WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL - PFC Lee A. Bell

 

Private First Class

Lee Albert Bell

Lee "Ding Dong" Bell

Lee Bell was a Hicksville native, born on June 17, 1925, to Albert Ray and Ila Thelma (Lindsay) Bell. The only child of the Bells, he was active in sports at Hicksville High School and earned his Varsity Letter during his senior year.

He was one of five Hicksville High students who had already enlisted before he received his diploma. On May 6, 1943, he enrolled in the Marines in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was assigned to 1st Platoon, Company E, 24th Regiment of the 4th Marine Division.

The 4th Marine Division left San Diego, California in mid-January 1944 and sailed to Pearl Harbor. They docked for one day and then sailed from Hawaii on January 22nd, headed for Kwajalein, an island located in the Caroline Island chain in the Central Pacific. The 24th regiment landed at Mamur Lagoon on February 1st and ran into heavy resistance from enemy pillboxes https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=japanese+pillbox&mid=7AEBBF19442B8A983D7B7AEBBF19442B8A983D7B&FORM=VIRE  and blockhouses.

They held off a Japanese counterattack. The first night Kwajalein was secured by February 4. (It was February 12 before his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lindsey, received word that Lee was overseas.) On February 15, the 4th Division sailed east to Maui, Hawaii for rest, regrouping and training. They trained until early June when they sailed west again and arrived at Saipan in the middle of the month. Saipan had 30,000 troops stationed there.

Their motto: If you want peace,
prepare for war.

Saipan was shelled for five days, and, on June 15, the land invasion began. The 4th Division landed on the western shore south of the town of Garapan. The Marines went 

ashore and after cleaning the beaches, the 4th Division was to cut across Saipan

towards Magicienne Bay on the east coast

It was on this drive that Private Bell was 

mortally wounded by sniper fire on June 17,

1944, his nineteenth birthday. He died the

next day of his wounds.

According to a member of Bell's First Platoon, Wallace Ralson, who witnessed Bell's wounding:

"...we were advancing in a skirmish formation and were under some sniper fire. I recall we were moving across an open area toward a low ridge. Lee was found 20 yards away when I saw him go down. Our corpsmen went to his aid and the rest of the company moved on. 

   Later, when the corpsman caught up with us, he told me that Lee was the bravest man he had ever seen. I have never forgotten that statement. Apparently, Lee knew he was dying. The corpsman was killed a few hours later when we went over the ridge and received heavy fire.

   Lee was the first fatality in the first platoon."

Saipan was taken on July 9, 1944, and the Americans had 14,021 killed or wounded, while the Japanese had 29,000.  Private Bell's parents had not heard from him for several weeks prior to receiving notification of his death on July 3, 1944. On Sunday, July 9, a memorial service was held for him at the United Brethren Church. Members of the 1943 graduating class of Hicksville attended in a body. He was buried temporarily in Saipan, but later, his body was brought home.

Crescent-News, June 19, 1948, page 1

He was buried with his parents in Six Corners Cemetery, Hicksville Township.

Scott Lantow, Researcher