John Francis Lally, Jr.
Private John F. Lally, Jr. served with Fox Company, Second Battalion, 8th Marines.
He was killed in action at Betio, Tarawa atoll, on 20 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 419827
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
April 26, 1922
at Holyoke, MA
Parents
John Francis Lally, Sr.
Estella “Stella” (Dreikorn) Lally
Education
Holyoke High School (1939)
Occupation & Employer
Details unknown
Service Life
Entered Service
March 18, 1942
at Brunswick, ME
Home Of Record
29 Orchard Street
Holyoke, MA
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Stella Lally
Military Specialty
—
Primary Unit
F/2/8th Marines
Campaigns Served
Tarawa
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
Lally enlisted as an officer candidate, but did not complete training.
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Private John Lally served with Fox Company, 8th Marines during the battle for Tarawa.
The amphibious assault on Betio, Tarawa atoll – Operation GALVANIC – commenced on 20 November 1943. The Second Battalion 8th Marines was given the job of assaulting the easternmost of three landing beaches – “Red 3” – and, once ashore, moving inland to quickly secure the airfield that covered much of the tiny island’s surface. A heavy and morale-boosting naval bombardment convinced many Marines that the task would be a simple one, and spirits were high at 0900 when their amphibious tractors started paddling for the beach.
The Japanese were quick to recover. Shells began bursting over the LVTs. “As the tractors neared the shore the air filled with the smoke and fragments of shells fired from 3-inch guns,” notes A Brief History of the 8th Marines. “Fortunately, casualties had been light on the way to the beach, but once the men dismounted and struggled to get beyond the beach, battle losses increased dramatically.” Most of the beach defenses were still intact, and these were supported by row after row of pillboxes, rifle pits, and machine gun nests.
Private Lally was among those killed in action on the first day of the battle. His cause of death was listed as “gunshot wounds” – no other specifics are known.
Burial Information or Disposition
On 22 November 1943, with the battle still raging on the other side of the airfield, a bulldozer scooped out a trench near the base of Betio’s central pier. Burial parties collected bodies from the area around Beach Red 3 and brought them to this trench, which was alternately designated “Division Cemetery #3” or “Central Division Cemetery, 8th Marines #2.” Forty men were laid down side by side – and one of them was identified as Private John F. Lally.
Lally’s burial ground was “beautified” by Navy garrison troops in 1944 and renamed Cemetery 27. A single large cross was put up and the names of the fallen were painted on a plaque nearby. When the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company arrived to exhume the battle casualties in 1946, however, they found not a trace of any remains beneath the monument – nor anywhere nearby. After days of searching in vain, they gave up and declared the 40 men permanently nonrecoverable.
In 2015, the non-profit group History Flight conducted an archaeological dig at a shipyard on Betio. This expedition, the result of years of research and data supplied by GPR and a cadaver dog, found the original burial trench beneath a parking lot – quite some distance from the memorial location. Several dozen remains were found, and most have since been identified. Unfortunately, two Marines – Lally and PFC Lawrence N. Mikel – were not present. Their remains may have been disturbed or destroyed during construction on Betio, or accidentally exhumed and reburied elsewhere in the decades between the battle and the discovery. Their current whereabouts are unknown.
In addition to the Cemetery 27 plaque, John Lally had a memorial marker in Cemetery 33, Plot 1, Row 2, Grave 16.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Stella Lally.
Location Of Loss
Lally’s battalion landed on and fought in the vicinity of Beach Red 3.
