James Bailey
Service No.: 7258444
Ship Assignment: USS LST-507
Early life
James Bailey was born on 9th August 1922, and was associated with McCullom Lake and McHenry County, Illinois. His parents were Mr. Forrest William Bailey and Mrs. Mary Alice Bailey, and his recorded home address was Route 1, McCullom Lake, West McHenry, Illinois. He also had a sister, Loretta Mary Bailey, born in 1923.
According to the local historical account published by McHenry County Gold Star Legacies, James attended high school in McHenry during the 1939–1940 school year, when he was a junior and senior. After leaving school, he worked at Montgomery Ward in Chicago before joining the United States Navy.
On 6th November 1942, aged 20, James enlisted in Chicago, Illinois, entering service during the United States’ involvement in the Second World War. His subsequent naval service took him to the European theatre, where he served aboard the tank landing ship LST-507.
Naval service
Identification
Full name: James Bailey
Rank: Yeoman, Second Class
Service branch: United States Navy Reserve
Service number: 7258444
Unit/Ship: USS LST-507
Enlistment date: 6th November 1942
Enlistment place: Chicago, Illinois.
James Bailey served in the United States Naval Reserve as a Yeoman Second Class (Y2c). Yeomen performed administrative and clerical duties within the Navy, handling correspondence, records, reports and other essential paperwork supporting the operation of a ship and its command.
By April 1944, James was serving aboard LST-507, a tank landing ship assigned to Allied preparations for the invasion of Normandy.
The ship was participating in Exercise Tiger, a major rehearsal for the forthcoming D-Day landings. The exercise involved Allied forces practising amphibious operations off the Devon coast, including at Slapton Sands, which had been selected to resemble the Normandy landing beaches.
Exercise Tiger — 28th April 1944
During the early hours of 28th April 1944, LST-507 was operating in the English Channel as part of Convoy T-4. The convoy was attacked by German E-boats, resulting in the sinking of LST-507 and severe loss of life among the American naval personnel and Army troops aboard the landing ships.
The contemporary debriefing of Lieutenant James Frederick Murdock, LST-507‘s executive officer and senior surviving officer, was recorded at the Office of Naval Records and Library on 16 August 1944. The transcript provides a detailed account of the attack, the damage to the ship and the evacuation of its crew and embarked troops.
Murdock stated that LST-507 was torpedoed at approximately 2.03 a.m. The explosion caused fires, disabled essential systems and led to the ship being abandoned. Survivors entered the water and used the available lifeboats and rafts while the vessel continued to burn and sink.
The debriefing specifically identifies James Bailey as the ship’s yeoman. In the account, Murdock explained that, as the order to prepare to abandon ship was given, Bailey went to the office and retrieved the muster roll and other necessary records. He had previously been instructed to keep such records accessible in an emergency.
Bailey left the ship carrying the records, but he did not survive. Murdock stated that Bailey’s body was recovered from the sea, while the records he had taken were lost.
This detail gives James’s service a particular place in the documentary history of Exercise Tiger. In the final moments aboard LST-507, he was carrying out an important administrative responsibility: attempting to preserve the ship’s official records during an emergency.
The debriefing records the loss of Bailey and the quartermaster, Charles Garlock, who had taken the ship’s log and charts. Both men were lost at sea, and their records did not survive.
Death and Burial
Date of death: 28th April 1944
Age: 21
Place of death: Lyme Bay, England, aboard USS LST-507
Cemetery: Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA
James Bailey died on 28th April 1944, aged 21, during the Exercise Tiger disaster.
His death was recorded in the United States Navy casualty listings, and his burial is documented at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Cemetery transcriptions identify his grave as Section C, Site 14405, and record his dates of birth and death.
A local account published by McHenry County Gold Star Legacies recounts the impact of the news on his family. On 12 May 1944, his mother, Mrs. F. W. Bailey, reportedly received a telegram informing her that her son had died in combat after returning home from hospital following a car accident.
James’s death was a profound loss to his family and community. He was one of the American servicemen whose lives were lost during preparations for the Normandy invasion, before D-Day itself took place in June 1944.
Honours and Memorials
James Bailey is commemorated on the Exercise Tiger Trust’s Roll of Honour. (Roll of Honour)
He is commemorated at the Exercise Tiger Memorial at Torcross, Devon, where his name appears among the American servicemen lost during the disaster.
Yeoman, Second Class, James Bailey has an entry in the American Memorial Chapel Roll of Honour at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, United Kingdom.
Yeoman, Second Class, James Bailey was awarded a Purple Heart.
Sources and References
1. Exercise Tiger Trust
Lieutenant J. F. Murdock Debrief Transcription, based on material attributed to the Eugene Eckstam Archive and the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The debriefing identifies Bailey as the yeoman aboard LST-507 and describes the circumstances in which he was lost at sea.
2. McHenry County Gold Star Legacies
James Bailey. Local historical biography providing information about Bailey’s birth, schooling, employment, family, naval service and the notification of his death.
3. American War Memorials Overseas, Inc.
James Bailey. Memorial database entry recording his rank, date of death and burial at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
4. Fort Snelling National Cemetery burial transcription
Interment.net, based on records obtained from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Records Bailey’s dates of birth and death and grave location.
5. US National Archives and Recods (NARA)
Military records obtained via Ancestry.
5. Naval History Website
Personal identification details.
