Cenotaph here
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PFC Robert O. "Ebb" Eberle served with Fox Company, Second Battalion, 7th Marines. He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 9 October 1942.
The Second Battalion, 7th Marines began 9 October 1942 in a bivouac atop a ridge west of Guadalcanal's Matanikau River. They were soaked and exhausted from the previous day's hard march in the rain, and still smarting from a firefight that dealt their first combat casualties of the campaign. Fox Company took the brunt of the carnage and were particularly salty; they spotted eight Japanese troops setting up machine guns and allowed the enemy to finish their task before raking them with fire. "The light machine gun is in possession of this battalion," noted the unit operations report; even better, "F Company did not suffer any casualties at this time."
PFC Robert "Ebb" Eberle, a New Jersey native living out his dream of becoming a Marine, must have found the morning action enthralling – but there was a full day of combat ahead, and the Japanese had plenty of other machine guns. As they moved down a heavily wooded ravine, Fox Company scouts were pinned down by a rapid-firing emplacement, and Eberle's squad was chosen to flank the enemy.
Under orders to return expeditiously to the Marine perimeter, 2/7 had no time for more than a rapid field burial. Eberle was interred at coordinates 69.7 – 200.4 on Map #104, the standard grid of Guadalcanal's north coast. A few yards away lay the body of another Fox Company Marine, PFC Hugh G. Strickland.
Although the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company searched for Eberle's burial site after the war, they ultimately came up empty. To date, no trace of "Ebb" has been found or identified.
Eberle and Strickland died in a ravine while heading north towards the coast.
Entered the service from New Jersey.
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PFC Robert O. "Ebb" Eberle served with Fox Company, Second Battalion, 7th Marines. He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 9 October 1942.
The Second Battalion, 7th Marines began 9 October 1942 in a bivouac atop a ridge west of Guadalcanal's Matanikau River. They were soaked and exhausted from the previous day's hard march in the rain, and still smarting from a firefight that dealt their first combat casualties of the campaign. Fox Company took the brunt of the carnage and were particularly salty; they spotted eight Japanese troops setting up machine guns and allowed the enemy to finish their task before raking them with fire. "The light machine gun is in possession of this battalion," noted the unit operations report; even better, "F Company did not suffer any casualties at this time."
PFC Robert "Ebb" Eberle, a New Jersey native living out his dream of becoming a Marine, must have found the morning action enthralling – but there was a full day of combat ahead, and the Japanese had plenty of other machine guns. As they moved down a heavily wooded ravine, Fox Company scouts were pinned down by a rapid-firing emplacement, and Eberle's squad was chosen to flank the enemy.
Under orders to return expeditiously to the Marine perimeter, 2/7 had no time for more than a rapid field burial. Eberle was interred at coordinates 69.7 – 200.4 on Map #104, the standard grid of Guadalcanal's north coast. A few yards away lay the body of another Fox Company Marine, PFC Hugh G. Strickland.
Although the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company searched for Eberle's burial site after the war, they ultimately came up empty. To date, no trace of "Ebb" has been found or identified.
Eberle and Strickland died in a ravine while heading north towards the coast.
Entered the service from New Jersey.
Cenotaph here
----
PFC Robert O. "Ebb" Eberle served with Fox Company, Second Battalion, 7th Marines. He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 9 October 1942.
The Second Battalion, 7th Marines began 9 October 1942 in a bivouac atop a ridge west of Guadalcanal's Matanikau River. They were soaked and exhausted from the previous day's hard march in the rain, and still smarting from a firefight that dealt their first combat casualties of the campaign. Fox Company took the brunt of the carnage and were particularly salty; they spotted eight Japanese troops setting up machine guns and allowed the enemy to finish their task before raking them with fire. "The light machine gun is in possession of this battalion," noted the unit operations report; even better, "F Company did not suffer any casualties at this time."
PFC Robert "Ebb" Eberle, a New Jersey native living out his dream of becoming a Marine, must have found the morning action enthralling – but there was a full day of combat ahead, and the Japanese had plenty of other machine guns. As they moved down a heavily wooded ravine, Fox Company scouts were pinned down by a rapid-firing emplacement, and Eberle's squad was chosen to flank the enemy.
Under orders to return expeditiously to the Marine perimeter, 2/7 had no time for more than a rapid field burial. Eberle was interred at coordinates 69.7 – 200.4 on Map #104, the standard grid of Guadalcanal's north coast. A few yards away lay the body of another Fox Company Marine, PFC Hugh G. Strickland.
Although the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company searched for Eberle's burial site after the war, they ultimately came up empty. To date, no trace of "Ebb" has been found or identified.
Eberle and Strickland died in a ravine while heading north towards the coast.
Entered the service from New Jersey.
----
PFC Robert O. "Ebb" Eberle served with Fox Company, Second Battalion, 7th Marines. He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 9 October 1942.
The Second Battalion, 7th Marines began 9 October 1942 in a bivouac atop a ridge west of Guadalcanal's Matanikau River. They were soaked and exhausted from the previous day's hard march in the rain, and still smarting from a firefight that dealt their first combat casualties of the campaign. Fox Company took the brunt of the carnage and were particularly salty; they spotted eight Japanese troops setting up machine guns and allowed the enemy to finish their task before raking them with fire. "The light machine gun is in possession of this battalion," noted the unit operations report; even better, "F Company did not suffer any casualties at this time."
PFC Robert "Ebb" Eberle, a New Jersey native living out his dream of becoming a Marine, must have found the morning action enthralling – but there was a full day of combat ahead, and the Japanese had plenty of other machine guns. As they moved down a heavily wooded ravine, Fox Company scouts were pinned down by a rapid-firing emplacement, and Eberle's squad was chosen to flank the enemy.
Under orders to return expeditiously to the Marine perimeter, 2/7 had no time for more than a rapid field burial. Eberle was interred at coordinates 69.7 – 200.4 on Map #104, the standard grid of Guadalcanal's north coast. A few yards away lay the body of another Fox Company Marine, PFC Hugh G. Strickland.
Although the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company searched for Eberle's burial site after the war, they ultimately came up empty. To date, no trace of "Ebb" has been found or identified.
Eberle and Strickland died in a ravine while heading north towards the coast.
Entered the service from New Jersey.
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