Jonathan Hartwell HARWOOD  Jr

Source : ABMC (Ellen Marchese)

Spouse : Virginia Mae Oakes

Son : Jonathan H. HARWOOD  III

Parent : Jonathan Hartwell  & Ruth Wistar FISHER HARWOOD

Source : Frogman

CEMTERY TEMPORARY of  -- N°--

--

Story of Cemetery Temporary 

Plan du Normandy American Cemetery

Source : ww2veteransmemories (Instagram)

Jonathan Hartwell Harwood, Jr was born December 29, 1918 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Jonathan Hartwell Harwood (1892-1963) and Ruth Wistar (Fisher) Harwood (1891-1932). Jonathan and Ruth were married November 28, 1917 in Peterborough, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. They had three children: Jonathan Hartwell, Jr., Elizabeth Sharples and Sarah Wistar.

In 1920 the family lived in East Greenwich, Kent, Rhode Island and by 1930 had moved to Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island. Jonathan, Sr was a captain with the Rhode Island State Police. By 1940 he had remarried to Dorothy Gilmore.

Jonathan graduated from the Providence Country Day School and attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He was a cadet captain in a unit of the Reserve Officers Training Corps. (It should be noted that some publications state he was a non graduate of West Point Academy 1941) He is found in the 1942 Cornell yearbook studying arts and sciences and a member of the Officers Club and on the “Cornell Daily Sun” board.

Jonathan married Virginia Mae Oakes in 1942. Virginia had also attended Cornell University. Their son, Jonathan Hartwell Harwood III was born about 1943.

In June 1942 he entered the U.S. Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in Field Artillery. In April 1943 he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant followed by a promotion to Captain in May 1943. Jonathan was with the 293rd Signal Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion.

He went overseas in December 1943. With the U.S. Army Rangers, the captain commanded a group known as the shore fire control party whose duty was to go ashore with the first invasion wave to direct naval gunfire by radio.

He had written home that he had trained the same group of men for several months and they had attained the distinction of being the #1 fire control group in the European Theatre of Operations.

“Attached to the 2nd Ranger Battalion during the D-Day invasion, Harwood was among some of the first men to land at Pointe Du Hoc even before the artillery barrage had begun. Harwood and his fire control party, which were pinned down on the beach, called in the USS Texas for naval artillery to eliminate German machine gun nests and mortar fire which was wreaking havoc among the men of the 2nd Rangers.

One of the shells from the 14-inch guns fell short, detonating near the fire control party's command bunker. It severely injured Captain Harwood and wounded two other officers. What would prove to be the fatal round for Harwood was an armor piercing shell that contained a yellow pigment known as "Explosive D", or Dunnite. According to a soldier who was there, "The men were turned completely yellow. It was as though they had been stricken with jaundice. It wasn't only their faces and hands, but the skin beneath their clothes were yellow from that shell."

Captain Walter Block, a hometown friend who served as battalion surgeon with the rangers, tended his wounds. Captain Harwood succumbed to his wounds on June 7, 1944, at the age of 25.

Jonathan was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry and the Purple Heart posthumously.

He is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery in France and is memorialized on the Harwood family monument in Westlawn Cemetery, Littleton, Massachusetts.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice Captain Harwood.

In July 1945 Jonathan's father, Jonathan, Sr., headed to Germany to train as a part of the newly organized Safety Organization headed by Col. Orlando Wilson. Their goal was to fingerprint every German who, in the eyes of the internal affairs division, is a criminal which included anyone with any connection with the Nazi party, officer or non commissioned officers of the German armed forces and persons with mandatory arrest categories and persons arrested for security reasons.

Silver Star

AWARDED FOR ACTIONS
DURING World War II

Service: Army

Rank: Captain

Battalion: 2nd Ranger Battalion (Attached)

GENERAL ORDERS:

Headquarters, 1st Army, General Orders No. 51 (1944)

CITATION:

(Citation Needed) - SYNOPSIS: Captain (Field Artillery) Jonathan Hartwell Harwood, Jr. (ASN: 0-464650), United States Army, was awarded the Silver Star (Posthumously) for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against the enemy while serving with the 293rd Signal Company, attached to the 2nd Ranger Battalion, at Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944.