Ellis Bailey Gregg III

First Lieutenant Ellis Bailey Gregg III was killed in action on August 1, 1944 in the battle to take Tinian Island during World War II.  He was 24 years old.

Ellis Bailey Gregg III was born on July 11, 1920 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Daniel B. Gregg and Rebecca H. Gregg.  He graduated from high school in Milford, Ohio and from DePauw University.  By 1944, his family had moved to Henderson, North Carolina.

1st Lt. Gregg enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and trained at Quantico, Virginia; Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Camp Pendleton, California.  He was deployed to the Pacific Theater of War serving in the 4th Division, U. S. Marine Corps.

The 4th Marine Division shipped out on January 13, 1944, and made major amphibious assaults, in the battles of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands (January 31-February 3),  and Saipan (June 15-July 9) and Tinian (July 24-August 1) in the Mariana Islands sustaining heavy casualties.

The 4th Marine Division landed on Tinian on  July 24, 1944 supported by naval bombardment and the guns of the XXIV Corps Artillery firing across the strait from Saipan which had been captured July 9. They landed on the northwest coast, where there were two small beaches that were lightly defended. These beaches were flanked by low coral cliffs that the marines were able to surmount with the aid of ramps mounted on modified amphibious tractors. A successful feint in the southwest by the 2nd Marine Division distracted defenders from the actual landing site on the north of the island. The 2nd Marine Division then landed behind the 4th Marine Division. The weather worsened on July 28 damaging the pontoon causeways and interrupting the unloading of supplies, but on July 30 the 4th Marine Division occupied Tinian Town and the airfield. Japanese remnants conducted a last stand in the caves and ravines of a limestone ridge on the south portion of the island. Although the island was declared secure on 1 August, mopping up patrols continued into 1945.  1st Lt. Gregg was killed in action on August 1, 1944.

Tinian became an important base for further US operations in the Pacific. North Field became operational in February 1945 and West Field in March. The Seabees built six 8,500-foot (2,600 m) runways for the Twentieth Air Force's Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers. Bombers based on Tinian took part in the bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 that ended the war in the Pacific.

First Lieutenant Ellis Bailey Gregg III is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Last edited: 26 May 2026