Staff Sergeant Frederick Leo "Fred" Hubbard—Died of Wounds March 11, 1944

 Frederick Leo “Fred” Hubbard was born in Canso, Guysborough County, on March 25, 1919. Fred’s father, Daniel Clifton Hubbard, was a native of Charlesville, Shelburne County, the son of Thomas Martin and Lydia (Nickerson) Hubbard. His mother, Cora Anna Hurst, was born in Canso on January 8, 1882, the daughter of Evan MacPherson “Mack” and Maria Grace (Feltmate) Hurst.

Staff Sergeant Frederick Leo Hubbard

Both sides of Cora Hurst’s family trace their roots to Loyalist soldiers who settled in Guysborough County in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War (1776 - 1783). Frederick Feltmate, Maria’s great-great-grandfather, was born in Dutch Fork, Newberry, South Carolina, in 1765. During the American Revolution, Frederick enlisted with the South Carolina Regiment, known as the ‘Royalists.” When the Regiment was disbanded in the spring of 1783, Frederick left St. Augustine, Florida, for Nova Scotia with a group of Royalist soldiers.

On December 24, 1783, approximately 900 men who had served with three Loyalist regiments arrived in Country Harbour, Guysborough County, aboard the vessel Nymph. Frederick Feltmate and some of his South Carolina comrades were part of the group. The new arrivals lacked proper shelter and supplies, and endured a harsh first winter that supposedly claimed 300 lives. The following summer, the men were offered land grants and set about establishing new homes in the virgin wilderness.

Frederick received 100 acres of land in the County Harbour area, part of the “Major Wright” grant. He subsequently married and raised a family that included a son, John Frederick Feltmate, born in Country Harbour on December 25, 1791. John married Elizabeth Lydia Deickhoff (1793 - 1869) and settled in Whitehead, where he passed away on October 17, 1873.

John and Elizabeth’s son, Samuel Isaiah Feltmate, was born in Queensport on June 2, 1825, and married Mary Elizabeth Uloth (1833 - 1862). He passed away in Canso on December 15, 1914. Samuel and Mary’s daughter, Maria Grace Feltmate, was born in Whitehead on August 9, 1859.

Fred’s grandfather Mack traced his family roots to Samuel Hurst, born in Middlesborough, Yorkshire, England, on January 17, 1725. On an unknown date, Samuel immigrated to the 13 Colonies. Among his children was a son Samuel Alexander, born in Massachusetts in 1753.

Samuel Alexander served with the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot during the American Revolutionary War. In June 1783, the 60th’s Regiment’s 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded. Three months later, a group of the unit’s former soldiers and their families arrived in Halifax, NS. In July 1784, 76 of the 60th Regiment’s former soldiers departed for Chedabucto Bay, Guysborough County, accompanied by 34 women, 19 children and four servants.

Among the settlers were Private Samuel Alexander Hurst, his wife Elizabeth, two daughters Elizabeth and Sarah, and a son, John William (1781 - 1857). Samuel received a land grant of 300 acres in the Crow Harbour [Queensport] area. He died in Guysborough around 1838.

John William Hurst married Esther Mary Bedford in Guysborough on May 22, 1804. The couple raised a family of 10 children in Half Island Cove. One of John and Esther’s sons, Samuel William, was born on September 14, 1823, and married Diana Smith (1818 - 1901). Evan MacPherson “Mack” Hurst (1854 - 1883), was their eldest child.

On October 15, 1881, Mack Hurst married Maria Grace Feltmate in a ceremony that took place in Cape Canso. The marriage was short-lived, as Mack died in 1883, possibly the result of an accident at sea. Prior to Mack’s death, Maria gave birth to a daughter, Cora Anna, on January 8, 1882. A second child, Mary Elizabeth (1883 - 1957), was born after her father’s passing.

Widowed with two young children, Maria married John Berrigan, son of James and Ann Berrigan, Canso, on November 18, 1885. Over the ensuing years, the couple raised a family of nine children. At the time of the 1891 census, Cora and her sister Mary were residing in Canso with their paternal grandparents, Samuel and Diana Hurst. A decade later, Cora was living in her step-father John Berrigan’s Canso home with her mother Maria. Also in the household were nine Berrigan children—five girls and four boys, ranging in age from five months to 15 years.

On December 23, 1908, 27-year-old Cora Hurst married 33-year-old Daniel Clifton Hubbard in a Methodist ceremony that took place in Canso. The following year, the first of the couple’s children—a daughter, Sadie Florence—was born. As the years passed, eight more children joined the Hubbard family—a second daughter and seven sons.

Frederick Leo “Fred” Hubbard, Clifton and Cora’s sixth child and fourth son, was born in Canso on March 25, 1919. While Fred and his siblings spent their formative years in the community, their father Clifton pursued a livelihood at sea. In the 1880s, he had worked aboard a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Massachusetts and later worked out of the Boston fish pier.

Clifton eventually returned to Nova Scotia and worked out of the Canso area, where he met Cora. At various times, it appears that his livelihood took him back to the United States. At the time of the 1930 US census, for instance, he was residing with a brother-in-law in Winthrop, MA, his occupation listed as “fisherman.”

As the decade passed, several of Fred’s older siblings left Nova Scotia for Massachusetts. William Elias “Bill” was the first, arriving there in the mid-1930s. George Irving followed him in 1938. Fred made the trip to Boston aboard SS Yarmouth in mid-October 1939, and was living in a Roxbury, MA, rooming house at the time of the 1940 US census. Brothers Mack, John and Gordon arrived in the early 1940s.

After moving to Boston, Fred found work as a “storeroom man” in a hotel, quite possibly the “Mariners’ House” operated by his older brother Irving. Fred also enrolled in a local seminary, with plans to become a Methodist minister. Like many young men of his generation, however, the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe soon disrupted his plans.

On October 16, 1940, Fred registered for the US military draft. At the time, he was employed by the Boston Port & Seaman’s Aid Society, 11 North Square. Fred listed his mother Cora, 37 Chambers St., Boston, as his next of kin. He had completed four years of high school, and claimed to be a citizen of the United States, although no official document can be located to verify this assertion.

Fred’s civilian life ended on March 6, 1941, when he enlisted with the United States Army in Boston. Single with no dependents, he commenced service as a Private but was destined to advance to the rank of Staff Sergeant over the next three years. Fred was assigned to the 182nd Infantry Regiment, a Massachusetts unit with deep historical roots. An active Massachusetts National Guard unit, the 182nd commenced active federal service on January 16, 1941, and departed for Charlestown shortly afterward.

While the United States was officially neutral in the war that had broken out in Europe, its government supported Great Britain by providing munitions on a “cash and carry” basis. The country also implemented a military draft and significantly increased its defence spending as President Franklin D. Roosevelt prepared for possible entry into the war.

Roosevelt’s plans were a response not only to events in Europe, where Germany had forcefully occupied large parts of the continent. A similar phenomenon took place in the Pacific region, where the United States had numerous territorial interests. The country acquired the Philippines from Spain in 1898 and also controlled Midway (1867), the Hawaiian Islands (1898), Wake (1899), Samoa (1899) and the Line Islands (1912).

Throughout the 1930s, Japan sought to expand its sphere of influence in the Pacific region. Initially, it focused on Manchuria but soon expanded its interest to Chinese territory. The result was a full-scale warfare between the two countries that commenced in July 1937. Before year’s end, Japan captured Shanghai and Nanjing, and continued its advance into Chinese territory throughout the rest of the decade. By 1941, the two sides had reached a stalemate. Japan having occupied much of northern, central and coastal China, while the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-Shek controlled the Chinese interior.

After the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe and France’s surrender to German forces, Japan seized control of French Indochina in September 1940. The acquisition severed China’s land connection with the outside world. Later that same month, Japan entered a formal military alliance with Italy and Germany. While the move was politically significant, there was little military coordination between Germany and Japan until the late stages of the war.

Japan’s expansionist plans inevitably resulted in tensions with Western countries already active in the Pacific region. It was particularly interested in the Dutch East Indies, Indochina, Malaya and the Philippines, as these locations contained significant oil and mineral reserves, resources vital to the success of Japan’s imperialist goals. When the governments of Australia, the United States, and Britain joined the Netherlands government in exile in imposing a ban on the sale of oil, iron ore and steel to Japan, the stage was set for an inevitable conflict.

Totally dependent on imports for these vital resources, Japan faced the prospect of economic collapse and a humiliating withdrawal from its recent conquests If it could not secure a dependable source. As a result, in mid-1941, Japanese military authorities commenced planning for war with the Western powers. Recognizing that the battle would be largely fought at sea, the country launched a rapid expansion of its naval resources.

Japan’s major objective during the initial phase of the impending conflict was the seizure of the Dutch West Indies and Malaya, areas that could provide many of the resources denied by the Western embargo. Military strategists also identified the capture of the Philippines, Wake and Guam as key to a Japanese victory. The plan called for a limited war, during which Japan would seize its key objectives and then establish a defensive perimeter to repel Allied counterattacks. Once these initial stages were complete, the Japanese were convinced that they could achieve a negotiated peace.

The key to a Japanese victory required neutralizing the United States Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Such a move would provide Japan with the time required to establish its defensive perimeter in two phases. First, the Japanese planned to occupy major Pacific objectives—the Philippines, British Malaya, Borneo, Burma, Rabaul [a strategic city in Papua New Guinea] and the Dutch West Indies.

The second phase required a second expansion, during which Japan planned to seize control of eastern New Guinea, New Britain, Fiji, Samoa and other strategic locations near Australia. Finally, the country planned to secure Midway and the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific—territories under American control—creating a defensive barrier well beyond its occupied territories.

The success of the entire plan depended not only on an effective attack on American naval forces in Pearl Harbour. The Japanese High Command also believed that a negotiated peace could be achieved after its plan was successfully implemented. After all, this had been the case in its previous wars against China (1894-95) and Russia (1904-05). As events unfolded, however, neither assumption became reality and the Japanese found themselves embroiled in a long-term conflict with the United States and its Western allies.

In the early hours of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise air strike on the United States naval base in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Simultaneously, Japanese forces carried out similar attacks on American and British territories across the Pacific region—the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. Wile the Pearl Harbour attack crippled the US Pacific Fleet, it failed to deliver a fatal blow. Nor did the American government seek to negotiate with Japan in its aftermath. Instead, the wave of outrage that spread across the country brought the United States into the war the day after the Pearl Harbour attack.

Despite America’s entry into the war, the Japanese aggressively continued its expansionist plans. During the first six months of 1942, its forces secured Hong Kong, British Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Singapore, the Philippines, Bali and Timor. While the Japanese set about securing the territories they now controlled, Allied forces slowly organized their forces and prepared to respond.

The focus soon shifted to a key naval battle as the Japanese sought to secure supremacy in the Pacific. The first target was the strategically important, American-held island of Midway, northwest of Hawaii. In this instance, however, American forces had successfully intercepted Japanese communications and learned of the planned attack several weeks beforehand.

As the Japanese transport group made its way toward the island, American naval and aerial forces launched an attack on the convoy on June 3 when it was 1,110 kilometres west of Midway. Japanese forces suffered significant losses and were unable to deliver a decisive blow to American forces at sea or on the island. Within 48 hours, Japanese military commanders abandoned the Midway operation.

In the long term, the failure of the Midway attack was a crucial blow to Japan’s plans. However, its advances continued in the South Pacific as it secured most of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands by mid-summer 1942. By that time, however, American forces had already established a significant presence in the area and were about to present their first direct challenge to Japanese expansion.

In the aftermath of the the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Fred Hubbard’s 182nd Infantry Regiment departed for Melbourne, Australia, on January 14, 1942, as part of US Task Force 6814. On March 6, the 182nd’s personnel broke camp and made their way to Melbourne’s docks, where they boarded ships for an unknown destination. Six days later, the Task Force landed in New Caledonia, a French colony 1,200 kilometres east of Brisbane, Australia. The island had been selected as a base for the United States South Pacific Fleet. Approximately 50,000 troops gathered there as American forces prepared for an offensive against Japanese-occupied territory north of Australia.

On May 27, 1942, Task Force 6814 was redesigned the “Americal Division”—a combination of the words “American” and “Caledonia”—and prepared for combat in the Japanese-occupied islands north of Australia.
The first step in the campaign occurred in early August 1942, when US Marines landed on the Solomon islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and launched the first American counterattack on Japanese forces in the Pacific theatre. While Japan responded with furious counter-attacks on its beach-heads, the US managed to establish a foothold on Guadalcanal.

Over the next several months, elements of the Americal Division made their way to Guadalcanal. The 182nd Regiment arrived on the island on November 12, 1942. The inexperienced soldiers now found themselves under regular Japanese aerial bombardment as the two sides jockeyed for control of the strategic island. US military hospital records indicate that Fred received treatment for a “penetrating” wound to his left arm caused by an artillery shell fragment shortly after arriving on the island. He was discharged to duty before year’s end.

It is not clear if Frank rejoined the 182nd in time for its first major assignment. In late December 1942, the unit participated in an assault on Japanese defensive positions atop the “Sea Horse” ridge, one of the island’s prominent geographical features. The persistent American effort to secure Guadalcanal eventually forced Japan to abandon the island in February 1943.

After helping secure Allied possession of Guadalcanal, the 182nd’s Americal Division was travelled to the Fiji Islands for training and defensive duties in early March 1943. Personnel established camp on the island of Viti Levu, where they remained for most of the year. In late December, the Division commenced a move to Bougainville Island.

Located at the northern tip of the Solomon archipelago, Bougainville was largely under the control of Japanese forces when the Americal Division arrived on the island. The 3rd Marine Division had established a beachhead at Cape Torokina, located in the centre of the island’s western coastline, in November 1943. The following month, the Americal’s units relieved the exhausted Marines and undertook the task of holding and expanding the right flank of the beach-head’s perimeter.

While Torokina was located on a coastal plain that extended along the island’s western coastline, a central mountain range containing several active, dormant and inactive volcanoes dominated much of the island’s topography. A dense tropical jungle covered the entire area. As a result, achieving Allied control over Bougainville was a slow and difficult process.

Recognizing Bougainville’s strategic location east of Papua New Guinea, Japanese forces were determined to eliminate any American presence on the island. Throughout the early months of 1944, military staff developed a plan and assembled the required resources for a major counter-attack. What became known as the “Battle of the Perimeter” commenced on March 9, 1944.

The Americal Division guarded the perimeter to the east of the beach-head, while the US 37th Infantry Division protected its western border. In the Americal sector, the 182nd Regiment occupied a central position between the 164th and 132nd Regiments. While Japanese forces initially seized control of Cannon Hill and Hill 700 to the north of the beach-head, 37th Division soldiers recaptured both locations on March 12, with the assistance of a bombardment from supporting US Navy destroyers.

Later that same day, Japanese forces launched a second Japanese attack in the 37th’s sector. Fighting continued into March 13 before Japanese forces were once again driven back. Two more attempts were made to penetrate the American perimeter on March 15 and 17, but both were successfully repelled. A final attack on the night of March 23/24 made some progress but was once again pushed back.

The final phase of the battle occurred on March 27, when the Americal Division’s soldiers pushed Japanese forces off Hill 260 in their sector. Having sustained heavy losses during the attacks, the Japanese withdrew the majority of their forces into the deep interior northern and southern ends of the island. Australian intelligence officials later estimated their losses in the fighting at 5,400 killed and 7,100 wounded. The fighting was the last Japanese ground offensive in the South Pacific region.

According to family sources, Staff Sergeant Frederick Leo Hubbard was protecting a young local boy caught in crossfire during the initial stage of the Battle of the Perimeter when he was wounded by enemy fire. Evacuated to military hospital, he died of wounds on March 11, 1944, the third day of fighting. A Purple Heart and Bronze Medal recipient, Fred was laid to rest in Fort William McKinley Cemetery, Manila, Philippines, after the war’s conclusion.

By the time of Fred’s death, his parents had returned to Clifton’s home community of Charlesville, Shelburne County. Clifton passed away there on January 20, 1949, at 74 years of age. His widow Cora remained in Charlesville, where her daughter, Sadie McComskey, was living. Cora passed away on May 6, 1960, at 79 years of age, and was laid to rest beside her husband in Green Grove Cemetery, Charlesville.

Special thanks to Dylan Hubbard, Boston, MA, great-grandson of Fred's brother George, who provided a picture of his great-great-uncle and contributed valuable information on the Hubbard family.