WWII Roll of Honour,
HistoryNT,
Second World War, 1939-1945,
Date
2021,
Place of birth
Kansas (USA),
Date of birth
1919-06,
Place of enlistment
Wichita, Kansas (USA),
Date of enlistment
1936-01,
Nation of service
United States of America,
Service
United States Navy,
Unit
USS Peary (DD-226),
Rank
Boilermaker 2nd Class,
Service number
342-04-47,
Next of kin
Otto B. Armstrong - Father,
Bessie C. Armstrong - Mother,
Date of death
1942-02-19,
Place of death
USS Peary (DD-226),
Memorial
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial,
Cultural heritage
American,
Honours and awards
Purple Heart,
Biographical notes
Robert Benton Armstrong was a Boilermaker 2nd Class, the son of Otto B. and Bessie C. Armstrong. His father was a preacher in the Nazarine Church. Armstrong was born in June 1919 in Kansas.,
History
Enlisted in January 1936 in Wichita, at the age of sixteen, and served on the battleship Missouri for four years, before transferring to the Peary on 28 April 1940. Armstrong was unmarried when he died at the age of twenty-two.
The Peary had endured a dramatic voyage to Australia in December 1941, after sustaining damage in a bombing attack on the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines. The crew camouflaged the ship with green paint borrowed from the Army, and took refuge during daylight by anchoring close to the islands and covering the ship with palm fronds. Many of the Peary's crew contracted malaria on this journey and eight men eventually died from the disease. They were attacked on 26 and 27 December, but avoided damage by violent manoeuvring. The Peary arrived in Darwin on 3 January.
In January the Peary was operating on anti-submarine patrol, convoy and escort missions; while escorting troops from Darwin to Timor, the ship was again attacked. They returned to Darwin, refuelled and set off again with the cruiser USS Houston. A fruitless submarine chase exhausted the Peary's fuel, and she returned to Darwin in the early hours of 19 February.
The Peary was hit early in the bombing of Darwin, and appears to have sunk within 40 minutes. The fifth bomb to hit the Peary caused the fatal damage that sent her to the bottom and it was said to be the last bomb dropped that day on the harbour. The Peary's machine guns continued to fire at the Japanese planes even as she sank. Eighty-eight officers and men, including Captain Bermingham, were killed; twenty of the fifty-seven survivors were wounded.
In December 1942 the Peary was awarded one battle star for service in World War II.,