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name
WALLOW, Franklin Otto - Date of
birth
4 March 1921 -
Age
23 - Place of
birth
Marenisco, Gogebic County, Michigan -
Hometown
Ontonagon County, Michigan
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
36408717 -
Rank
Corporal -
Function
unknown -
Unit
B Company,
52nd Armored Infantry Battalion,
9th Armored Division
-
Awards
Bronze Star,
Purple Heart
Death
-
Status
Missing in Action - Date of
death
24 December 1944 - Place of
death
Rue de Neufchâteau 19
Bastogne, Belgium
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes - Tablets of the Missing
Immediate family
-
Members
Otto Wallow (father)
Margaret (Bauer) Wallow (mother)
Donald Wallow (brother)
George Wallow (brother)
Marie Wallow (sister)
Dorothy Wallow (sister)
Jerome Wallow (brother)
Janice Wallow (sister)
More information
Cpl Franklin O. Wallow enlisted on 9 November 1942 in Marquette, Michigan. He had trained at Ft. Riley, Kansas, desert maneuvers at Texas and he was sent to Luxembourg from Camp Polk, La. He also was in Germany and Belgium. Previous to the service, he resided in Ontonagon where he was employed.Per Dr. Jack T. Prior: "At 8:30 p.m. Christmas Eve, as I was about to step out the door for the hospital I heard the screeching sound of the first bomb. I ran outside to discover that the three-story apartment serving as my hospital was a flaming pile of debris about six feet high. The night was brighter than day from the magnesium flares the German bomber pilot had dropped. Our team headquarters about a block away also received a direct hit and was soon in flames.
I estimated that about twenty injured soldiers were killed in this bombing along with Renee Lemaire."
The incident was mentioned on page 156 of S.L.A. Marshall's book Bastogne: The First Eight Days: "That night the town was bombed twice. During the first raid, in the late evening, a bomb landed on the hospital of the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion near the intersection of the main roads from ArIon and Neufchâteau. It caved in the roof, burying 20 patients and killing a Belgian woman, Renée Lemaire, who was serving as a nurse."
A plaque on the wall of the building at the spot where this aid station was situated, remembers this tragic event.
Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, Astrid van Erp, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com, www.geni.com, Ironwood Daily Globe - 20 September 1945, Army Enlistment Record, Keilygedcom Family Tree, WWII Draft Card
Photo source: Astrid van Erp