Drew Wilborn

On the 10th of July 1943, Ensign William F. E. Nadeau aboard USS Quincy was killed when his ship was sunk by a mine under Allied bombing raids in North Africa. The ship had survived as long as it did because of skipper John J. McLaughlin. McLaughlin served aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt as its Weapons Officer for 25 years before he was shot and killed by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel on a reconnaissance trip after Dunkirk in 1941.

MacLaughlin’s murder marked the death of one of the most talented officers Navy personnel ever to serve in that part of the United States Armed Forces. McLaughlin is remembered in our nation’s history for his professionalism, fortitude, and faithfulness to duty. He brought to the people of the United States a certain type of officer that other commissioned officers in civilian life were only beginning to learn about.

Emissaries to Nadeau: A Chronology of Naval Officers Killed in World War II

William F. E. Nadeau 1745-1887

(ca. 1745-1887) - The son of English naturalists and surveyors, Nadeau was born on December 14, 1745 at Chicksand in Wiltshire, England. During the American Revolution, he lived in Pennsylvania but was raised in France as a Roman Catholic of Eastern European birth.

The Royal Welsh Regiment in England, U. S. Navy

In 1772, he was named to the 2nd Royal Welsh Rifles and was sent to fight with William III of Prussia in the defense of Berlin. After seven months of battle, Nadeau became severely wounded in a trench attack and was left with a broken leg. His wound also left him temporarily blind. At last he came into the British lines at war’s end and spent a year in surgery tending to the injured.

Commissioned aboard the Commodore Vernon, U. S. Navy

From 1781 to 1782, Nadeau went to sea as a Lieutenant of the Black Prince, Royal Navy. In 1782, he was employed as a midshipman on board the USS Virginia, then commanded by Admiral Edward Preble.