Albert Ellis Huss. Very little information about Albert Huss was found.  We know he lived in the Avondale, West Grove area when he joined the Navy during World War II. 

 

Albert served on the destroyer USS Shubrick DD-639.  The Shubrick was a destroyer of the Benson Livermore Class, constructed at Norfolk, and commissioned on February 7, 1943.

 

Albert’s ship was involved in Operation Husky, the landings at Sicily in June 1943, offering close gun fire support for our troops.  She was hit with a 500 pound bomb off Palermo in July and severely damaged, with 9 crewmen killed, and 20 wounded. After emergency repairs she limped back to the United States for permanent repairs.

Albert’s ship sailed for England to participate in “D-Day”, the landings at Normandy France in June 1944.  The Shubrick provided close gun fire support for the troops and patrolling for the entire month.

In September, his ship sailed back to the United States for an overhaul.  The Shubrick then served as convoy escort for ships embarked for Italy.  She then returned for more training, and transited the Panama Canal for the Pacific Theater in February 1945.

After additional training, Albert’s ship left Pearl Harbor in April to support the invasion of Okinawa in May.  The Shubrick served as radar picket duty, to warn of approaching kamikazes, Japanese suicide bombers whose pilots would crash them into our ships. Ships on Radar Picket Duty became prime targets of the kamikazes.  If the Japanese could sink these ships, then they could sneak in and attack the troop transports, aircraft carriers and other crucial ships.

On May 29, 1945, two kamikazes attacked Albert’s ship.  The ship shot down the first, but the other, a twin engine bomber hit the ship in the starboard (right) quarter (rear).  The combination of the crashed plane and its bomb, opened up a 30 foot hole in the ship, exposed to the sea. The Shubrick did survive, but barely, and only due to the heroic efforts of the crew.  35 crew members were killed, or were missing and 25 injured.  Albert was one of the crew members missing.

Seaman Second Class Albert E. Huss was Killed In Action on May 29, 1946 when the second kamikaze struck his vessel off Okinawa.

He is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Oahu,  Hawaii.