Gosport John Doe was an unidentified sailor who served as an Allied Merchant seaman during World War II.
Case[]
Background[]
In 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France and the Low Countries through the undefended Ardennes. In six weeks, the Germans overran the Low Countries and France, drove the British forces out of Europe, captured Paris, and forced the French government to surrender.
An armistice was signed on June 22, 1940. France was divided into a puppet state with the town of Vichy as its capital in the South, and the German military occupying northern France along with the Atlantic coastal areas.
On June 6, 1944, the Normandy landings[1] were launched with simultaneous landings by the Allied forces on five separate beachheads in Normandy, France. All five beachheads weren't linked until June 12. The invasion force included over 156,000 soldiers and 195,700 naval personnel. There were over 10,000 casualties on the Allied side and between 4,000 and 9,000 German casualties.
By mid-July 1944, the Allied forces broke out of the beachheads and rapidly advanced across northern France. By the end of August 1944, all of northern France was liberated, and the Allied forces were reorganized for the push into Germany.
Discovery[]
On August 16, 1944, the decedent was killed when the ship he was aboard, was attacked near the area of Normandy. It's thought that he was possibly still alive when he was transferred to a hospital ship. The area was noted for being crowded with vessels carrying supplies at the time of the attack.
He was buried in the War Graves Section Row 5, Grave 9 in Ann Hill's Cemetery in Gosport, England on August 19, 1944.
Sources[]
- Gosport John Doe at Find a Grave
- Normandy Landings on Wikipedia
- Liberation of France on Wikipedia
- Gosport.Info
Footnotes[]
- ↑ Also known as D-Day or Operation Neptune.