US Navy Reserve
John Lawrence Stanesic
Service No.: 8228922
Ship Assignment: USS LST-507
John Lawrence Stanesic was an 18-year-old sailor from Versailles Borough, Pennsylvania, whose life was cut short during the Exercise Tiger disaster on 28th April 1944. Serving as a Hospital Apprentice Second Class in the United States Navy Reserve, he was aboard USS LST-507 when the vessel came under attack by German E-boats in the English Channel approaches to Lyme Bay.
Exercise Tiger was a major Allied training exercise intended to prepare American and British forces for the forthcoming invasion of Normandy. In the early hours of 28th April, German E-boats attacked the Allied convoy, with devastating consequences for the men aboard the landing ships. LST-507 was torpedoed and sank, taking many of those aboard with her.
Among the Americans who lost their lives was John Lawrence Stanesic, a young man whose future was still ahead of him. He had entered naval service less than a year earlier. His death, far from his Pennsylvania home and family, was part of the terrible human cost of a training exercise intended to help bring the war in Europe to an end.
Today, Stanesic is remembered among the American servicemen who died during Exercise Tiger. His name appears on the Exercise Tiger Trust’s Roll of Honour, at the Exercise Tiger Memorial at Torcross in Devon, and in the American Memorial Chapel Roll of Honour at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
These memorials ensure that his name remains connected to the events of April 1944 and that the sacrifice of this young American sailor is not forgotten.
Identification
- Full name: John Lawrence Stanesic
- Rank: Hospital Apprentice Second Class (HA2c)
- Service branch: United States Navy Reserve (USNR)
- Service number: 8228922
- Ship assignment: USS LST-507
- Date of birth: 6th May 1925
- Date of death: 28th April 1944
- Age at death: 18
- Place of birth: Versailles Borough, Pennsylvania, USA
- Home: Versailles Borough, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Burial: Mount Vernon Cemetery, Boston, Pennsylvania, USA
Personal Information
John Lawrence Stanesic was born on 6th May 1925 in Versailles Borough, Pennsylvania. He was the son of David and Anna Stanesic and grew up in the McKeesport area of Allegheny County.
Family information records that John had six brothers. He was unmarried at the time of his death and was associated with McKeesport High School before entering military service.
The surviving records offer glimpses of his life as a young man in Pennsylvania before the war took him overseas. His Selective Service registration, completed on his eighteenth birthday, records his residence on Third Street in Versailles Borough and his employment at G. C. Murphy Co.’s Warehouse in McKeesport.
The registration also preserves a small but distinctive detail of his appearance: he was recorded as 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 133 pounds, with grey eyes and brown hair. A small scar on the right side of his forehead was noted.
These details bring us closer to the young man behind the name. Before he became one of the casualties of Exercise Tiger, John Stanesic was a son and brother, a young resident of Pennsylvania, and a young man beginning his adult life.
Military Service
John Stanesic entered the United States Navy Reserve on 23rd August 1943, according to his burial application. He was assigned the rating of Hospital Apprentice Second Class and received service number 8228922.
Hospital Apprentices were junior enlisted members of the Navy’s Hospital Corps, serving at the beginning of their medical careers. Their training and duties were connected with the care and support of sick and injured naval personnel. Stanesic’s rating placed him within this medical branch of naval service.
By the spring of 1944, he was serving aboard USS LST-507, a tank landing ship involved in the preparations for the Allied landings in Normandy.The surviving information establishes his rating and ship assignment, but does not provide a detailed account of his particular duties aboard the vessel. It is therefore not possible to say with certainty what medical responsibilities he was performing during Exercise Tiger.
What is known is that he was serving his country at just 18 years of age when he became one of the Americans lost during the disaster.
Exercise Tiger
- Ship: USS LST-507
- Date: 28th April 1944
- Location: English Channel approaches to Lyme Bay, England
- Circumstances: German E-boat attack on Allied Convoy T-4
In April 1944, Allied forces were preparing for Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-occupied Normandy. Exercise Tiger formed part of the extensive training programme intended to prepare American troops and naval personnel for the dangers and complexity of an amphibious landing.
The exercise brought together landing ships, naval escorts and large numbers of American servicemen. For those taking part, it was a rehearsal for the operation that would begin on the Normandy beaches on 6th June 1944.
During the early hours of 28th April, Convoy T-4 was attacked by German E-boats in Lyme Bay. The attack struck the convoy with devastating force. USS LST-507 was torpedoed, caught fire and sank, resulting in the loss of many of the men aboard.
John Lawrence Stanesic was among those who died.
The precise circumstances of his final moments have not been established in the records consulted for this profile. His death is recorded as having occurred in the English Channel aboard LST-507 on 28th April 1944. It is right to remember him without speculating about the details of his final minutes.
Exercise Tiger was intended to prepare Allied servicemen for the liberation of occupied Europe. Instead, for Stanesic and hundreds of others, the exercise became a tragedy from which they would never return.
The men who died at sea on that April morning came from communities across the United States and Britain. They were sons, brothers, husbands, friends and colleagues. Their loss was felt by families who had sent their loved ones into service and expected them to return.
John Stanesic was only 18. His death reminds us that the history of Exercise Tiger is not solely a story of ships, military preparations and the events leading to D-Day. It is also the story of individual lives, interrupted before their time, and of families left to remember those they had lost.
Death and Burial
- Date of death: 28th April 1944
- Age: 18
- Place of death: English Channel, aboard USS LST-507
- Recorded cause/circumstance: Killed in action
- Cemetery: Mount Vernon Cemetery, Boston, Pennsylvania, USA
John Lawrence Stanesic died during the German E-boat attack on Convoy T-4. His burial application records that he was killed in action aboard LST-507 on 28th April 1944.
The same document identifies Mount Vernon Cemetery in Boston, Pennsylvania, as his place of burial. It also records his mother as the nearest living relative and gives the family’s Versailles Borough address at the time the application was completed.
The loss of a son at such a young age must have been a profound grief for his family. Although the surviving records cannot tell us everything about their private sorrow, they preserve the essential facts of John’s service and death and the steps taken to arrange his burial.
His resting place in Pennsylvania connects his story once more with the community from which he came. Across the Atlantic, the memorials in England preserve his name among those who died during Exercise Tiger.
Honours and Memorials
John Lawrence Stanesic is commemorated in three important places associated with Exercise Tiger and the memory of American servicemen who died in Britain during the Second World War.
Exercise Tiger Trust Roll of Honour
Stanesic is included on the Exercise Tiger Trust’s Roll of Honour as one of the men lost during the disaster. His name is associated with USS LST-507 and the events of 28th April 1944.
Exercise Tiger Memorial, Torcross, Devonr
His name is also commemorated at the Exercise Tiger Memorial at Torcross, overlooking the coast of South Devon. The memorial stands in remembrance of the servicemen who died during the Exercise Tiger tragedy and provides a lasting place for reflection and tribute.
American Memorial Chapel, St Paul’s Cathedral, London
Stanesic is listed in the American Memorial Chapel Roll of Honour at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The chapel commemorates American servicemen who died while serving in the Second World War, providing a further place where his name is preserved.
Together, these memorials ensure that John Lawrence Stanesic is remembered on both sides of the Atlantic: in the country where he served and died, and in the Pennsylvania community to which he belonged.
His life was brief, and the surviving record cannot answer every question about the young man he was. But his name endures. He is remembered as a son and brother, a young sailor of the United States Navy Reserve, and one of the Americans who lost their lives during Exercise Tiger on 28th April 1944.
John Lawrence Stanesic was 18 years old. He is remembered with honour.
Sources for this record
The following sources have been used to establish Stanesic’s identity, military service, death and commemoration. Personal details not independently confirmed by the documents listed below should be treated as family or genealogical information requiring further verification.
1. Exercise Tiger Trust — Roll of Honour
Records Stanesic as an Exercise Tiger casualty associated with USS LST-507.
2. Exercise Tiger Trust — Declassified Report, 30th April 1944
A contemporary report concerning the attack on Convoy T-4 and the loss of LST-507 and LST-531.
3. United States Navy medical history, Second World War, Volume II
Includes a casualty-list entry for a Stanesic serving as a Hospital Apprentice Second Class aboard LST-507, with a date of death of 28th April 1944. This published entry gives the middle initial as “I,” whereas the registration and burial documents identify him as John Lawrence Stanesic.
4. Selective Service registration card — John Lawrence Stanesic
Records his full name, date and place of birth, residence, employer, registration date and physical description. The card gives his date of registration as 6th May 1943.
5. Application for burial — John Lawrence Stanesic
Records his name, Navy service number 8228922, rating, enlistment date of 23rd August 1943, death aboard LST-507 on 28th April 1944, and burial at Mount Vernon Cemetery, Boston, Pennsylvania.
6. Exercise Tiger Memorial, Torcross, Devon
Memorial commemoration of Stanesic among those lost during Exercise Tiger.
7. American Memorial Chapel Roll of Honour, St Paul’s Cathedral, London
Records Stanesic among the American servicemen commemorated at the chapel.
8. US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) — US Navy muster rolls and personnel records guidance
Provides guidance for locating Navy muster rolls and related service records that may help clarify details of his service.
9. Naval History and Heritage Command — Exercise Tiger
Historical background on Exercise Tiger and the events of April 1944.
10. Family and genealogical information
Additional details concerning Stanesic’s family, education and personal life have been supplied for this profile. These details should be cross-checked against original civil, school or family records where possible.
The genealogical evidence provides his family background, including his parents, siblings, wife and daughter, and identifies his burial at Tuppers Plains Christian Cemetery.
Research notes
Name and middle initial:
The registration card and burial application identify him as John Lawrence Stanesic. A published US Navy medical-history casualty list gives the middle initial as “I.” The primary-looking documents supplied for this profile support “Lawrence,” so that form is used here.
Enlistment date:
The burial application gives 23rd August 1943. Other service-record extracts encountered during research appear to contain dates in early August 1943. These have not been reconciled and should be checked against the original Navy personnel records before any alternative date is adopted.
Addresses:
The Selective Service card gives 4414 Third Street, Versailles Borough, while the burial application gives 1023 Third Street as his legal residence at the time of death. The difference may reflect a change of address or a discrepancy between records; the available information does not establish which.
Family and education:
The details concerning his three brothers were sourced from Ancestry.com’s 1940 census records and the Find a Grave website, and attendance at McKeesport High School was sourced from the McKeesport High School Yearbook.
Burial location:
Mount Vernon Cemetery, Boston, Pennsylvania, is identified in the burial application. Plot Section K was confirmed on the Find a Grave website.
Research status:
The core details of John Lawrence Stanesic’s identity, birth, Navy rating, service number, date of death, ship assignment and burial are supported by the records described above. Further research into original Navy personnel files and contemporary family notices may help resolve the remaining discrepancies.
Links for the source list
These are the principal online resources to link to some of the primary source titles in the article:
