Robert Bruce Hamm
Staff Sergeant Robert B. Hamm served with Able Company, First Battalion, 18th Marines.
He was killed in action at Betio, Tarawa atoll, on 20 November 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 334917
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
24 November 1923
at Haughton, LA
Parents
Elbert & Josie Hamm
Education
(details unknown)
Occupation & Employer
(details unknown)
Other
Possibly born 1924; 1923 is official on military records.
Service Life
Entered Service
15 December 1941
at Houston, TX
Home Of Record
Alvin, TX
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Josie Hamm
of Conroe, TX
Military Specialty
Engineer
Primary Unit
18th Marines (A/1)
Third Platoon
Campaigns Served
Tarawa
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Staff Sergeant Robert Hamm was a senior NCO in the Third Platoon of Company A, 18th Marines. During the battle for Tarawa, his platoon was attached to the Third Battalion, 2nd Marines for the assault on Red Beach One. The combat engineers were supposed to support the assault troops with flamethrowers, demolition charges, and other means of neutralizing pillboxes and fortifications.
On the morning of 20 November 1943, Hamm boarded amphibian tractors from the USS Arthur Middleton and headed for Betio in one of the first assault waves. Private Robert J. Reder, an assistant flamethrower operator, remembered landing “on the extreme right of Red Beach One” – near the island’s “Bird Beak.” Reder made it to shore under murderous fire, and saw a damaged LVT immediately to the left of his vehicle. “We found out the amtrac had lost for of our men when a mortar hit them dead center” he recalled. “In that amtrac were platoon leader [Second Lieutenant] Ed Rozanski, Platoon Sergeant [sic] Robert Hamm, Corporal Thomas Berg, and PFC Giles McDermott.”
Hamm never made it to the beach. Officially, his cause of death was listed as “gunshot wounds” suffered in action on 20 November 1943.
Burial Information or Disposition
SSgt. Hamm was reportedly “buried at Tarawa, Gilbert Islands” with no further details. Of the four Marines reportedly killed aboard the LVT, only PFC McDermott has been identified; his remains were buried as an unknown in the East Division Cemetery and recovered by the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company in 1946.
A memorial marker was erected in Betio Cemetery 33, Grave #8, Row #2, Plot #14.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Josie Hamm
Location Of Loss
SSgt. Hamm was killed in action at the western end of Beach Red One.
