McCullom Lake, IL.
Date of Birth: 9 August, 1922
Date of Death: 28 April, 1944
Branch of Service: United States Navy
Rank: Y2C (Yeoman Second Class)
Ship: USS LST 507 (LST-491 Class Tank Landing Ship)
Place of Death: Off Slapton Sands, Devon, England in Lyme Bay, English Channel
Y2C James Bailey
Friday, May 12, 1944, Mrs. F.W. Bailey of Chicago, formerly of McCullom Lake, returned home from the hospital after an auto accident to receive a telegram from the War Department. If the auto accident was bad, the telegram was devastating. It informed her that her son, James Bailey, a Yeoman Second Class in the US Navy, had died in combat.
It appears that Bailey was killed while participating in the Slapton Sands incident.
Bailey’s ship, USS LST-507, was participating in Operation Tiger, a landing exercise in preparation for D-Day. On the morning of April 28, 1944, with elements of the 1st Engineer Brigade aboard, LST-507 was part of Convoy T-4, which included eight LSTs and was led by the Royal Navy corvette HMS Azalea. Azalea was there to screen and protect the convoy.
The convoy took a circuitous course so they would approach the landing beach at Slapton Sands at first light, consistent with the plan for invading Normandy in June. Unfortunately, nine E-boats of the Kriegsmarine’s 5th E-Boat Flotilla, commanded by Korvettenkapitan Bernd Kulg, had left Cherbourg after midnight and came across Convoy T-4 about 1:30 a.m. (two of the E-boats collided and returned home).
In the ensuing attack, LST-507 and another LST were sunk and two more were damaged. Six hundred fifty-seven American soldiers and sailors died in the attack, including 202 from LST-507. Many of those who died, did so from drowning or hypothermia. Dale Rodman, who was aboard LST-507, was quoted as saying about the incident, “The worst memory I have is sitting off in the lifeboat from the sinking ship and watching bodies float by.”
No doubt, news of Yeoman Bailey’s death was a hard blow to his family, including his sister, Mrs. Loretta Meyers of McHenry. Bailey attended high school in McHenry in 1939-40 as a junior and senior. After high school, he was employed at Montgomery Wards in Chicago before enlisting.
USS LST 507
Fort Snelling National Cemetery
Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN.
To visit the cemetery, click on his Headstone
