Peru Historical Society

PFC Aloysius “AJ” Przybyla and the Battle of Angaur

When Aloysius “AJ” Przybyla left Peru, Illinois, for the United States Army in January 1943, he followed three older brothers who were already serving their country. Less than two years later, he would lose his life on a remote Pacific island while helping clear the way for his fellow soldiers.

He was only 21 years old.

Growing up in Peru

Aloysius J. Przybyla was born in Peru on 30 April 1923, the son of Anton and Agatha Przybyla. His parents were Polish immigrants who married in LaSalle County in 1896 and built a large family together. Anton and Agatha had at least thirteen children, although they endured the loss of at least two of them to illness before Aloysius was born. Aloysius, also known as AJ, was their second-youngest child.

The family lived at 508 East Seventh Street in Peru, in a home Anton and Agatha had purchased many years before AJ’s birth. Anton supported the family through his work at the Illinois Zinc Company, one of Peru’s major industries at the time.

AJ attended St. Valentine’s parochial school and was a member of St. Valentine’s Catholic Church. He entered LaSalle-Peru Township High School as a freshman in 1938 and graduated with the Class of 1942. Shortly before entering the Army, he also became a member of the Knights of St. Florian, a local Catholic fraternal society.

By the time AJ graduated, war had already begun to draw his older brothers far from Peru.

Joseph Przybyla had enlisted in the Army in early 1929 and was serving as a sergeant in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Anton F. Przybyla enlisted only a few days after the United States declared war on Japan. Assigned to the Army Air Forces, he was sent first to California and later to England. Another brother, Stanley E. Przybyla, enlisted in early 1942 and, following basic training, was sent to Hawaii with an ordnance unit.

That left AJ as the youngest—and only—son still living at home.

On 30 June 1942, two months after his nineteenth birthday, AJ registered for the draft. His registration described him as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 148 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time, he was employed by the George Sollitt Construction Company in Seneca, Illinois.

Leaving for war

On 20 January 1943, Aloysius was inducted into the United States Army. He reported for active duty one week later and was initially sent to Scott Field in Illinois.

By August, he was at Camp Horn in Arizona, assigned to Headquarters Company, Second Battalion, 322nd Infantry Regiment, part of the 81st Infantry Division. Known as the “Wildcat Division,” the 81st had adopted the image of a black wildcat as its shoulder insignia and the motto “Wildcats Never Quit.”

The months that followed were filled with training and movement. In November 1943, the division transferred to Camp San Luis Obispo, situated along the California coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In April 1944, it moved again, this time to Camp Beale, where the men prepared for deployment overseas.

On 29 June 1944, the 322nd Infantry departed San Francisco for Hawaii. For AJ, the stop in the islands brought an extraordinary opportunity: while on Oahu, he was able to meet his brother Stanley, who had recently joined the 481st Amphibian Truck Company at Fort Hase.

The reunion must have been especially meaningful. Two sons of Anton and Agatha Przybyla—raised together in the family home on Seventh Street—had found one another thousands of miles from Peru, each preparing for his own part in the Pacific war.

It would be the last time the brothers met.

The Wildcats Go Ashore

From Hawaii, AJ’s unit proceeded to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The island had been the site of one of the war’s most important early campaigns, but by 1944 it also served as a staging and training area for American forces moving farther across the Pacific. There, the men of the 81st Division conducted maneuvers and practiced amphibious landings in preparation for combat.

Their destination was Angaur, a small coral island in the Palau group. Only about three miles long, Angaur was part of the American advance toward the Philippines. Its capture would deny the island to Japan and provide the United States with ground for an airfield.

The battle began on 17 September 1944. The 322nd Regimental Combat Team landed on beaches along the northern and northeastern portion of Angaur, while the 321st landed farther south. AJ went ashore with the 322nd.

Although the initial landings met comparatively limited resistance, the battle soon changed. Japanese troops had constructed concealed positions, bunkers and caves in Angaur’s rugged coral terrain. Rather than attempting to stop the Americans at the water’s edge, many defenders waited inland, where they could fire from protected positions and withdraw into an interconnected network of caves.

The heaviest fighting centered on a broken area of ridges, caves and cliffs in northwestern Angaur. American soldiers called part of it “the Bowl.” The terrain provided hiding places for snipers and made every advance dangerous. Even after the principal objectives had been captured and Angaur was officially declared secure, Japanese soldiers continued to resist from isolated caves and concealed positions. The 322nd Infantry consequently remained engaged in deadly patrols and demolition work through much of October.

The Army’s official campaign history records that organized resistance on Angaur continued until October 21. The 81st Division’s own operation report covers fighting through October 22. The struggle was therefore not over when AJ received the Combat Infantryman Badge on October 1 or when he was promoted to private first class on October 10.

“It Was Necessary to Go into This Area”

On 12 October 1944, PFC Przybyla took part in an operation along Angaur’s northern shore. Intermittent sniper fire had been reported throughout the day, but an enemy-held cave was obstructing the American advance. The position had to be destroyed.

AJ went forward as a member of the patrol assigned to place explosives at the cave entrance.

A wartime account later explained what happened:

“It was necessary to go into this area to blow a cave that had given the enemy cover and had stopped our troops from advancing. After placing the explosive, while moving back, PFC Przybyla was shot in the stomach by sniper fire.”

Another official account provided further details:

“On October 12, 1944, our forces were closing in against the final Japanese stronghold on Angaur. Enemy rifle fire from a jagged ridge line had stopped our advance. It was necessary for a patrol to work forward and demolish a cave which was the center of enemy resistance in the sector. Pfc Aloysius J. Przybyla was a member of this patrol which succeeded in placing its demolition charges at the cave entrance but was taken under fire shortly after.”

The patrol accomplished its mission, but AJ was seriously wounded. His fellow soldiers evacuated him first to an aid station and then directly to a field hospital.

Despite the efforts to save him, PFC Aloysius J. Przybyla died of his wounds on 15 October 1944. He had celebrated his twenty-first birthday less than six months earlier.

A Son of Peru at Rest in Manila

AJ was initially buried on Angaur, near the ground for which he and his fellow Wildcats had fought. After the war, his remains were moved to the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. He now rests in Plot A, Row 2, Grave 128 with his name listed as Pryzbyla on the American Battle Monuments Commission website.

In time, the Army sent AJ’s personal belongings to his mother. They were the ordinary possessions of a young soldier: a billfold, photographs, a prayer book, an address book, a money belt, a fountain pen, a compass, dog tags, and a pocketknife.

Individually, they were simple objects. Together, they represented what remained of a life interrupted—a recent high school graduate, a construction worker, a parishioner, a younger brother, and the last son still living at home when the Army called him away.

His military service was recognized with the Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal and Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. The latter bore a bronze service star for his participation in the Mandated Islands campaign and a bronze arrowhead recognizing his participation in an amphibious assault landing.

By 1946, Agatha had endured the loss of children in both peace and war and finally her husband Anton who died that year from cancer.

To see surviving wartime footage and learn more about the fighting, view the U.S. Army film “Action at Angaur”.

Sources:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56771316/aloysius-j-pryzbyla