Early life

Harold George Conley was born on July 21, 1926 (possibly in Connecticut). He was the son of Gladys (Née Pearson or Pierson) Conley. Gladys was a Canadian native and had moved to the US in 1916. She married Mortimer Conley in New London, Connecticut on May 10, 1917 and soon became a US Citizen. They divorced later. It’s unclear if Mortimer was father of Harold.

Harold had three brothers, Robert born in December 1917, Warren born in September 1919 and Gordon F. born in 1931.

In 1930, Harold lived with his mother in the boarding house of Elvita Bates and her husband on March Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Gladys worked at topping in the leather trade at Morocco Shops. Gladys, Harold and her little baby Gordon lived on Planters Street in 1932 and on Rice Street in 1935 in Salem. But on June 6, 1935, while she was preparing a meal, her dress was ignited by a flareback from a range burner. Hearing her scream, a neighbor rushed into the house and helped her put the flames out. But, Gladys was badly burnt all over her body and was admitted to the hospital. She sadly died of her burns three days later.

After their mother’s death, Harold and his brother, Gordon, were boarded by Elvita Bates and her husband on Waite Street and were considered as foster sons of the couple.

Harold Conley and Robert Carr were boyhood neighbors and friends. They attended the same schools (Phillips Elementary and Salem High Schools) together and used to do everything together. Their friendship carried over into their military service.

Two pals in service

Harold and Robert left school to join the US Navy Reserve. They enlisted together in Boston on July 21, 1943, the date of Harold’s 17th Birthday. As Harold wasn’t 18 YO yet, he needed permission of his foster mother to enlist. Harold was assigned the service number 7621485 while Robert the following 7621486.

The two young men began their service on August 3, 1943 as Seamen Second Class and received their boot camp training at the Newport, Rhode Island Naval Training Station. Their next assignment was advanced training (possibly Camp Bradford, Naval Operation Base, Norfolk, Virginia).

On October 2, 1943, they (along with recruits from other Navy branches) were assigned to a Special Support Group, a newly established unit at Little Creek, Virginia. There, they received specialized training on gunnery, fire-fighting, gas warfare, communications and recognition (including German aircrafts recognition). In late October, 1943 they moved to the Fargo Building, Boston, and trained at Price’s Neck, Rhode Island, an anti-aircraft training center. There they made overseas deployment preparations including their packs, rifles and bad weather gear.

They shipped overseas in November 1943 aboard the Queen Elizabeth, departing New York Harbor on November 20, 1943 and arriving in Scotland. They continued their training at Roseneath, Scotland, better known as US Navy European Base II. Waiting for their ships, Harold and George had further training in seamanship and the use of small arms.

By late December 1943, Special Support Group became Gunfire Support Group, 11th Amphibious Force. Harold and Robert were assigned to the USS Landing Craft Flak 31 or LCF-31. A Landing Craft Flak or LCF was a heavily armed converted British landing craft mounted with several light anti-aircraft guns (typically 20 mm Oerlikons and pounder guns also known as "pom-poms"). Their mission was to support amphibious assaults by providing air cover to small landing crafts. The front ramp of the typical Landing Craft was welded shut and due to its flat bottom they could proceed nearer to the shore.

They remained a long time in Scotland, possibly until Spring 1944 because of slow rate of delivery of crafts (according to military records). Their landing craft delivered, they sailed to Falmouth, their homeport, in southwest England where they practiced amphibious training off the British coast.

In Mid-May 1944, as the activity in the port heightened, the crewmen understood that D-Day was approaching. Every craft was completely checked and supplies, rations, and water were delivered onboard.

LCF-31 (along with LCF-18, LCF-22 and LCF-27) were tasked to lead the invasion of Normandy as part of Force U, initially scheduled for June 5, 1944 at dawn. LCF-31 would cross the Channel in a convoy of ships heading to Utah Beach, a flat beach along the coast of Normandy. The beach itself was lightly fortified with beach obstacles, but several artillery batteries in the countryside defended the area and the waters were fully mined.

Their mission was to provide air protection for the small landing crafts loaded with infantrymen, sweeping floating mines out of the path of the landing crafts, and knocking out pillboxes on the beach. This was a very important, but dangerous and thankless mission.

Operation Neptune : the Landing of Normandy

On June 3, 1944, the crewmen were briefed on their role on D-Day. They studied maps, and identified targets and landmarks of the beach. Landing Craft Flak-31 among many converted LCTs were assigned to Salcombe Harbor. They left Salcombe Harbor on June 3, 1944 at 4.35 PM and joined the unfortunate Convoy U-2A off the English coast. They sailed at a speed of 3.5 miles per hour.

On June 4, 1944 bad weather delayed D-Day for 24 hours, from June 5, to June 6, 1944. Ships of convoy U-2A sailed ahead of the armada and were in a last attempt caught and brought back home. But they needed to be refueled to sail to Utah Beach in time for the invasion on June 6. With no time to spare, the Navy achieved the impossible and refueled most of the ships in need off of Portland Harbor (dedicated to Force Omaha Beach).

LCF-31 arrived off of Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 at around 2:30 AM to begin its operations. At sunrise, there were no enemy planes to be seen. The ship along with many other landing crafts headed to the beach with the first wave. Targeted by enemy artillery, the invasion force sailed through mines and under enemy shelling.

LCF-31 was just on LCF-18’s portside and close to PC-1261. Larry Lampton, serving on LCF-31 recalled "we heard a report of shell bursts off the starboard bow, then it was shell bursts off the port bow".

Suddenly at around 800 yards offshore, LCF-31 was hit. Larry Lampton, on duty in the engine room, recalled "it was black as the ace of spades, I was knocked out, and when I woke, I couldn’t see a thing. All power was out". Water was rising in its engine room, and LCF-31 began to sink. Although groggy, Lampton was able to escape the engine room and get to the upper deck. "There was no one there". All the sailors operating on the deck were flung unconscious into the sea.

The actual cause and the exact time of the sinking of LCF-31 remain unclear. The vessel might have been hit by an enemy or friendly shell or may have struck a mine. We know that LCF-31 was struck at around the same time (5:42 AM) as an enemy shell hit the nearby PC-1261.

William Lunsford serving aboard USS LCF-27 recalled "When we were about 1800 yards from the beach we threw our mine sweeping gear over and that is where the fun started. They begin to fire at us from the shore as we went in. LCF 31 on our port side was hit and went down. And on our starboard side I saw PC-1261 going down. After we saw this we were all so damn scared. We wish we had never seen that many but we had to keep going".

Buddies to death

Seaman Second Class Harold George Conley and Seaman Second Class Robert Carr were declared missing in action on June 6, 1944. They were declared killed in action on June 7, 1945. Their bodies have not been recovered or identified. Their friendship carried over into their death together aboard a Landing Craft off of Utah Beach.

They were awarded the Purple Heart and the World War Two Victory Medal. Their names are engraved on the Tablets of the Missing in the Normandy American Cemetery, France.

Harold, was not yet 18 years old and still a kid, when he made the ultimate sacrifice.

Seaman Second Class Harold George Conley, you are not forgotten.

Source

1- 1930 US census

2- The Salem News, August 4, 1944

3- "Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations on D-Day", Joseph Balkoski

4- https://www.northernexpress.com/news/feature/lucky-larry-lampton-75-years-after-d-day/

5- https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/news/inside-the-invasion-navy-specialist-kept-personal-journal-of-events-surrounding-d-day/article_af2b9c6b-e377-5576-92ba-74b21f54c644.html

6- https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/UK/british-amphibious-ships-and-landing-crafts/

7- http://www.salcombemuseum.org.uk/rw_common/plugins/stacks/armadillo/media/ww2displaypdf.compressed.pdf

8- https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/ships-lc.html

9- Courtesy of Carr Family

10- Salem Public Library

"This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story".