Joseph Yaroslavski

Seaman Second Class, U.S. Navy

Service Number: 06506250

Unit: USS LST-342

Entered the service from: New Jersey

Died: July 18, 1943 — Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines

Awards: Purple Heart

Seaman Second Class Joseph Yaroslavski was born in 1920. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Dmitri Yaroslavski of Hay Street in Winslow Township, NJ. He attended Hammonton (NJ) High School and the Camden County Vocational and Technical School before entering the Navy in June 1942, after possibly having served in the United States Merchant Marine. He was serving as an Able Seaman on the USS William P. Biddle APA-8 in August 1942, and was transferred to the USS Elizabeth C. Stanton AP-69 on September 4. Joseph Yaroslavski received his basic training while assigned to the Biddle, which was then stationed at Portsmouth, Virginia. He was subsequently assigned to the USS Elizabeth C. Stanton crew, and took part in her first mission, sailing from Norfolk on October 24, 1942. The Stanton quickly landed her troops and equipment for the assault on North Africa on November 8, 1942. Joseph Yaroslavski was given the rank of Seaman Second Class while a member of the Stanton crew. He was subsequently assigned to another new ship, LST-342, in December 1942.

LST-342 was a landing ship designed to deliver tanks during amphibious assaults. She was laid down August 21, 1942, launched on November 8, 1942, and commissioned December 31, 1942. On July 18, 1943, LST-342 was in Blanche Channel off New Georgia when she was hit by a torpedo fired by Japanese submarine RO-106. The explosion broke the ship in two. The stern section sank immediately; the bow remained afloat and was later towed to Purvis Bay off Florida Island and beached, where the wreck remains visible today. Only five members of LST-342’s crew survived the sinking.

Seaman Yaroslavski was among those lost when the ship was torpedoed. Initially listed as missing in action, he was declared dead by the Navy one year and one day later. His death was reported in the September 29 and October 2, 1944 editions of the Camden Courier-Post. He is memorialized at Greenmount Cemetery in Hammonton, New Jersey.

One of the officers aboard LST-342 was naval combat artist Lieutenant Commander McClelland Barclay, who was well known in the inter-war years as an artist and illustrator. He was among those lost.

Source: American Battle Monuments Commission