Lieutenant Francis H. Thompson

Creator

Preview

Identifier

20026349

Description

Lieutenant Francis H. Thompson, husband of the former Miss Mary M. Mulholland, 2221 Primrose, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism against the enemy near Dagami, Leyte, Philippines Islands, on November 3, 1944. According to the citation, Thompson, then a sergeant, assumed command of two rifle companies whose officers had either been killed or seriously wounded in the area known as "Bloody Ridge". He reorganized them, called for tank fire, and executed a orderly withdrawal. Though wounded, Thompson covered the men with machine-gun fire. After the ammunition was exhausted, he then collected grenades from wounded men and silenced an enemy machine-gun nest. As a result of Thompson's leadership, the two companies were able to reorganized for a later counterattack. For action in the same area, he was also awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. Thompson accepted a battlefield commission after having fought for 43 consecutive days and nights on Leyte-the longest record for any company in the Pacific-with Company C, 382nd Infantry, 96th Division. With fourteen months overseas behind him and two invasions landings, Leyte, and Okinawa, Thompson is now on terminal leave and plans to join a landscaping firm in Fort Worth. He appears to be wearing his uniform for the picture.

Archival Date

1945-11-23

Collection Name

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection

Collection Number

AR406-6-367

Original Format

Negatives, Black & White

File Format

JPG

Rights

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License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Subjects

Thompson, Francis H. (Lt.); Lieutenant; Terminal Leave; purple heart recipient