(courtesy of James S. Yost)
News article from unknown New Jersey newspaper |
Francis J. Yost Killed
The soldier who gave his all for the
nation was Sergt Francis J. Yost who was killed in France July 4,1944,
giving up his life to save a comrade who had been wounded. Only seconds
after he carried his wounded buddy to safety, he was shot down.
His father recently accepted, in his behalf, a posthumous award of the
bronze star for gallantry and the Purple Heart. Sergeant Yost was a
graduate of St. Angus’ Parochial school and St. John’s parochial High
School.
The best description of his gallantry in France is
contained in an Army publication, a copy of which has been forwarded to
his parents.
Sergeant William H. Chapman writing in the Devils
Digest, the official publication of the 508th parachute infantry
regiment said, “If I told you that once a guy in I company took a rifle
and knocked out four machine guns and killed 13 Krauts, you’d probably
think I’d been drinking too much French beer. Several of my Buddies saw
it and we know it really happened.
“If you ever knew Sgt. Francis J. Yost you could more easily believe
what I’m going to tell you. He was from Paterson New Jersey, and at the
time of his death he was only 24 years old. He was a regular guy who
liked to have a good time, just the same as anyone else, but to him,
duty was a pleasure, rather than an obligation. When he was on the job
he was what we call "Strictly GI"
He fought like a lion from the first minute we hit the
DZ until he was killed during the invasion of Normandy. When the S2
section reported the location of four machine guns he took off to get
them with an M1 and bayonet as his only weapons.
“We watched him as he picked them off one at a time,
until he |
had killed most of them. Then he went directly into the
nests and finished the job with his bayonet, and all the time he was
doing this he was acting as platoon leader because both our officers had
been hit. One of them was dead and the other had been evacuated. We
would have followed him down the mouth of a cannon because we believed
he would never ask us to do something he wouldn’t do himself.
“The next day we were going forward to hill 95 lots of
our men had been hit. Corp D. [Donald] L. Dicks, now first sergeant of
“I” company was shot up badly, so Yost went out to get him. The Jerries
saw him and turned all hell loose trying to get him too, but by some
queer quake of fate he wasn’t scratched. He got Dicks and had him across
his shoulders as he brought him back to the aid station. Just as he laid
him down and was beginning to stand up again, a Nazi 37mm caught him. He
never knew what hit him. He had saved his friends life at the expense of
his own.
There was a certain something about him that made
everyone who knew him want to be like him.
It’s impossible to say what might have been, but if he
hadn't gone out and brought his fellow soldier back, he might be today.
He was killed on the fourth of July. He never saw us Hill 95, which we
could never had done if it had not been for his calling curtains to
those four Kraut machine-guns “Most of the old men from “I” company are
gone, but I believe that wherever they are they still think of Francis
J. Yost to be one of the bravest, most courageous and intelligent men
ever to serve in this company.
This message has proven to be of great comfort to
bereaved parents, who are extremely happy that their son was not found
wanting when he was called upon to display courage.
|
(courtesy of Robin Liashek-Delaney)
Grave marker of Francis
J. Yost in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery & Mausoleum, Totowa (Passaic county),
New Jersey.
Francis enlisted in the
Army at Newark, NJ on 20 November 1944 and was a member of Company "I",
508th.
He was killed
immediately after successfully rescuing a badly wounded member of his
company from the battlefield. |