John Anderson comes home

By the time D-Day had rolled around, John Anderson’s LCT-30 (Landing Craft Tank) had participated in the amphibious invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, so he was an old hand at these amphibious landings. But in the early hours on June 6th, 1944, he was below decks checking on the engine and the sand traps as the boat neared “Omaha Beach” with their load of troops and equipment when a German artillery shell hit the boat amidships and Anderson was killed immediately. Most of the crew was wounded in the attack or when they abandoned the boat and were forced onto the beach.

In the background of this photo, you can see the disabled LCT-30;

Family were led to believe that Anderson’s body had washed out to sea, but researchers found records that indicated that he was in an “unknown” grave in France. the family urged the Department of Defense’s DPAA to identify the remains they thought were his. According to Fox6, those remains were exhumed last Fall and positively identified;

The remains were then exhumed last fall and brought to a military forensics lab in Nebraska where they were positively identified as Anderson.

“It’s a great relief because the journey has been such a long one,” said Anderson’s nephew, Don Franklin.

The family plans to lay Anderson to rest next to his parents at a cemetery in Willmar. They kept a space for him, hoping one day he would return.

At the link above, there’s a link to a .pdf that gives John’s entire biography and his training and preparation for his participation in the Second World War.

Category: We Remember