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    George E. Pancratz was aboard the SS Bushrod Washington on September 15, 1943 when the ship was bombed and destroyed. At 1332, while anchored in the Gulf of Salerno, a radio guided aerial bomb was dropped by a German plane. The bomb struck the port side of the ship on the boat deck and penetrated through the crew’s mess and exploded in the ice machine room below the main deck. An explosion blew a hole in the port side of the hull and blew out the bulkhead between the ice machine room and the engine room. Gasoline in #4 caught fire and set the entire engine ship ablaze. The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship at 1352. The survivors were picked up by landing barges that landed on the beach of Salerno. The ship burned until 0300 and only the stern was visible when last seen by surviviors. George E. Pancratz was not one of the survivors.