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Personal info

Full name
RAFALSKI, Zygmund John
Date of birth
28 February 1917
Age
27
Place of birth
Buffalo, Erie County, New York
Hometown
Genesee County, New York

Military service

Service number
6980593
Rank
Private
Function
unknown
Unit
15th Engineer Combat Battalion,
9th Infantry Division
Awards
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
31 December 1944
Place of death
North of Elsenborn, Belgium

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle
Plot Row Grave
C 14 24

Immediate family

Members
Stanley Rafalski (father)
Mary Rafalski (mother)
Genevieve Rafalski (sister)
Sophia Rafalski (sister)
Eugene Rafalski (brother)
Susan Rafalski (sister)
Bernice Rafalski (sister)
Walter Rafalski (brother)
Helen J. (Kowalczyk) Rafalski (wife)
Stanley Rafalski (son)

More information

Pvt Zygmund J. Rafalski's parents immigrated from Poland in 1914.

He worked as a cook at a hotel in Buffalo when he joined the Regular Army on 7 December 1939 at Fort Dupont, Delaware. He was sent overseas in March 1944 and was wounded in Normandy in June 1944. After being hospitalized for several months he returned to his unit. For this wound he was awarded the Purple Heart Medal a first time.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Peter Schouteten, Terry Hirsch, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com - A2, www.ancestry.com - U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, http://9thinfantrydivision.net

Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Des Philippet, Terry Hirsch