Marine Raider’s remains identified 80 years after being killed in action
Marie TimariuThe Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on March 4 that Marine Raider Pfc. Norton Retzsch, 25, had been accounted for on April 1, 2025 — thanks, in part, to 20-year-old DNA submitted to the military in 2006.
Kim Opitz, Retzsch’s great-niece, a freelance writer who lives in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, told Kare 11 News that her “mother never, never let us forget about him.”
Retzsch, a member of Company C, 1st Marine Raider Battalion, 1st Marine Raider Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Amphibious Corps, was first reported missing in action on July 9, 1943, during the Battle of Enogai on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
The New Georgia campaign, dubbed Operation Toenails, was led by Rear Adm. Richmond Turner, with amphibious forces landing at various points on New Georgia on June 30, 1943, beginning a campaign that lasted until the Japanese evacuated Vella Lavella on Oct. 7.
To “avenge” her husband’s death, Margaret Retzsch, who had married the Marine Raider just after his enlistment, joined Marine Corps Women’s Reserve and was honorably discharged as a sergeant post-war. (USMC)On July 9, Company C came under intense Japanese fire as they rushed toward enemy positions. In his post-war account, “Bloody Ridge and Beyond,” Marine Corps veteran Marlin Groft wrote, “All hell broke loose up front. C Company had blundered into a prepared killing field of Nambu machine gun nests, aided by snipers cleverly concealed in the surrounding trees.”
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Source: Military Times
Website: www.militarytimes.com
