Seaman 2nd Class Abe Griffiths was born on August 5, 1923 in Milford, Beaver, Utah. His parents were Morgan Griffiths and Sarah Alice Heslington. He had two older sisters and three older brothers (one brother and two sisters died as children), a twin sister, and a younger brother. His father was a deliveryman for a grocery store.

Abe graduated from Milford High School and enlisted in the US Navy on January 28, 1942. He attended basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois, then was assigned overseas aboard the USS Savannah, a Brooklyn-class light cruiser.

The Savannah was assigned to take part in Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Salerno, Italy in September 1943. Her guns were the first Allied weapons to open fire on the Italian shore defenses. On September 11, while she was supporting Allied landing operations, a German Dornier Do-217 K2 bomber released a long-range gravity bomb which bomb struck her No. 3 turret, penetrating three decks before detonating in an ammunition holding room. Repeated explosions from the ammunition and the damaged turret made firefighting virtually impossible for nearly a half-hour, and though the Savannah stayed afloat, a total of 197 crew members were killed before the damage could be contained. S2c Griffiths was among them.

S2c Griffiths was interred at the Milford City Cemetery. He was survived by his parents and remaining siblings.

Thank you, S2c Griffiths, for your courageous service and sacrifice.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

The author would like to express appreciation for the following sources of information used in writing this story:

NewspaperArchive.com

Ancestry.com

FamilySearch.org

FindAGrave.com

Fold3.com