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Personal info

Full name
HEFT, Franklin B
Date of birth
14 April 1922
Age
22
Place of birth
Henry County, Ohio
Hometown
Wayne County, Michigan

Military service

Service number
36573470
Rank
Private First Class
Function
unknown
Unit
I Company,
3rd Battalion,
378th Infantry Regiment,
95th Infantry Division
Awards
Silver Star,
Bronze Star,
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Missing in Action
Date of death
18 November 1944
Place of death
Pont du Sauvage
Longeville-lès-Metz, France

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Lorraine
Tablets of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Grant Heft (father)
Lydia I. (Crosser) Heft (mother)
Grant Heft (brother)
Dorothea J. (Morrison) Heft (wife)

More information

Franklin Heft graduated from Southwestern High School.

He enlisted in February 1942 and was overseas for two months when he was killed.

On the order of General Kittel, on the morning of 18 November 1944, the Pont du Sauvage was blown up at the moment men of I Company began to cross it. Fifteen men were killed.

For his action that day, Pfc Heft was awarded the Silver Star Medal posthumously.

Together with the other killed members of his unit, he is remembered on a plaque at the bridge.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Raf Dyckmans, Kathy McDermott, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.ancestry.com - Headstone and Interment Record / Ohio Birth Index / 1930 Census, http://mathieu.gitzhofer.free.fr/irongb.php
Photosource: www.findagrave.com - Frogman, https://www.uswarmemorials.org/admin/images/memorials/1523280596plaquesauvage.jpg, The Detroit News - 15 April 1945, Southwestern High School 1940 Prospector Yearbook