Lester Charles Behnisch
PFC Lester C. Behnisch served with Company F, Second Battalion, 1st Marine Raider Regiment during the Bougainville campaign.
He was killed in action at Cape Torokina on 2 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 388547
Current Status
This individual has been recovered or is not recovered.
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
History
Lester Behnisch was born in Cedarburg, Wisconsin on 21 February 1924. He spent most of his life in Cedarburg with his parents, Ernst and Mabel, and younger siblings Ernst Junior, Lavonne, and Marianne.
Lester was a dedicated Boy Scout of Cedarburg’s Troop 43. He earned the honor of Eagle Scout while a student at Cedarburg High School. He was scheduled to graduate with the class of 1942, but dropped out in order to enlist in the Marine Corps.
Lester joined the Marines on 7 April 1942, and was sent to San Diego for boot camp. He was selected for additional training in communications, and graduated from radio school in the late summer.
Behnisch deployed overseas with the IMAC signal company. He served on New Caledonia for two months before transferring to the Second Marine Raider Battalion. “Carlson’s Raiders” were just back from their famous Long Patrol on Guadalcanal when PFC Benhisch reported for duty on 1 January 1943. Behnisch served with several companies of the Second Battalion – and spent some time in the hospital for an unknown ailment – before landing in Company F as a radioman.
PFC Behnisch made his first combat landing at Cape Torokina on 1 November 1943, in the opening phases of the Bougainville campaign.
On 2 November 1943, the Second Raider Battalion began moving inland. The Japanese did not appear in force, but left machine guns in camouflaged positions to wait for unwary Marine patrols. Several of these ambushes were spoiled by alert war dogs, but a few casualties did result from scattered firefights. At about 0930, PFC Lester Behnisch was shot multiple times and died of his wounds.
Behnisch’s body was buried in the field near where he fell. The precise location was not written down; he was simply somewhere “in the Cape Torokina area.” A Graves Registration team operating in the area a short time later managed to glean enough information to mount a search, but found that Behnisch’s grave was “lost due to clearing and construction of a road.”
Further searches after the war were similarly unsuccessful, and Lester Behnisch was declared non-recoverable in 1949.
Decorations
Purple Heart
For wounds resulting in his death, 2 November 1943.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of parents, Ernst & Mabel Behnisch.
Location Of Loss
PFC Behnisch was killed in action in the Torokina area of Bougainville.