Sergeant John Blackshear Hancock

Pfc. Jack Hancock

Sergeant John Blackshear Hancock was born on November 30, 1913 in Boston, Georgia to John Hancock Sr. and his mother Mamie. Sgt. Hancock had three sisters and a brother. His father was a fruit picker at a citrus grove and his mother was a canner at the local factory in Auburndale, Florida at the time of the 1930 census. In addition to going to school, Sgt. Hancock was also a laborer at a packing house during high school.[1] By the time of the 1940 census, Sgt. Hancock had graduated high school and married Edna Peach Hancock. He graduated high school in Auburndale in the graduating class of 1937.[2] As of 1940, he was working as a manager at an A & P Store in Haines City, Florida.[3]

            Sgt. John Hancock was requested to appear for a physical examination by the United States government in mid-November of 1943.[4] A couple months later on May 1, 1943, Sgt. Hancock received his order to report to induction in the military for training and service after.[5] Sgt. Hancock trained at Macon, Georgia during which he was allowed to take a couple weekends off to visit his wife in Florida.[6] After training, Sgt. Hancock was assigned to the 179^th Infantry Regiment in the 45^th Infantry Division and was told to report to Camp Blanding, Florida located near southern Jacksonville, then on to Camp Wheeler in Georgia. Other servicemen nicknamed the unit the “Tomahawks” due to the distinct patch worn on the Division’s uniforms that was a blue coat of arms with white, crossed tomahawks. They were the National Guard unit of Oklahoma before deployment under the motto “In Omina Paratus,” meaning “In All Things Prepared.” They would be one of four National Guard units deployed to active service in the Second World War.[7]

            The U.S. Army deployed the 45^th Division to help with the African Campaign and landed in Africa on Thanksgiving Day of 1943. Eventually, Sgt. Hancock was involved in Operation Arrowhead, the name of the beach landings in Sicily. Sgt. Hancock’s division was one of the divisions that left Africa from Algeria to land in Southern Sicily. There was much action for the 45^th Division in the Sicily campaign, as they battled for control of Scogletti in the opening days. As they marched northwest across Sicily, General Patton took control of the 45^th Division in an effort to take the fortified city of Palermo. This famous battle many allegations of the 45^th treating their captured Axis soldiers excessively rough, eventually leading to two soldiers being court martialed when suspected of murdering the 45^th’s POWs. The result of the court martial led to the acquittal of both soldiers.[8] The battles in Sicily had gone on all throughout the summer of 1943 into mid-August.

Around Christmas, Sgt. Hancock sent two telegrams to Edna saying he was safe and that she should not worry on December 9^th, then one saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year closer to the holidays.[9] After taking over Sicily, Sgt. Hancock and the 45^th Division were off to the Anzio beach landings on the Italian peninsula in January of 1944. Enemy forces injured Sgt. Hancock on February 12, 1944 in battle in Italy. Medics took him to a hospital and sent his wife a telegram saying the injury was not serious. He would receive the Purple Heart for this wound. Shortly after, mail arrived describing Sgt. Hancock’s return to active duty.[10] During the war, Sgt. Hancock wrote to his wife when he could, often sending personal day-to-day journal entries describing what he did that day. It was typically lots of marching, with interspersed accounts of who died in battle that day as well as where church was held that Sunday.[11] In addition, he managed to send over a gift of different colored fabrics, making sure Edna knew that the blue one was hers, unless she decided she liked the others better and instead give it to his mother.[12] When the 45^th Division got to Rome after a year of combat, Sgt. Hancock managed to send home a couple personal photographs so that his wife could see what he was seeing. In addition, he sent back souvenirs he collected including German and Italian money copies, letters of safe conduct the Germans used to surrender, and even an Easter card wishing for peace and love.[13]

Eventually, the 45^th made its way through Italy and into Southern France. A local Florida newspaper got ahold of him and he managed to tell them that his commanders awarded him the Infantry Combat Medal and the Goo Conduct ribbon for his actions with the division in battle.[14] Later that year, the same paper asked him how he was liking France. Sgt. Hancock responded he “liked it fine, it being the most similar to the States.” He also said they were always on the go, marching and fighting.[15] On November 1, 1944, Sgt. Hancock went missing in action. The day before, on October 31^st, he had written home saying he had made the rank of corporal.[16] The War Department later declared that enemy forces killed Sgt. Hancock somewhere in France on November 1, 1944. During the spring of 1945, the War Department informed Edna of Sgt. Hancock’s burial in Epinal Cemetery in Epinal, France and his award of the Purple Heart posthumously.[17] In addition, the 179^th Infantry Regiment sent a sympathy letter informing her of their support of Sgt. Hancock. The chaplain wrote her as well, telling her he personally knew Sgt. Hancock and buried him with a formal military burial by his friends in a beautiful cemetery in France.[18]

In May of 1945, Sgt. Hancock's obituaries were officially in the papers of Auburndale, Florida. They detailed his time in the army, and the family he left behind. His family, friends, and wife later held his burial service on September 2, 1945 in the Baptist church that he attended before the war.[19]