Charles Beacom Church

Staff Sergeant Charles Beacom Church was killed in action on July 2, 1944, when the Liberty ship S. S. Jean Nicolet was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean approximately 700 miles south of Ceylon.  He was 33 years old.

Charles Beacom Church was born on January 28, 1911 in Henderson, North, the son of Charles Benedict Church and Myrtle Amos Church.  He attended Bamberg Military School and Wofford College.  He married Julia Seitz in 1940. They resided in Baltimore where he was employed as an accountant for the Oriole Coin Machine Corp. and subsequently for a construction company.

SSgt Church enlisted in the Army on March 24, 1943. After training at Camp Lee and Washington War College, he was assigned to a special mission in the China-Burma-India theater of war serving as a Staff Sergeant, Quartermaster Corps, U.S. Army.

SSgt Church was a passenger on the Liberty ship S.S. Jean Nicolet which departed from San Pedro, California, on May 12, 1944 enroute to Colombo, Ceylon.  On board was a complement of 100 men consisting of 41 merchant crew, 28 Naval Armed Guards and 31 passengers. The passenger list was made up of six U.S. Army officers, 12 U.S. Army enlisted men, eight Navy technicians, four civilians, and one U.S. Army medical corpsman.

Approximately 700 miles south of Ceylon the S.S.Nicolet was struck by two torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-8. Because of the ship's listing the Master (Captain), David Martin Nilsson, ordered everyone to "abandon ship" which it is believed everyone did safely. Soon after the ship was abandoned, I-8 surfaced. As it was dark, I-8 used a powerful searchlight to locate the boats and rafts. The survivors were threatened with machine guns and ordered to come alongside by a Japanese speaking perfect English. Some men on one raft slipped over the side into the water to hide but were seen and ordered to get back on the raft. Then they were ordered to swim to the sub. Five others, who were on the side away from the sub, were not discovered. Approximately 75 of the Nicolet complement then boarded the submarine.

As each of the other survivors boarded I-8, they were immediately roughed up, searched, had life jackets removed and had all their valuables, shoes, and I.D. tags taken from them. Then they were bound with their arms behind their backs with rope or wire. They were forced to sit on deck with their heads bowed on their knees. Anyone who raised his head or made a noise of any kind was beaten with iron pipes and cut with bayonets. 

A gauntlet consisting of 10 to 15 crew members of I-8 was formed on the after deck behind the conning tower. Those held on the fore deck could not see what was happening. They could, however, hear the screams of the men who were forced to go through the gauntlet. Those forming the gauntlet were armed with steel stanchions, bayonets, and rifles. Waiting at the end was a large Japanese holding a rifle with a fixed bayonet in both hands. If any man survived to the end of the gauntlet, he was impaled on the bayonet of this man and his body heaved overboard.

Those sitting on the fore deck, unaware of what was happening on the after deck, were led one by one to the slaughter until there were about 30 men left alive on deck. At this time, the diving siren sounded and crew members of I-8 were ordered below. An aircraft had been reported on the sub's radar heading in the direction of the submarine. Those left on deck with their hands tied behind their backs were left to drown. Seventeen of these men drowned or were killed by sharks. The remaining 13 men survived by swimming all night, some with their hands still tied. Others were able to get free by themselves or were freed by a Navy Armed Guard seaman who had concealed a knife in his blouse. He cut as many free as he could as the sub went under. SSgt Church was among those who died in the incident.

Staff Sergeant Charles Beacom Church is memorialized by a cenotaph in Elmwood Cemetery, Henderson, North Carolina and on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. 

Last edited: 13 May 2026