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Griffiths received the Silver Star during World War II in August of 1943 in Sicily.
"First Lieutenant Griffiths, with complete disregard for his personal safety, alternately ran and crawled across 1,000 yards of completely exposed terrain to the aid of an enlisted man at the battery observation post which was under heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire," the commendation states. "With mortars and artillery shells landing as near as 25 yards from his person, First Lieutenant Griffiths made his way to the battery observation post, assisted the enlisted man to an alternate OP position from which First Lieutenant Griffiths conducted an adjustment on and silenced the enemy battery which had been shelling the observation post."
He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on November 30, 1950 and reportedly died while a prisoner on August 31, 1951.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Sicily Campaign (1943)
From Month/Year
July / 1943
To Month/Year
August / 1943
Description (Sicily Campaign 9 July to 17 August 1943) In preparation for the invasion of Sicily the Allies captured the islands in the Sicilian strait, with aerial bombardment forcing the capitulation of Pantelleria on 11 June 1943. By that time Allied air power had begun the attack on Sicily by bombing defenses and airfields. The invasion itself got under way on the night of 9/10 July with airborne landings that were followed the next day by an amphibious assault. The enemy offered strong resistance, but the Allies had superiority in the air and soon had planes operating from Sicilian bases to support Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Patton’s Seventh.
Interdictory operations against communications in Italy and between Italy and Sicily convinced the enemy that it would be impossible to move strong reinforcements. By 17 August 1943 the Allies were in possession of the island, but they had not been able to prevent a German evacuation across the Strait of Messina.
