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Personal info

Full name
FRAZIER, Billy "William"
Date of birth
10 June 1924
Age
21
Place of birth
Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio
Hometown
Rawson, Hancock County, Ohio

Military service

Service number
35293786
Rank
Sergeant
Function
Squad Leader
Unit
C Company,
1st Battalion,
12th Infantry Regiment,
4th Infantry Division,
Mortar Squad
Awards
Bronze Star,
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Missing in Action
Date of death
20 September 1945
Place of death
Forest near Schlausenbach, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle
Tablets of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Clark W. Frazier (father)
Treva Frazier (mother)
Clark K. Frazier (brother)
Ferrall Frazier (brother)

More information

Sgt Billy Frazier enlisted on 5 November 1943. He took basic infantry training at Camp Wheeler in Macon, Georgia, and shipped out to England in April 1944. His fiancée was Naomi Henry.

His unit landed on Utah Beach on 13 June, one week after D-Day. He was in the battle for Cherborgh, St. Lo, the Liberation of Paris, and then went all the way to the Schnee Eifel Forest.

On 19 September 1944, a counterattack by two companies of the SS Regiment Deutschland with tanks and artillery hit the under-strength C Company, East of Schlausenbach just within the German Border. Pinned down by enemy gunfire, 20 year-old Billy Frazier held his ground in a foxhole that day. After the enemy retreated, C Company counted survivors and tallied the number of wounded. Sgt Frazier wasn't in either group.

He was declared offcially dead one day and one year after he was reported missing in action.

Source of information: Clark Frazier, Peter Schouteten, Danny van der Groen, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.fold3.com, www.ancestry.com - Ohio Grave Index, Toledo Magazine April 8-14, 1990

Photo source: Astrid van Erp, Danny van der Groen, Toledo Magazine April 8-14, 1990, Rawson High School Yearbook, 1942, page 11