Anderson, Edwin Pershing
Marines Corporal

Edwin Pershing Anderson, age 25, from Lake County Painesville, Ohio .

Parents: Harvey C. Anderson

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Friday, September 15, 1944
Death details: In September 1944, American forces launched Operation STALEMATE II, the invasion on Peleliu, an island in Palau. On Sept. 15, the 1st Marine Division came ashore under enemy fire. The following day, Marines secured the island’s airfield despite taking heavy casualties. The battle for Peleliu lasted another two months, as Marines were forced to clear heavily fortified pockets of Japanese resistance across the island. The 1st Marine Division, reinforced by the 81st Infantry Division, slowly advanced north under nearly constant mortar and artillery fire. The invasion of Peleliu had the highest casualty rate of all the amphibious Pacific Island invasions of World War II. Corporal Edwin Pershing Anderson joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Ohio and took part in Operation STALEMATE II. He was killed in action on Peleliu on September 15, 1944, when the tank he was riding in was caught in a large mine explosion. CPL Anderson’s remains could not be recovered from the tank at the time of his loss, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Anderson is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery

Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency