S2 Arthur Alden Mitchell

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: Jun 1942; World War II (US) US Navy - Seaman 2d Class Awards: Purple Heart, Navy Good Conduct Medal, European - African - Middle Eastern - Campaign Medal Ship: USS Hugh L. Scott (AP-43) Captain: Harold J. Wright Mission: Troop Transport Convoy UGF-1 Lost: 12-Nov-1942 Official Death Date: 13-Nov-1943 Location: Grid DJ 2524 Fedhala Roads Fate: Sunk by U-130 (Ernst Kals) USS Hugh L. Scott took part in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa. As part of Transport Division 3 (TransDiv 3), she sailed on 24 October after intensive amphibious training. She approached the beaches at Fedhala, French Morocco, early on the morning of 8 November and landed her troops. She then cleared the immediate invasion area and did not return until 11 November, when she entered the refueling area and then anchored in the exposed Fedhala roadstead to unload her supplies. The Naval Battle of Casablanca delayed the off-loading of Hugh L. Scott's cargo and her departure from the Moroccan coast. On the evening of 11 November, U-173 slipped inside the protective screen and torpedoed transport Joseph Hewes, tanker Winooski and destroyer Hambleton. Hugh L. Scott and the other transports were at battle stations all night and resumed unloading the next day. At 18.28 hours, 12 November, another submarine, U-130, commanded by Ernst Kals, fired five torpedoes on three transports, Hugh L. Scott, Edward Rutledge, and Tasker H. Bliss, at anchor in the heavily guarded Fedhala Roads. All torpedoes hit their targets. Hugh L. Scott, hit on the starboard side, burst into flames and foundered, but owing to the availability of landing craft for rescue, casualties were limited to eight officers and 51 men (60 survivors). U-173 was later sunk by destroyers, but U-130 escaped (until 12 March 1943 when it finally sunk by depth charges from the American destroyer USS Champlin west of Azozes).

Notes:

Dansville Sailor Missing, Navy Reports
Dansville—Arthur Alden Mitchell,17, listed yesterday as missing in action by the U. S. Navy Department, had wanted to join the Navy for two years before he was accepted on his third attempt to enlist last June, his father, Jesse Edgar Mitchell of 68 Chestnut Ave., said.

The youth, a seaman, second class USNR, last was heard from Sept. 30, when he was stationed in Virginia, where he received training. He was 17 last Apr. 25.

The youth cared little for scholastic sports such as football and baseball while attending Dansville Central High School where he completed 10 grade studies two years ago, his father said, but liked to hunt and fish and dreamed of the day when he could go to sea.

Since leaving school the youth had been employed by the Gunlocke Chair Company at its plant in Wayland and by Kelly Bros. Nurseries here. A native of Wayland and a lifelong resident of this vicinity, the boy had lived here for the past six years.

A brother, Daniel, is in the Army at Camp McCoy, Wis.; another brother is employed as an electric welder by a shipbuilding concern in Buffalo; two other brothers, Joseph of Kysorvllle and Jacob Mitchell, at home here, and a sister, Mrs. Cornelia Leady lives with Raymond and his wife at 1044 Amherst St. Buffalo.
(Rochester Times-Union, Second Edition, Thursday Dec 31, 1942, page 1A)

Died:
At the time known as Fedhala, North Morocco

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56249097/arthur-alden-mitchell