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US Navy Reserve in WW2
Name - Samuel Marsh, Jr., Pilot
Service - Enlisted 1st July 1942 United States Naval Reserve and assigned as an
aviation cadet on 28th November 1942. Pilot training at U.S. Navy Air Navigation
School, Hollywood, FL and promoted to Ensign A-1, USNR on 1st October 1943.
Assigned to active service 17th December 1943 and posted to Fleet Air, Almeda
Naval Air Station, Almeda CA.
Unit – Utility Squadron VJ-2 from September 1944 based at Pitylu Island off the
coast of New Guinea
Plane – B26C-30-MO originally assigned to the USAAF but then had a AT-23B
conversion to a JM-1 target tow, transferred to the US Navy, assigned bureau
number 66617, painted bright orange and flown to Pitylu Airfield. The exact
manufacturer serial number is not known but is believed to be in the range
41-35543 to 41-35547.
I would like the to add the rather sad story of a relative of mine who flew an
unusual adaptation of the B26. Although Samuel Marsh, Junior was American having
been born in Huntingdon, WV his father, also called Samuel Marsh had been born
in what is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England before emigrating to the USA
in 1913. His father’s eldest brother is my grandfather and rather confusingly he
was born in the USA in Ohio. Apparently their parents emigrated from
Stoke-on-Trent in the early 1880’s and had 2 children in Ohio, one of whom was
my grandfather, before returning back to Stoke where they had 2 more children
including Samuel Marsh. As I said he emigrated to the USA in 1913 and settled in
Huntingdon, WV and got married in 1917 and had 3 children, his eldest son being
Samuel Marsh, Junior who was born in 1920. By 1930 the family had moved to East
Liverpool, OH which was the centre of the ceramics industry in the USA as Samuel
had trained as a pottery moulder back in his native Stoke which is the largest
city in the world where ceramics is its main industry.
On the 29th December 1944 Ensign Samuel Marsh, Jnr was a co-pilot in a JM-1
Marauder on a routine target towing mission along with another JM-1 and some Grumann Avenger torpedo bombers who were undergoing gun training. They had flown
about 50 miles NNE of their base and had been airborne about an hour when at
around 0900 Marsh’s plane developed engine failure in one engine and they
decided to turn back to base. They got within 7 miles of the base when the plane
descended rapidly (possible second engine failure) and ditched into the Pacific
Ocean breaking up into two pieces on impact. The forward section containing 4
crew including Marsh sank after around 45 seconds but the aft section stayed
afloat longer allowing the tail gunner to escape and release a dye marker and
float lights. After about 7 minutes the other JM-1 accompanied by a PBVY-5A
Catalina and a J2F-6 Duck from Pitylu Airfield had arrived and rescued the tail
gunner but no sign of the other 4 crew members could be found. A destroyer, a
minesweeper and 3 crash boats searched the area for 3 hours but only found some
debris. Initially Marsh and his 3 crew members were declared missing but later
that day were declared dead. No bodies have ever been recovered. None of those
killed received the Purple Heart as the mission was declared to be non-combat.
Those killed are commemorated on the tablets of the missing at the Manila
American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines and Marsh himself is commemorated on the
Veteran’s Memorial at Riverview Cemetery, East Liverpool, OH.
Marsh’s widow was subsequently told from a discussion with the surviving members
of his squadron that the likely cause of the crash was fuel contamination. Due
to the tropical conditions it was believed that water vapour in the fuel tanks
had condensed and had mixed with the fuel.
Marsh was survived by his widow Edith and no children. Edith Marsh nee
Sonnenschein had herself a remarkable story. She was Jewish and along with her
parents and brother lived in Vienna, Austria. Following the Anschluss in 1938
they faced Nazi persecution and left Vienna in March 1939 and sailed aboard the
RMS Queen Mary from Cherbourg to New York and settled in Minneapolis, MN. She
was doing some voluntary work for the USO when she went to a bond fund-raising
event in Minneapolis where she met Marsh who had been sent there by the Navy to
fly-the-flag at the event. They subsequently got married on the 1st September
1943 in Pensacola, FL on the same day he got his promotion to Ensign.