Howard Ellis Manges
Howard Ellis Manges was born on 16-APR 1922 in Illinois. He was the son of Harold and Gertrude Marian Schneider Manges of St. Louis, MO. He lived at 5010 Blair Ave. and 823 De Soto Avenue in St. Louis, Mo. He had one brother: Charles and one sister: Betty.
Howard enlisted in the Navy on 9-APR 1940. His service number was 337293. He was mustered aboard the USS California. The USS California (BB-44) was the second, and last, of two Tennessee (BB-43) class battleships. She was commissioned on 08/10/1921 at the Mare Island Naval shipyard, Vallejo, CA. She was armed with 12-14″ main guns in four triple turrets and 20-5″ secondary weapons.
On Dec. 7th, 1941, California was moored on the southeastern side of Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. She was the last ship moored on Battleship row just in front of the oiler Neosho (AO-23) when the Japanese attacked. California was hit by two torpedoes and one bomb. The torpedoes hit at about 8:05 am on her port side. Since the ship was being prepared for an Admiral’s inspection her watertight integrity was severely compromised with watertight doors and inspection manholes in her double bottom left open. The bomb hit killed 50 men who were passing ammunition to the anti-aircraft guns by hand due to a loss of electrical power. She slowly settled into the mud over the next three days. 104 of her crew were killed.
Salvage efforts started immediately, and she was refloated on 3/25/1942. CALIFORNIA sailed to Puget Sound, WA. Naval shipyard where she was repaired and rearmed from 10/20/42-01/31/44.
California rejoined the Pacific Fleet in May 1944 and participated in most major battles until the war’s end. Most notably she was in the battle line with fellow Pearl Harbor survivors TENNESSEE and WEST VIRGINIA(BB-48) during the battle of Surigao straight in October 1944 and helped sink the Japanese battleships FUSO and YAMASHIRO. She was stricken from the Naval vessel registry on March 1, 1959.
FC/3/c Howard Ellis Manges was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7-DEC 1941. He was aboard the USS California (BB-44). He is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
He was eligible for the following medals:
- Purple Heart
- American Campaign Medal
- Combat Action Ribbon
- Asiatic-Pacific Campaign
- World War II Victory Medal
- Good Conduct Medal
For more of his story, click on the pdf below:
KIA 7-DEC 1941-Howard Ellis Manges
