DOB/DOD: August 28, 1916 (Tullahoma, TN) – July 9, 1942; 25 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: Darien (mother)
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-055921
FAMILY: Born to Wendell M. [WWI hero; see NOTE below] (1893-1932) and Mary B. Whitmore Schulze (1894-1975). One brother, Francis (1918-1975). One sister, Shirley Butts Norberg Seaver Hesse (1921-2007).
NOTE: Lieutenant Wendell M. Butts was a hero of World War I. He is the recipient of the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the Legion of Honor medal. He participated in the Seicheprey, Château-Thierry, Marne, and Vosges fronts. He was reported killed in action, but survived the war. He died at 39 years old, when James Butts was just 17 years old.
Berkeley (CA) High School, Class of 1935
CIRCUMSTANCES: Aboard the SS Santa Rita, a refrigerated cargo ship, en route from Cape Town to Charleston, South Carolina. Ship torpedoed by the German submarine #U-172 700 miles off Puerto Rico near position 26°11N 55°40W.
The first torpedo ripped open her hull and destroyed the engines, giving the crew no choice but to abandon her; however, while lowering the boats, one capsized, and a crewman drowned. Three others had been killed by the explosion. The remaining fifty-nine people got into two lifeboats. The U-172 came to the surface and machine-gunned the ship and shelled the radio room. The Santa Rita was then boarded by the U-172 crew, searched, and scuttled with charges.
Henry R. Stephenson, master of the Santa Rita, was taken prisoner by the U-boat and was interned in the Milag Nord POW camp. He survived the war and was released during a prisoner exchange in January 1945. All the other survivors were picked up, thirty-two of them by U.S. destroyers on July 11 and twenty-seven by a U.S. Army boat on July 25.
The fate of U-Boat U-172
Sunk on December 13, 1943, after a hunt of 27 hours, in the Atlantic west of Canary Islands, in position 26.29N, 29.58W, by depth charges and Fido homing torpedoes from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (VC-19 USN) of the US escort carrier USS Bogue and by some 200 depth charges from the US destroyers USS George E. Badger, USS Clemson, USS Osmond Ingram and USS DuPont. 13 dead and 46 survivors.
Ship named for James A. Butts
The SS James A. Butts was launched in 1944. After the war, it remained in government service until 1947, when it was sold to a private company and renamed the SS Lone Star State. It went through more owners and names (SS Anniston, SS Caldwell) until 1958, when an outfit called the “Ridgefield Navigation Company Ltd,” apparently an arm of Seaways Shipping Corporation, acquired it and named it the SS Ridgefield, operating it under the Liberian flag.
From the Norwalk (CT) Hour July 25, 1942
DARIEN WOMAN’S SON DIES IN ACTION
Mrs. Mary Butts Of Cherry Lawn School Gets Word As She Waits For Him On Furlough
James Albert Butts, 25, first assistant engineer with the U.S. Merchant Marine Fleet, was killed in action at sea recently, according to an official notification received from the Navy Department yesterday by his mother, Mrs. Mary Bello Butts, business manager of the Cherry Lawn School in Darien. Mrs. Butts disclosed today that her son was to arrive in Darien on furlough on Wednesday to visit her. The telegram received on Friday was at first thought to be a message from Butts notifying his mother of his coming to Darien. The youth was scheduled to receive his chief engineer’s papers in August. Butts graduated from the California Nautical School in June 1938. He received his engineer’s degree and simultaneously a commission as ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He enlisted in the Merchant Marine soon after his graduation from the Nautical School and had served with the Merchant Marine fleet for the past four years. Butts resided in California most of his life. Although he was not a resident of Darien, having enlisted with the Merchant Marine before his mother came to Darien, he had been a frequent visitor. His last visit in Darien was in March when he spent a weekend leave with his mother, who resides at the Cherry Lawn School. Following his visit here, the Merchant Marine officer left on a detail, which he was in the process of completing when he met his death.
From the Martinez (CA) News-Gazette on August 29, 1942
NEPHEW OF CONCORD COUPLE SACRIFICES LIFE FOR COMRADES
CONCORD, August 29 — Mr. and Mrs. William T. Whitmore have recently heard of the death of their nephew, James A. Butts, who heroically gave his life in an attempt to save two shipmates trapped in the engine room of the SS Merchantman [should be SS Santa Rita] following the torpedoing of the ship off the coast of Africa on July 9. Butts, an assistant engineer, was enroute to the United States to assume a chief’s rating. He was safely away from ship, but returned to aid his comrades. All three were lost when the torpedo demolished the vessel. All others of the crew were saved.
From the Peninsula Times Tribune (Palo Alto, CA) on April 11, 1944
IN THE SERVICE
A Gold Star Mother enlists in WAC
Hopes to serve as a dietician in one of the devastated countries
Mrs. Mary Belle Butts of 494 Princeton street, who lost one son when his ship was bombed in the Atlantic early in the war and who has another in the South Pacific, signed up this week at the Women’s Army Corps recruiting station in San Francisco.
A trained and experienced dietician, she hopes to be sent overseas later to serve in one of the devastated countries of Europe.
“I cannot, of course, ever take the place of my son, but being of sound mind and body, I can take an active part in the war effort by joining the WACS, having specialized in an essential field of army work,” she explains. Photo from ancestry.com
Her hero son was Ensign James A. Butts. His brother, Electrician’s Mate First Class Francis Butts, is also in the Navy. He has been overseas for a year.
Private Butts was formerly chief dietician and house manager at Westbrook College in
Portland, Maine, and later became a manager of the food department at La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla. Last year, she took a course in dietetics and institutional management at Columbia University.
After completing her basic army training, she hopes to become a dietitian at Fort Winfield Scott. Her background includes extensive travels in this country and abroad, and three years of residence in the Philippines.
Memorialized on the World War II Memorial, 2 Renshaw Road, Darien, CT
