It came in the form of a cold and brutally simple Western Union telegram - which arrived at her home at 828 South Elizabeth Street in San Diego - informing her that her 21-year-old son, Dorel, was dead.
The telegram was preceded by reports in June that Dorel was missing in action in Italy.
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| Pvt. Dorel L. Earley 1943 Credit: Earley family archives |
Lyle's desire to serve his country fueled a decision to undergo the risky operation and correct the childhood injury that had rendered him unfit for service.
July 16, 1944 wasn’t particularly noteworthy otherwise; early summer temperatures bathed San Diegans as they attended church or the movies. At the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant on Pacific Highway - where Dorel had once been employed - workers continued to toil away for the war effort, churning out B-24 Liberators and PBYs that would eventually make their way to the skies over the European and Pacific theaters.
In Europe, the Allies battled through the hedgerows of France, more than one month after landing on the beaches of Normandy. It also had been more than 40 days since tanks of the 751st Tank Battalion - Dorel’s outfit - rolled victorious through the streets of Rome along with the 36th Infantry Division, although he wouldn’t live to see the end results of the brutal Anzio campaign that had taken the lives of about 7,000 Allied troops. In the Pacific, the war inched closer to the Japanese home islands with the mopping up of the Battle of Saipan just days earlier that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 U.S. troops. Close to 10,500 men also were wounded in the battle, including future actor Lee Marvin, who served with the 24th Marine Regiment.
At the armor school in Ft. Knox, Kentucky, not far from the vaults of the U.S Gold Bullion Depository, Pvt. Glen Earley continued his training as a tank driver, the same job that had claimed the life of his older brother.
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| PFC Glen G. Earley, 1944 Credit: Earley family archives |
“I just couldn’t believe it and still can’t believe it’s true,” he wrote, adding that a friend had received similar news, only to discover later that his brother was in fact alive and in a hospital.
“They can get reports all wrong and all screwed up,” he continued. “I just hope and pray Dorel had a little luck and sincerely believe he had more of a chance than any of the other boys there. There are so many different things that could happen. I don’t know what I can say to make you feel better, but keep on punching and things will turn out O.K.”
Diverting attention around the possibility of tragic news he certainly must have known was likely to come, Glen instead talked about his training and a trip to the post dentist, where he had eight teeth filled.
As with nearly all of this letters home, Glen included the simple postscript: “I’ll write, you write.”
The next day, the San Diego Union ran an article with the headline: “Pvt. D.L Earley Killed in Action.”
“Pvt. Dorel L. Earley, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Earley, of 828 Elizabeth St. has been killed in action in the Italian theater, his parents were advised yesterday,” the article read. “Earley, a native of Logan, Utah, came here with his parents when he was a small child. He was graduated fro Roosevelt Junior High School and San Diego High School. He formerly was a carrier for The Union and Tribune-Sun and won several vacation trips and prizes for efficiency. Before his induction in the army he was employed in a local aircraft plant. Earley was killed while the Allies were entering Rome, the war department informed his parents. He had seen action in North Africa and had been in active duty on the Anzio beachhead.”
Within three months and over the protests and objections of his parents, who wrote to the War Department begging that he be excluded from combat duty as their sole surviving son, Glen would find himself in heavy fighting in Germany with the 745th Tank Battalion. On March 24, 1945, Glen was seriously wounded near the town of Uekerath, Germany, when shrapnel from an enemy mortar shell tore through his body.
Glen would recover after spending a year encased in a full body cast, but he also would suffer from the wounds he received on that March day for the remainder of his life.
“...this stuff is enough to make an young man old in a hurry.”
Like his brother Glen, Dorel Earley was careful in letters home not to say much about what he was doing, particularly anything that would possibly worry his mother.
After joining the 751st Tank Battalion in North Africa, just days before the outfit landed in Salerno, Italy, Dorel had seen his share of combat.
He got his first taste September 9, when the battalion landed on the shores of Paestum with the 36th Infantry Division as part of Operation Avalanche. While the 751st initially saw relatively light casualties, the 36th reported that about 250 men had been killed by September 10; the dead accounted for some 20 percent of the total 500 casualties sustained by the division. “The shallow grave became a regular feature at Paestum,” wrote Rick Atkinson in his novel, “The Day of Battle.”
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| 751st Tank Battalion Shermans landing at Salerno, Sept. 9, 1943. Credit: Christopher Earley archives |
The hills surrounding Salerno were the setting for several brutal sparring matches between the men of the U.S. 5th Army and the Germans, including the town of Altavilla, where tankers of the 751st went head-to-head with German armor, repulsing an attack aimed at finishing off the 143rd Infantry Regiment. In one morning alone, they knocked out eight German tanks.
The battalion also gained some notoriety with a December, 1944 article in Stars and Stripes that detailed their impressive exploits on the Italian front. “751st Tankers Have 2-1 Edge Over Hard-Hitting Nazi Armor” was the headline:
“Picture a German tank column stretched along more than six miles of road, one hundred yards in between vehicles, then erase every tank from the scene. That will give you a rough idea of what the 751st Tank Battalion, of the 5th Army, has done to the Wehrmacht. The battalion has sustained its own losses. The type of fighting in which it excels can’t be entirely one-sided; but it has knocked out, or destroyed, over two enemy tanks for each casualty of its own.”
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| Walt Disney-designed 751st Tank Battalion logo. Credit: Christopher Earley. |
On April 23, he penned a letter to his oldest sister Donna. While the note began with the usual small-talk, his words suddenly turned serious, perhaps a reflection of the intense strain he and the other men faced.
“I know the folks must have felt pretty bad when Glen had to leave,” he wrote. “I have never told them that I have seen any action at all. I figure there is no use telling them as they would only worry all the more. I have seen quite a bit since I have been over here, and I can tell you that this stuff is enough to make a young man old in a hurry. My luck is still holding out, and I hope it continues as there is a hell of a lot of things I would still like to do before I kick the bucket.”
In a little more than one month, however, Dorel would be dead.
The breakout at Anzio would serve up some intense fighting as the 5th Army inched north towards Rome.
Assigned to the 751st’s D Company - comprised solely of M5A1 Stuart light tanks - Dorel and his crew often were used to conduct reconnaissance ahead of the main outfit; the Stuart, with a top speed of 38 MPH on roads, also was more maneuverable than its heavy Sherman counterpart. But along with those capabilities came a certain vulnerability; the Stuart was armed with a 37mm cannon, and, at its thickest point on the gun mantlet, was protected by 51mm of armor. In contrast, the Sherman boasted a 75mm cannon and 118mm of armor at it thickest point.
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| M5A1 Stuart light tank. Credit: Wikimedia Commons |
By all accounts, D Company was assigned to the 143rd Infantry Regiment of the 36th Texas Infantry - an outfit they’d served with many times in Italy - in its assault of the town of Valletri, roughly 24 miles south of Rome.
Death came to Dorel and assistant driver John Dougherty on May 28 by way of a German anti-tank round, possibly a Panzerfaust or an 88mm gun.
Whatever the method, the round penetrated the Stuart’s thin armor, killing Dorel and Dougherty instantly. Gunner Leo Carver and tank commander Robert Wilson were wounded.
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| Summary detailing the action that killed Dorel. Source: 751st Tank Battalion After Action Report |
“D CO lost one tank by AT [anti-tank] fire, two killed, two wounded at 1500 hours...”
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| Memo from 751st Tank Battalion S-3, detailing May 28 action at Valletri. Credit: National Archives. |
According to official reports by the 751st’s grave registration element, “One body, charred beyond recognition, was recovered from the driver’s seat and one body, charred beyond recognition, was recovered from the assistant driver’s seat.”
It’s unclear exactly when their bodies were recovered, but Dorel and Dougherty’s remains were wrapped in shrouds and eventually sent to the coast, where they were interred at Nettuno in what would become the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.
Nearly 8,000 men killed during the Salerno and Anzio campaigns would come to rest there in coming months and years.
Dorel was laid to rest in plot 2-N, row 84, grave 5471.
When graves registration men came upon one of Carver’s dog tags near the destroyed Stuart, he was erroneously declared killed in action. And while a grave was prepared and marked in his name - which really contained Dougherty’s remains - Carver was taken to Anzio’s 38th Evacuation Hospital with shrapnel wounds to his eye and leg.
Carver was later interviewed and told officers he’d destroyed his extra set of tags; how they were found nearby is a mystery.
“I had my ID tags on me when the tank was hit and still wore them when evacuated to the hospital from wounds received in this action,” Carver later wrote in a statement to 751st adjutant 1st Lt. J.W. Oliphant . “I have no idea who might have been in possession of my other tags or how they were obtained.”
He also added the following detailed description of the tank crew:
“When our tank went into the attack at 1500B on 28 May 1944 in the vicinity of Valletri, Italy, the following men were members of the crew, their jobs and positions in the tank: Pvt. Dorel L. Earley was the driver of the tank and occupied the driver’s seat; T/5 John J. Dougherty was the assistant driver and bow gunner and occupied the assistant driver’s seat to the right of the driver; Pvt. [sic] Robert D. Wilson was the tank commander and was in the upper part of the turet [sic]; Pfc. Leo Carver was the gunner and occupied the gunner’s seat in the turet [sic].”
Sgt. Robert Wilson, Dorel’s tank commander, was so seriously wounded that he was unable to give a statement.
Carver, according to official reports, would return to duty June 25. By all accounts, he also would survive the war.
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| 751st Tank Battalion casualty report. Source: 751st Tank Battalion After Action Report. |
Hob-nailed shoes and a notebook bearing Dougherty’s handwriting finally confirmed that the Army had made a mistake. Interviews with other D Company men also described Dougherty - who hailed from Pennsylvania - as having had long and protruding “buck” front teeth, a detail that matched the remains in Carver’s grave.
The mistakes, while ghastly, were promptly corrected; corresponding remains were exhumed, reunited, and finally re-interred.
In a letter penned with pleading words, Henrietta Earley on Oct. 18, 1945 wrote to the army’s adjutant general, asking for more information about the action that killed her son:
“As yet we had never received any information from his commanding officer, Chaplain or anyone in his Bn and so very little information of any kind of his combat overseas or his death. I would like to ask if it is possible to have a copy of his service record? Or any information of his last Bn Co D, 751-Tank Bn APO 464, before that he was with the 34th recon troop, APO 34.
“Our younger son, Glen, who was wounded in Germany in May [sic], and who is still a bed patient has received a book, the record of his Tank Bn 745th which was written in honor of the boys of that Bn who lost their lives; it is wonderful, maps and all, which are a joy to him. We have hoped so much that we may receive one of his brothers Tank Bn. Can you tell us if one of this 751th [sic] has been made up and if so how we may obtain a copy? As yet we have not received any personal effects of Dorel’s, or his bonds, which he had paid for before going overseas. We received the one for Mar 1943 when he went overseas in July 1943 canceling the bonds then, so there should be either three or four still due him.
“I do realize these things take time,” Henrietta continued. “But it is now a year and five months, and we are very desirous to obtain any information or settlement of these things, if possible.
“Has any provisions yet been made to have the bodys [sic] of our boys returned home?”
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| Henrietta and Glen Earley, 1940's Credit: Earley family archives |
“He (Dorel) left the United States for foreign service on 25 August 1943 and served in North Africa and Italy. He was killed in action on 28 May 1944 at Valletri, Italy as the result of burns received in his tank, while participating in the campaign of Rome-Arno. At the time of his death he was serving as a private, Company D, 751st Tank Battalion. His character and efficiency rating as a soldier was recorded as excellent.
“With reference to your statement that you received no word from the Commanding Officer of your son’s organization, this procedure of reporting casualties was not in effect at the time of his death. Failure to receive a communication from other members of his battalion was possibly due to the existing military conditions which sometimes make it impossible for military personnel to write to the families of deceased soldiers.”
Dorel would remain at Nettuno until the War Department approved the return of servicemen killed overseas to cemeteries in the United States. While every family was given the option of having their loved ones returned or to have them remain in the government-maintained cemeteries where they had lain since the war, roughly 70 percent chose repatriation.
Henrietta and John Earley were among them.
In a letter from the quartermaster general dated June 25, 1946, details of that option were sent to the Earleys:
“The War Department has now been authorized to remove, at Government expense, to the final resting place designated by the next of kin, the remains of those American citizens who died while serving overseas with our armed forces during the war,” it read.
But even in the years following the war, shortages of many items continued to be an issue, even when it came to burying the dead:
“As you probably know, the supply of steel for the manufacture of caskets, is at present uncertain,” the letter continued. “Without this essential item, the movement of remains cannot properly be initiated."
The letter also addressed concerns raised by John Earley in a Jan. 11, 1946 correspondence in which he reminded the army that his son’s personal effects had not been returned; since Dorel’s death, the quartermaster’s office continued to claim no such effects had been found.
“We have written to you several times regarding the personal effects of our son, who was killed in the African War Theater May 28-1944,” John wrote. “Up to the present time we have failed to receive any reply. We feel that we have been very patient but would like to at least receive a reply to our request. We think that there must have been some of his personal belongings and they would certainly mean nothing to anybody but his family. There was also several packages that we know he couldn’t have received that should be returned but up to now nothing has been returned. Could we at least hear from you and let us know if anything is being done about this?”
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| Dorel Earley (left) and Glen Earley. Credit: Donna DeYoung |
“Inclosed herewith is a picture of the United States Military Cemetery Nettuno, Italy, in which your son, the late Private Dorel L. Earley, is buried.
“It is my sincere hope that you may gain some solace from this view of the surroundings in which your loved one rests. As you can see, this is a place of simple dignity, neat and well cared for. Here, assured of continuous care, now rest the remains of a few of those heroic dead who fell together in the service of their country.
“This cemetery will be maintained as a temporary resting place until, in accordance with the wishes of the next of kin, all remains are either placed in permanent American cemeteries overseas or returned to the Homeland for final burial.”
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| Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, where John J. Dougherty is buried today. Credit: Wikimedia Commons |
In Naples, his remains were loaded aboard the USAT Carroll Victory, which would arrive in New York in July. From there, he made the trip across the U.S. aboard a train toward San Diego, via Oakland.
Henrietta and John Earley could finally breathe at least a small sigh of relief on Aug. 13, 1948, when Dorel returned home.
At 3:30 p.m., along with a military escort, Dorel’s flag-draped casket was unloaded from the train and eventually taken to Greenwood Cemetery’s mausoleum, where he would be united with his brother Lyle.
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| Credit: Earley family archives. |
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