| Home State | Civilian Occupation |
| Delaware | Barber |
| Branch | Service Number |
| U.S. Army | 32754954 |
| Theater | Unit |
| Mediterranean | Company “E,” 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division |
| Military Occupational Specialty | Campaigns/Battles |
| 504 (ammunition handler) | Anzio |
Early Life & Family
William Nolan Jones, Jr. was born on October 9, 1919, in or near Smyrna in Duck Creek Hundred, Delaware. He was the third child of William Nolan Jones, Sr. (1891–1953) and Blanche Jones (née Lewis, 1887–1959). Jones had two older sisters and two younger brothers. His father changed jobs several times during Jones’s youth. Census records recorded the elder Jones as a farmer in 1920, as a salesman at a lunch stand in 1930, and as a truck driver for a fruit dealer in 1940.
As of January 1, 1920, Jones was living with his family on a farm along Raymond Neck Road in Smyrna. That same day, Jones’s parents purchased for $1,100 a property to the south in Leipsic, Delaware, along “the road leading from Leipsic to Naudain’s Landing” (the latter an estate also known as Snowland). However, Jones’s parents sold the property for the same sum on February 10, 1921.
They had moved to Main Street in Smyrna by the next census on April 3, 1930. According to census records, Jones dropped out of school after completing 5th grade. He was working as a barber by the time he married Priscilla May Collins (1918–2007) at St. Johns Methodist Episcopal Church in Seaford, Delaware, on March 5, 1939.
The couple was recorded on the census in April 1940 living with William’s parents and two brothers on Main Street in Smyrna. Jones was working as a barber at a welfare home, while his wife was a knitter of hosiery. By the time William registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, the couple had moved to 15 Choate Street in Newark. He was employed by C. Walter Sparks, presumably Charles Walter Sparks (1909–1982), who, according to his obituary, “operated a barber shop in Newark for over 50 years, retiring in 1977.”
The registrar described Jones as standing five feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 163 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes. On the other hand, his military paperwork described him as standing five feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 174 lbs., with brown hair and eyes. He was Protestant.
According to an article in the Wilmington Morning News, Jones “operated a barber shop in Newark” prior to entering the service.
Military Career & Anzio
Jones was drafted in early 1943. A document in his Individual Deceased Personnel File (I.D.P.F.) stated that he joined the U.S. Army on March 22, 1943. A statement by his sister, Sarah Kemp, for the Public Archives Commission gave slightly different information, stating that he joined the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on March 29, 1943. It was not uncommon for draftees from Delaware to be inducted in Camden, New Jersey, return home briefly to settle their civilian affairs, and then report for active duty at the reception center at Fort Dix. Most new soldiers spent about a week at Fort Dix before going elsewhere for basic training.
Documents in Private Jones’s I.D.P.F. indicate that by April 3, 1943, he was at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, for basic training. He was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, as of July 1943; at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, as of December 28, 1943; and Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, as of January 11, 1944. Presumably, he was assigned to Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot No. 1 while he was at Fort Meade.
An April 22, 1944, Wilmington Morning News article stated that Jones “left for overseas duty less than three months ago.” If accurate, he went overseas after January 22, 1944. Coincidentally, January 22, 1944, was the day that his future unit landed at Anzio. Anzio was an amphibious operation intended to bypass strong German defensive lines to the south. However, German reinforcements quickly bottled up the invasion force.
After briefly being assigned to the 2nd Replacement Depot, Private Jones joined Company “E,” 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, at the Anzio beachhead, on February 8, 1944. Anzio was an unforgiving place to enter combat for the first time. Allied forces managed to hold despite a series of fierce German counterattacks during the month of February. Even when the front lines were quiet, the entire beachhead was subjected to constant German artillery fire as well as air raids.
The Germans launched yet another counterattack early on February 29, 1944. In his book, Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome, Carlo D’Este wrote that German commander Albert Kesselring’s
decision to attack the Allied right flank at Cisterna was tantamount to an open admission that the Allies were not to be driven back into the sea. Kesselring’s postwar comments suggest that though he had little faith in this operation, he undertook it in the knowledge that Hitler would not have accepted a decision to go over to the defensive without a second counteroffensive.
According to the book, History Of The Third Infantry Division In World War II:
At first light the enemy attacked in the area of Fosso Carano, against the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, and south of Cisterna against the 15th Infantry, and in the center of the Division sector against the 7th Infantry. […] The morning was miserable, wet, and cold. Shivering soldiers stood in water-filled holes and forced themselves to hold rifles steady enough to shoot.
The division history described actions for Private Jones’s battalion during the battle:
About noon, fourteen enemy tanks supported by a company of infantry attacked Isola Bella and drove a platoon of Company G, 15th Infantry, out of position north of the crossroad, but other positions were held. Company F, 15th Infantry, moved up and relieved Company G at Isola Bella, digging in immediately south of the crossroad, astride the road. Company G moved a short distance south on the Conca-Cisterna road and took up position.
Though Private Jones’s Company “E” was not specifically mentioned in that summary, his company’s morning report stated: “Companies [sic] positions being hit hard by artillery and tank fire. Lost house #5 and # 4 yesterday. But was [a]ble to occupy and outpost # 4 last night[.]”
The report added that “Artillery continues to knock our communications. Cloudy-wet[.]”
The History Of The Third Infantry Division In World War II also quoted Jones’s battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Toffey:
A German company, with machine guns and tank support, assaulted our outposts near Ponte Rotto. Control of this tiny settlement was essential to our operations and the machine gunners and riflemen lodged in the houses around it were ordered, although outnumbered, to hold at all costs….
During the first day of the German counterattack, February 29, 1944, Private Jones went missing in action near Isola Bella. Despite heavy losses, the American positions held and the German counterattack petered out on March 3, 1944.
Jones’s widow, Priscilla Jones, joined the U.S. Army herself on December 9, 1944, reaching technician 5th grade in the Women’s Army Corps before her discharge on July 27, 1946. She remarried to Francis M. Grate (1915–1994) in Smyrna on June 11, 1946.
With no indication that Private Jones could have survived and no sign of him as a prisoner of war after the collapse of the Nazi regime, authorities issued a finding of death effective July 15, 1945.
According to his I.D.P.F., Private Jones and another soldier from his regiment, Private Juan M. Romo (1924–1944), were recovered from isolated graves northwest of Isola Bella on December 19, 1947. The burial was located near Tenuta at approximately 41° 34’ 17” North, 12° 47’ 57” East, along the main road known today as Via Reynolds. Graves registration personnel recorded very few specifics on their report of disinterment and gave no information on how the bodies were finally located after nearly four years. The form stated that the site was not in a cemetery and was not located either as the result of information supplied by local civilians nor an official report of isolated burial. It appears there was no grave marker (or, if there was a marker, it had no inscription).
Private Jones was identified from his dog tags and temporarily reburied at the U.S. Military Cemetery Nettuno, Italy, on December 22, 1947. Graves registration personnel recovered a silver wedding ring, a metal plate with his name and Social Security Number, and an identification card, which they returned to Jones’s widow.
In May 1948, Jones’s father requested that his son’s body be repatriated to the United States. That fall, Private Jones’s casket traveled from Naples to the New York Port of Embarkation aboard the Lawrence Victory. After services at Faries Funeral Home on November 18, 1948, his body was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Smyrna.
Notes
Middle Name
Interestingly, some early records spell the elder Jones’s middle name as Nowland. However, all known records pertaining to the younger Jones (including his birth certificate, draft card, and marriage certificate) spell his middle name as Nolan if written in full.
Wife
Various records give dates of birth for his wife Priscilla as March 4, 1918 (Social Security Death Index, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs B.I.R.L.S. Death File), or March 4, 1920 (Social Security Applications and Claims Index). The 1930 census and her first marriage certificate implied a year of birth of 1920, while the second suggested 1918. Her headstone and enlistment data also listed 1918.
Very strong circumstantial evidence indicates she was adopted, though it is unclear if that played a role in the discrepancy. William and Florence Collins had no children listed on the census on January 5, 1920, and Priscilla appeared to be an only child on the 1930 census. An obituary printed in Journal-Every Evening on June 20, 1949, for Mrs. Ruth Morgan, listed six children including “Mrs. Priscilla Grate, Mt. Vernon, Ill[.]” Priscilla’s second husband was from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and correspondence in Jones’s I.D.P.F. establishes that she was living there by 1948. The brothers listed in the obituary had the last name David. Indeed, a Prscilla [sic] M. David appeared on the census in late January 1920. She was living with Ruth David and several others had her biological grandfather’s house in Smyrna, and was listed as being 22 months old, placing her birthdate in March 1918. Finally, tying all the available evidence together, is a birth certificate dated March 4, 1918, for a Priscilla May David born near Smyrna, the third child of Charles A. David and Ruth David (née Slaughter).
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the Delaware Public Archives for the use of their photograph of Private Jones.
Bibliography
Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (B.I.R.L.S.) Death File. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/9220266:2441?_phsrc=OJf12&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&indiv=1&gsfn=Priscilla&gsln=Grate&gsln_x=1&new=1&rank=1&uidh=ie1&redir=false&msT=1&gss=angs-d&pcat=39&fh=0&recoff=&ml_rpos=1&queryId=c7b0bfd39c4506442b71f23a943781d9
Certificate of Birth for Priscilla May David. Record Group 1500-008-094, Birth Certificates. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DYFQ-PHW
Certificate of Birth for William Nolan Jones, Jr. Record Group 1500-008-094, Birth Certificates. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DWL9-H9W
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Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4531890_00014, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4531890_00015
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Kemp, Sarah J. Individual Military Service Record for William Nolan Jones, Jr., c. 1946. Record Group 1325-003-053, Record of Delawareans Who Died in World War II. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://cdm16397.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15323coll6/id/19452/rec/5
Morning reports for Company “E,” 15th Infantry Regiment. February 1944 – March 1944. U.S. Army Morning Reports, c. 1912–1946. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri.
“Mrs. Ruth Morgan.” Wilmington Morning News, June 21, 1949. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/67771207/ruth-david-morgan-obituary/
“Private W. N. Jones, Jr.” Wilmington Morning News, November 18, 1948. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/67749330/william-n-jones-jr-obituary/
“Pvt. W. N. Jones, Jr., Missing in Italy.” Wilmington Morning News, April 22, 1944. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/67749467/william-n-jones-mia/
Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00544-00056
Taggart, Donald G. (Ed.). History Of The Third Infantry Division In World War II. Infantry Journal Press, Washington, D.C., 1947. https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfTheThirdID/mode/2up
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“Walter C. Sparks.” The Morning News, June 28, 1982. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-news-walter-sparks-obit/136706065/
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005207037_02844
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WWII Draft Registration Cards for Delaware, October 16, 1940 – March 31, 1947. Record Group 147, Records of the Selective Service System. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_05_00004-01301, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_02_00005-01004
Last updated on October 22, 2024
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