Carl Franklin Biddle, Corporal

Carl Biddle Served in the Pacific Theater with the "First of the First" and then in European Theater with the U.S. Marine Corps during WWII. Carl is Memorialized by Robert Biddle and Laura Biddle Clarke

Carl Franklin Biddle was born in Fostoria, Ohio, on 12 January 1922. He was a graduate of Fostoria High School and following High School he worked for National Carbon Co. in Fostoria as a laborer.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Carl joined the Marine Corps as a Private in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 December 1941.  He attended Fire School and his military specialties were Mortar Crewman (607) and Guard (522).  

Carl served in D Company,1st Battalion, 1st Marines Regiment, 1st Marine Division, known as "First of the First," in the Asiatic Pacific area from 13 June 1942 to 17 November 1944.  He also served on the USS Europa from 12 August 1945 to 28 November 1945.  

Carl was initiated in to the Solemn Mysteries of The Deep, having crossed the equator on 2 July 1942 aboard the USS Barnett during World War II. He earned his Pistol Marksman on 30 January 1942 and his Rifle Marksman on 19 September 1943.  

Carl participated in actions against enemy Japanese forces on Guadalcanal, B.S.I. from 7 August 1942 to 22 December 1942 and Peleliu, P.I. from September 15 1944 to September 30, 1944. His Division won two Presidential Unit Citations while he was with it.  

According to the book The Old Breed, Infantry Journal Press, 1949, Carl’s 1st Battalion, 1st Marines suffered losses of 71% of its men during the first 7 days of fighting on Peleliu.  On page 320 of The Old Breed, it is written that after the 7th day of fighting Carl’s, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines (1/1) “had only 74 men left out of its nine rifle platoons, out of nearly 500 men, and every platoon leader in the battalion had been hit. But by the 8th day… 1/1 was nevertheless sent in again with its 74 men organized into two abbreviated companies, and all hands had a bitter fight on September 22. On September 23 at 1400 the 1st was relieved by the 321st Infantry, Army 81st Division. ‘We’re not a regiment,’ said one of the men that day, ‘we’re the survivors of a regiment.’”  Carl was one of those survivors and before he was sent to the USS Europa for the remainder of the war he gathered the names and addresses of many of the Peleliu survivors from 1/1.  

Carl left the Marine Corps a Corporal on 7 January, 1946.  He returned to his hometown of Fostoria, Ohio, married a girl named Betty, with whom he had two children.  Carl died at the age of 57 in 1979 and was survived by his children and three grandchildren.