August 12, 1944: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Is Killed In Action

August 12, 1944: Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Navy, is killed in action in World War II. His father's plans for him died with him.

Joseph P. Kennedy planned to become the 1st Catholic President of the United States. He planned for his children to follow him into public service. Certainly, he expected it of his eldest son and namesake, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr., born on July 25, 1915, outside Boston in Hull, Massachusetts.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Joe Sr. to be the U.S. Ambassador to Britain. He brought his wife Rose and their 9 children with them. The older ones seemed to revel in the attention. But in 1940, with Nazi Germany bombing London, Joe Sr. made some remarks about how the Germans were superior to the British, and that, instead of joining the war against them, America should make peace instead.

He added, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here." That was it: The nation as a whole turned on Kennedy for that statement, much as a similar statement killed the political career of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh the following year. Whatever chance he had to become President -- and it wasn't much, since he had never even entered an election -- was gone. But one of his sons could make it.

By that point, Joe Jr. had graduated from Harvard Law School, and, while in London, took courses at the London School of Economics. He had dated a socialite, Athalia Ponsell, who would later become an early TV game show personality, but rumors of an engagement between them appear to have been exaggerated.

In 1940, he had been a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago -- but had notably cast his vote for Postmaster General James Farley, not for FDR. In spite of their growing rift, Joe Sr. made a deal with FDR: The Kennedys would support him for re-election, if FDR would support Joe Jr. for Governor of Massachusetts in 1942.

The U.S. entry into World War II made a campaign for Governor impossible. Joe Jr., and his younger brothers John and Robert -- a.k.a. Jack and Bobby, respectively -- enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Joe Jr. trained as a pilot, and made plans to run for the U.S. House of Representatives when the war ended. On July 1, 1944, he was promoted to the rank of full Lieutenant, and had completed 25 combat missions. He was now eligible to return Stateside.

But Jack's heroism in the Pacific Theater of the war stirred something within Joe. him. He had done his duty, but he thought a future President needed a story. And being the brother of a genuine war hero wasn't enough. The idea that the skinny, often sickly, introverted and somewhat nerdy Jack could be President, rather than the handsome, athletic, extroverted Joe, was then considered ridiculous. But now, Jack had the story, and Joe didn't.

He volunteered for Operation Anvil: The use of B-24 Liberator bombers -- the Army's version, Operation Aphrodite, used the B-17 Flying Fortress -- that were converted into flying bombs and deliberately crashed into their targets under radio control from an accompanying bomber. They were to be used for precision attacks on well-protected targets. These "drone" aircraft could not take off safely on their own, and so a crew of two would take off, and fly to 2,000 feet before they activated the remote control system, armed the detonators, and parachuted from the aircraft.

Joe and his co-pilot, Lieutenant Wilford Willy, flew a Liberator for the Navy's first Aphrodite mission. Initially, two Lockheed Ventura "mother planes" and a B-17 navigation plane took off from RAF Fersfield, in Norfolk, England at 1800 hours (6:00 PM, local time) on Saturday, August 12, 1944. Then the BQ-8 aircraft, loaded with 21,170 pounds of Torpex explosive, took off to be used against the suspected rocket development site at Moyecques, France. V-2 rockets had taken off from there, and it was suspected that a cannon, to be known as the V-3 and capable of reaching London from across the English Channel, was in development there.

(Although the D-Day invasion had happened 2 months earlier, allied troops had not yet reached Moyecques. As it turned out, while the V-3 was used on Allied targets in the Battle of the Bulge later in 1944, the ones that were pointed toward London were destroyed by Allied bombings before they could be used -- just not this Allied bombing.)

Following Kennedy and Willy in a U.S. Army Air Force photo-reconnaissance F-8 Mosquito, to film the mission, were a pilot, Lieutenant Robert A. Tunnel; and a combat cameraman, Lieutenant David J. McCarthy. As planned, Kennedy and Willy remained aboard as the B-24 completed its first remote-controlled turn at 2,000 feet, near the North Sea coast. They removed the safety pin, arming the explosive package, and Kennedy radioed the agreed code, his last known words: "Spade Flush."

Two minutes later, and well before the planned crew bailout near RAF Manston in Kent, the explosives detonated prematurely, destroying the Liberator, and killing Kennedy and Willy instantly. Joe Kennedy Jr. was 29 years old; Wilford Willy, 35. None of their remains was ever recovered.

Joe Kennedy Sr. spent the rest of his life blaming FDR for the death of Joe Jr.: "That son of a bitch, he killed my boy!" It seems not to have occurred to Joe Sr. to blame the man who started the war, Adolf Hitler.

Joe Sr. knew that his chance of being President, and Joe Jr.'s chance, were both gone. Now, he moved the hopes to the 2nd son. In 1946, Jack was elected to the House seat that Joe Jr. had planned on running for. While running, he was touted as a war hero. When asked how it happened, Jack, who didn't have a planned answer, blurted out, "It was involuntary: They sank my boat." As I said, he had the story.

That House seat had once been held by their grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, a.k.a. Honey Fitz, Rose's father, who had also been a popular Mayor of Boston. Honey Fitz lived to see it, dying in 1950. In 1952, Jack was elected to the Senate. In 1956, he was considered for the Democratic Party's nomination for Vice President at their Convention, under the Presidential nomination of former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, but he saw that Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee was more popular, and bowed out.

By the time Jack ran for President in 1960, he had overcome his introversion, and embraced his inner politician. After all, both of his grandfathers had been in politics. (Joe Sr.'s son, Patrick J. Kennedy, had served in both houses of the Massachusetts legislature.) He enlisted the help of Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., and it proved invaluable in the Primaries. (Apparently, old Joe didn't extend his grudge to FDR Jr.) Jack won, achieving his father's dream, if not his own.

But at one of the congratulatory dinners, Jack made an interesting point. He said that, like him, Joe would have won the House race in 1946, and the Senate race in 1952. Like him, Joe would have married a glamourous young lady. And, like him, Joe would have been considered for Vice President in 1956.

But Jack suggested that Joe would have gotten the nomination, and then, the Stevenson-Kennedy ticket would have lost to incumbent Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon as badly as they actually did, and Joe, because of his religion, would have gotten some of the blame. And that would have eliminated not just Joe, but also Jack, Bobby and Ted, that entire generation, of male Kennedys for Presidential consideration thereafter.

Instead, not tied to Stevenson's defeat, Jack was a viable candidate in 1960, and became the 1st Catholic President. And yet, despite prejudice against Catholics having almost disappeared in America, there would not be another Catholic President until Joe Biden was elected in 2020. Indeed, there wasn't even another Catholic Presidential nominee until the Democrats nominated John Kerry in 2004. But, for all the Catholic candidates who ran in the interim, their faith was hardly considered an issue at all.

Jack became one of the nation's most beloved Presidents, before his assassination. Bobby would be his Attorney General, then a U.S. Senator from New York, and a candidate for President himself in 1968, but he, too, was assassinated. Ted would be elected to Jack's Senate seat, and ran for President in 1980, but fell short.

Members of the next generation of the Kennedy family would achieve public office. Bobby's son Joe and Ted's son Patrick were elected to the House, from Massachusetts (the seat held by JFK and Honey Fitz, and Speaker Tip O'Neill) and Rhode Island, respectively. Ted Jr. was elected to the State Senate in Connecticut. Bobby's daughter Kathleen Townsend and Eunice's sons Mark and Tim Shriver would be elected to the State legislature, all in Maryland. In the next generation, Bobby's grandson Joe has served in the House from Massachusetts, although not in the same seat.

But Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died in World War II. He never ran for office. He never married or had children. And he never sat for an interview on television. As a result, he is something of a "lost" Kennedy: What he would have become, we can only guess. Maybe his brother Jack was wrong, and Joe could have become what Jack became: The 35th President of the United States.

Perhaps it all worked out for the best: Jack, with Bobby advising him, got the world through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Would Joe, with Jack as his chief adviser, have been able to? There's no way to know.

*

August 12, 1944 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 8-3 at Yankee Stadium. Browns 1st baseman George McQuinn hit 2 home runs. The Browns went on to win the American League Pennant, for the only time in their history, before moving in 1954 to become the Baltimore Orioles. McQuinn would help the Yankees win the 1947 World Series.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Max Butcher pitched a 6-hit shutout. Mel Ott, manager of the Giants while still one of the National League's top sluggers, did not put himself into the game.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Red Lynn pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 12-5 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Braves, 5-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Ray Mueller singled Dean Clay home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Dick Barrett pitched a 4-hit shutout. Stan Musial went 2-for-4, and only ended up missing the 1945 season in war service.