HENRY P. SALAMONE

Staff Sergeant, US Army Air Corps

Service # 31152534

Henry Salamone was one of a dozen children of Carmella Marinello (1885-1942) and Raffaele Salamone (1885-1931), both of whom were born in Italy. Ralph, as he called himself, arrived in the United States from southern Italy on 11 Apr 1904 aboard the ship SS Barcelona or Montevideo. Within two years, age 29, he had applied to become a naturalized citizen, giving his occupation as shoemaker. He was married to Carmella and listed seven children, all living on Middle Street in Portland, Maine: Annie (b. 1901, Italy), Ernesto (b. 1903, Italy), Angelo (b. 1909, ME), Diana (b. 1911, ME), Maria (b. 4 May 1913, ME), Giuseppina, also called Josephine (b. 20 Sep 1914). The final child was Henry (or Enrico or Americo) born 27 Apr 1916. In all censuses Henry is shown as a year or two younger than Josephine. However, on his parents’ gravestone, Henry’s birth date is given as 4 May 1914. It would not have been possible for Carmella to give birth in May 1914 and again in Sep 1914. Military records list Henry’s birth year as 1916, so it appears the grave stone date is incorrect and that Henry was born on 27 Apr 1916 in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.

In 1920 Ralph owned a confectioner’s store. Ten years later he was proprietor of a meat market, where Angelo and Maria both worked. The family had grown by five more children: Vincenzo James (“Jimmy”), Eleanor, Yolanda, Ralph and Antonio. In 1931 Ralph Salamone died, leaving Carmella to raise the family of twelve. By 1940 she had her first papers toward becoming an American citizen. Josephine and Eleanor had gone to work as stitchers in clothes factory; Maria was a clerk at a fruit store; Henry followed in his father’s footsteps becoming a meat cutter at a grocery store, the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, or A & P Super Market. In his spare time, Henry was a member of the Notre Dame Athletic Association. In 1942 Carmella passed away.

That same year, on 9 Sep 1942, Henry Salamone enlisted in the US Army at Portland, Maine. He had completed one year of high school and was single with no dependents. Because of his work experience he was classed with skilled meat-cutters. Henry received training at bases in West Virginia and at Dyersburg Army Air Field, Tennessee. He was attached to the 853rd Engineer Battalion (Aviation), when it was formed there on 1 January 1943. He was assigned duties as cook and mess sergeant.

The 853rd was called upon to repair levees on the Mississippi River near Mobile, Alabama that had broken in 1943 flood, then headed overseas to North Africa in October 1943. As a squadron of aviation engineers, their primary duty was to build runways for bombers of the XX (20th) Air Force throughout the Assam Region of India, supporting missions flown over 'the Hump' into China.

On 25 Nov 1943 the 853rd boarded HMT Rohna en route from North Africa to India, traveling with 23 other vessels as part of the Troop Transport Convoy KMF-26. The ships were venturing down “suicide alley” on 26/27 Nov 1943 when Rohna was struck by a German guided bomb. In the first few minutes of the attack more than 400 of the 793 men in the battalion were killed. Those who survived the initial bombing were not necessarily 'lucky' as they were then sent in to frigid oil-drenched waters praying for the rescue ships that very few of them would actually live to see. In the end, they sustained losses of approximately 62%. (Please see the HMT Rohna link on the Fold3.com Fact page for the full story.)

One of the men who was declared missing in action was S/Sgt Henry P. Salamone, age 27. By 30 Dec 1943 the story had reached the local papers; his sister Eleanor, with whom he lived on Forest Avenue in Portland, had been notified the day before. On 14 May 1944, the paper reported Henry as “killed in action” on 26 or 27 November of the previous year. The next month he was awarded a Purple Heart, posthumously and was included on a list of the missing in the Mediterranean. He was one of three men from Maine on that list who perished on HMT Rohna. Henry and 14 other fallen from Portland were admitted posthumously to the Paul Mallia Post of the American Legion in 1946.

S/Sgt Henry Salamone was buried at North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia. His hospital admission records indicate that his body was recovered. There is a cenotaph in his honor at the Calvary Cemetery in Portland, showing his name on his parents’ headstone. Henry was survived by most of his eleven siblings, of whom his brothers Ralph and Vincent were also serving in the war effort.

“This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project – see www.storiesbehindthestars.org – a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Together we Served and Fold3/Find A Grave have smartphone apps that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery and read these stories of the WWII fallen.”

SOURCES

1920 United States Federal Census – Ancestry.com

1930 United States Federal Census – Ancestry.com

1940 United States Federal Census – Ancestry.com

Evening Express (Portland, ME) - Wed, May 14, 1944 - Page 20 – Newspapers.com

Evening Express (Portland, ME) - Tue, Jun 13, 1944 - Page 20 – Newspapers.com

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250125/henry-p-salamone

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180399517/henry-p.-salamone

Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-current – Ancestry. Com

Maine, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1787-1991 – Ancestry.com

New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 – Ancestry.com

Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME) - Tue, Sep 22, 1942 - Page 14 – Newspapers.com

Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME) - Thu, Dec 30, 1943 - Page 7 – Newspapers.com

Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME) - Tue, Jun 27, 1944 - Page 3 – Newspapers.com

U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 – Fold3.com

U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954 – Fold3.com

SBTS/Maine/Cumberland

Henry P Salamone