Thomas Joseph McClurg
PFC Thomas J. McClurg served with King Company, Third Battalion, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment.
He was reported missing in action at Bougainville on 9 December 1943.
Branch
Marine Corps Reserve
Service Number 480953
Current Status
Remains not recovered.
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
June 7, 1924
at Peoria, IL
Parents
Joseph F. McClurg
Ellen Irene “Nell” (Day) McClurg
Education
Spalding Institute (1941)
Occupation & Employer
Caterpillar Tractor Company
Service Life
Entered Service
November 10, 1942
at Chicago, IL
Home Of Record
1604 Main Street
Peoria, IL
Next Of Kin
Parents, Joseph & Nell McClurg
Military Specialty
Parachutist
Primary Unit
K/3/1st Paramarines
Campaigns Served
Bougainville
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
PFC Tom McClurg served with the First Marine Parachute Regiment in the Bougainville campaign.
A Paramarine force (consisting of the Third Battalion, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment, plus HQ and Weapons Companies) arrived at Bougainville on 4 December 1943 and were quickly fed into the Island Defensive Line atop and elevation called “Hill 1000.” Patrols discovered a spur “fortified by nature: matted jungle for concealment, gullies to impair passage, steep slopes to discourage everything,” on 7 December, but Japanese patrols were just as active and determined to keep the Marines off the ridge. Small, close-range engagements erupted as these groups ambushed each other in the dense jungle:
Again on the 9th, a patrol from the Third Parachute Battalion was ambushed. On that date a decision was reached to straighten out a re-entrant into the line at the boundaries of Companies "I" and "K." A patrol from Company "I" was sent forward to reconnoiter. This patrol was ambushed by about eight Japanese with three MGs in hastily constructed entrenchments.... The [Marine] patrol withdrew with one man missing. A second patrol encountered the enemy in the same location. One Marine was killed and the patrol withdrew.
In addition to the patrols, the Third Parachute Battalion staged an assault on the spur – which quickly became known as “Hellzapoppin’ Ridge.” The ninth of December was particularly harrowing for the Paramarines: several were killed or mortally wounded, and more than a dozen men failed to return to their lines after the day’s action.
One of the missing was PFC McClurg.
Burial Information or Disposition
The terrain around “Hellzapoppin’ Ridge” was not fully secured until 18 December. Many of those who fell in the repeated attacks on the hill could not be recovered, and a lieutenant from the 21st Marines recalled how “after a few days, they [dead Paramarines] had become very unpleasant reminders of what faced us as we crawled forward, in many instances, right next to them.”
As soon as the area was secured, burial parties moved in to collect the dead. Eleven men from the Third Parachute Battalion were found, identified, and buried in the field on 18 December – but Tom McClurg was not among them. His battalion carried him on the roll as missing in action until early 1944 before transferring his records to the POW/Missing Persons Detachment of Headquarters USMC.
No identifiable trace of PFC Thomas McClurg was ever found, and he was officially declared dead on 10 December 1944.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of parents, Joseph & Nell McClurg.
Location Of Loss
Approximate location of Hill 1000 / Hellzapoppin’ Ridge.
