Foxborough WWII Veteran's Diary Documents Pacific Campaign

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Seventy-five years ago last week, Arthur Melvin French was in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Lexington fighting in World War II's Pacific theater. He fought in the first American offensive in the central Pacific at Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and battled in Saipan, Tinian, Guam and the Battle of Leyte Gulf before his 1945 discharge.

Years later, French bought a house on Ledgeville Road in Foxborough, but died nine months later from a kidney infection relative said was caused from shrapnel wounds he suffered during the war. But his story lives on in a wartime diary his younger brother William French, of Chestnut Street, recently shared with the Foxboro Reporter, a story he was surprised to find because he said his brother was never much of a writer.

The diary was focused less on military strategy and more on an ordinary sailor's first person account concerns with staying alive. He'd document the bombs, the ships sunk and the men killed as the U.S.S. Lexington sustained continued torpedo attacks from the Japanese.

“We just got word that our subs have put three holes in one of their flattops," one entry read documenting the Battle of the Philippine Sea. "We are making all effort to catch up; when we do it's a fight to the end. It was sunk two hours after we got word from the subs they nailed one down for us. Three Zekes [land-based fighters] and one Betty [a land-based bomber] were shot down today."

For more on this story, check out the Foxboro Reporter.