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SEAMAN FIRST CLASS PAUL
JACKSON HAGEMANN was born in August of 1921 to Albert C. and Elsie
Hagemann Jr., of 3015 River
Avenue, Camden NJ. His father and his
grandfather worked in the wholesale fish and oyster trade. His
grandfather, Albert C. Hagemann Sr., had been a principal in an oyster
business as far back as 1890 in Philadelphia, before coming to New
Jersey to settle in Merchantville. Paul Jackson Hagemann, known to
friends and family as Jack, was the third of 6 children, coming after
George W. and Albert C. III, and before Elsie A., Ernest C., and Fred W.
Hagemann. The Hagemann family had moved to Delaware Township (now Cherry
Hill) NJ by 1930. His parents had parted ways prior to World War II, and
Elsie Hagemann her son Paul, and the younger children had moved back to
3001 River
Avenue, where Elsie Hagemann operated a coal business, with
assistance from her sons. After
working for the RCA-Victor Corporation in Camden, Paul Jackson Hagemann enlisted in the Navy in January of 1942. He served as a
member of the naval Armed Guard that manned the guns on merchant
shipping in the North Atlantic. During his time in service, he made
trips across the North Atlantic to the British Isles, to North Africa,
and the dangerous Murmansk run past Nazi occupied Norway to Murmansk,
Russia. Seaman First
Class Paul Jackson Hagemann was declared missing in action on June 20,
1943. He was serving aboard the
freighter SS Santa Maria. on June 20, 1943. At 0816 GCT on June 20,
1943, while enroute from Dakar in French West Africa with a cargo of
sisal hemp, the SS Santa Maria struck a mine. Paul Hagemann was
one of two Armed Guards
stationed on the bow when the ship hit the mine and both were blown
overboard. One was rescued but Seaman First Class Hagemann was lost. He
is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at North Africa American Cemetery
in Carthage, Tunisia. Paul
Jackson Hagemann was survived by his father, Albert C. Hagemann Jr., of
Merchantville NJ, his mother Elsie Hagemann, of 3001 River
Avenue, Camden
NJ, and his sister and brothers. |
