Harold L. Sandford was born in 1918 in New Hampshire, the son of Francis X. Sandford and Eleanor L. Sandford. He resided in Rockingham County, New Hampshire prior to the war. He enlisted in the Army on August 14, 1941, prior to the war, at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed as a Retail manager and also as Single, without dependents.

Harold served as a Private, 3206th Quartermaster Service Company, U.S. Army during World War II. He was aboard the USS LST 531 and was killed during the Exercise Tiger--one of the large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This took place in April 1944 in Slapton Sands, Devon in the UK. An Allied naval convoy involved in the exercise was attacked by German submarines, and coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths. At least 749 American servicemen were killed. Because of the impending invasion of Normandy, the incident was highly classified and the full story did not come out until years later after the war. PVT Sandford was declared "Missing in Action" on April 28, 1944 and his name is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom. He also has a cenotaph located in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov