John Andrew Orsolics

John became an active member of the Merchant Marines

 In 1943. He was at the D-Day landing on 06 June 1944. He landed troops on the beach. He was wounded twice on that day. The first wound to the shoulder came on his second trip into the beach. He returned to the ship and was bandaged up to continuers service. The bullet went straight though his lower shoulder. The second wound was to his stomach and occurred on his 8th trip into the beach. He received medical attention and eventually returned to NY after spending a month in a British Hospital during the blitzkrieg.

According to Seaman’s Merchant Marine records he returned to an oil tanker ship on 22 Oct 1944. The ship, loaded with oil in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, and upon return was sunk by torpedoes by a German U-Boat in the Caribbean Sea off the West Indies. The ship was approached and given 10 minutes to clear the crew from the vessel by the U-Boat. At ten minutes the U-Boat put two torpedoes in the center of the ship’s hull. John spent five days in a raft with four other seamen. Upon rescue he was extremely dehydrated, his hair and eyebrows had been burnt off, and he suffered extreme burns on the left arm and leg from the oil fire that was the result of torpedoes hitting the ship before it was completely cleared.

In July of 1945 he landed Jewish survivors on the coast of what is now called Israel. UN ships had to land displaced Jewish survivors of German Concentration Camps in the dark of night and participate in gun battles with Palestinians in 12 man rafts. John’s raft took 96 men, women and children to shore and a new home on that voyage. The war in Germany ended 08 May 1945. 

The information has been gathered from letters that John Andrews Orsolics wrote to his mother Augusta Orsolitz and his sister Margaret Tognoli and the Seaman’s Merchant Union recorded voyages by its union members.