
2nd Marines (HQ/2) |
Shrapnel wounds, face & head* |
11/20/1943 |
11/20/1943 1420 hours |
01°25’N, 172°55’E |
|
Wells, Winston (Cpl.) |
2nd Marines (D/1) |
Gunshot, right leg* |
11/21/1943 |
11/21/1943 1615 hours |
01°27’N,
172°52’E |
|
Taylor, Edwin C. (PFC) |
8th Marines (M/3) |
Gunshot, abdomen |
11/22/1943 |
11/22/1943 0920 hours |
01°23’N, 172°53’E |
|
Benson, James D. (PFC) |
18th Marines (A/1) |
Gunshot, multiple* |
11/22/1943 |
11/22/1943
1815 hours |
01°25’N, 172°55’E |
|
Soyak, Joseph M. Jr. (PFC) |
2nd Marines (E/2) |
Gunshot, multiple |
11/22/1943 |
11/22/1943
2020 hours |
01°25’N, 172°55’E |
|
Hopp, Carl Jr. (Cpl.) |
2nd Amph. Tractor Bn. (HQ) |
Gunshot, chest |
11/23/1943 |
11/23/1943
1647 hours |
01°25’N, 172°55’E |
|
Wallace, Charles Emra (PFC) |
6th Marines (E/2) |
Gunshot wounds |
11/27/1943 |
11/28/1943
0910 hours |
01°28’N, 177°55’E |
|
Gibo, John (PFC) |
6th Marines (H/2) |
Gunshot, chest & back |
11/27/1943 |
11/28/1943
0910 hours |
01°28’N, 177°55’E |
Source: Individual USMC casualty cards; USS Ormsby war diary. Casualties marked with an asterisk were received aboard dead.
The names of Bittick, Hensel, Welte, Wells, Taylor, Benson, Soyak, Hope, Wallace, Gibo, and 106 other Tarawa victims are inscribed at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Courts of the Missing. While their families never received a body to bury at home, these men – and thousands of others who received the same ceremonial burial – are not considered to be missing. Instead, in the long-standing tradition of seafarers around the world, the ocean is considered their formal grave.
Footnotes
(1) CDR Leonard Frisco, USNR, “USS Ormsby: Operational Report Tarawa, Gilbert Islands,” 9 December 1943. For Operation GALVANIC, Ormsby transported 47 officers and 956 enlisted men of Combat Team 6, the bulk of whom were from the 10th Marines (most of the Fifth Battalion), 6th Marines (part of the First Battalion), and the 18th Marines (Companies B and E). Additional support and special services troops were also embarked.
(2) USS Ormsby, war diary, period 1-30 November 1943. (NARA RG 38).
(3) James R. Stockman, The Battle for Tarawa, (Historical Section: Headquarters USMC, 1947), 17.
(4) “City Man Victim of Tarawa Reef,” The Minneapolis Star (30 December 1943).
(5) “Killed by shell which struck amphibian tractor while trying to make landing against organized enemy.” Edwin Joseph Welte, Individual Deceased Personnel File, Washington National Records Center, Suitland, MD.
(6) George Richard Hensel, USMC casualty card.
(7) Rova Ernest Bittick, Jr., USMC casualty card.
(8) William Hipple, “Sees Japs Mow Down Yanks In Tarawa Battle,” The Chicago Tribune (29 November 1943).
(9) Joseph H. Alexander, Across The Reef: The Marine Assault of Tarawa, (Washington: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1993), 14.
(10) Hipple.
(11) Robert Sherrod, Tarawa: The Story Of A Battle, (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pierce, 1943), 80.
(12) Ormsby war diary, November 1943.
(13) Ibid.
(14) Ibid.
(15) Frisco, Ormsby operations report.
Thank you for publishing this article.
Unfortunately I never got to meet and know my uncle George Hensel who was one of the casualties on November 20th, 1943.
His memory and sacrifice will not be forgotten. His sisters told me he was a bright, caring, and charismatic person.