In Memory of Army T. Sgt.
Francis F. Anderson
Dell Rapids, South Dakota
Moody County
January 27, 1915 -- December 29, 1944
Killed in Action at Battle of the Bulge
Francis Fordean Anderson paid the ultimate price for freedom of the USA. He was born on January 27, 1915. Francis lived on a farm with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nels Anderson, of Moody County. Anderson attended the Pleasant Prairie rural school for eight years and then graduated from high school in Trent, South Dakota. Francis participated in choir at the Bethania Lutheran Church. One thing that Alvin Anderson, his brother, remembers about Francis is that he “was very interested in plants, flowers and trees, had planned on further education, but stayed home to help Dad with farming.”
Francis was drafted on January 22, 1942. His training took him to lots of forts; among these forts were Fort Leavenworth, Fort Riley, Fort Sam Houston, and Camp McCoy. Tech Sgt. Anderson was sent overseas, serving as a cook, in Ireland, Scotland, and England, and then to France, and finally the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
Francis Anderson, a Technical Sergeant in the Second Reconnaissance of the Second Division of the First Army, was killed in his sleep, along with nine others, by a ‘concussion’ bomb while in a house near the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge, on December 29,1944.
A memorial service was held for Francis at the First Baptist Church in Dell Rapids in 1945, even though he was originally buried in Germany in the Henri Chapelle Cemetery. His body was received home in 1947, three years after he had died. Graveside services at the Nelson Cemetery, six miles northeast of Dell Rapids were conducted at that time.
The Hjelman-Anderson American Legion Post in Trent is named partly in honor of Tech Sgt. Francis Anderson.
This entry was respectfully submitted by Stephen Post, 8th Grade West, Spearfish Middle School, Spearfish, South Dakota, February 9, 2000. Information for this entry was provided by Alice C. Nelson, Trent, SD, family friend and neighbor, Bernard Nelson, Dells Rapids, SD, cousin, and Alvin E. Anderson, Dells Rapids, SD, brother of Francis Anderson.
