PFC Harold Henry Hardt
Born:12 January 1925 – Bellwood, Illinois
Parents: Fred Hardt & Julia Strang-Hardt
Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 brother
Hometown:
– 500 South Twenty-Fourth Avenue – Bellwood, Illinois.
Education:
– Roosevelt School – Bellwood
– Proviso Township High School
– Class of 1944
– left before class graduated
Occupation: metalsmith – Ford Motor Company – Ypsilanti, Michigan
Selective Service Registration: 12 January 1943
– registered in Bellwood, Illinois
Contact Person: Fred Hardt – father
Inducted:
– 30 August 1943
– U.S. Army
Serial Number: 36765334
Training:
– Camp Gruber – Braggs, Oklahoma
– trained for 8 months as a member of 42nd Infantry Division
– Italy
Unit: 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
– joined the division as a replacement
– May 1944 – took part in the Anzio Beach breakout
– 4 June 1944 – liberated Rome
– unit withdrawn from combat and prepared for Operation Dragoon
– 15 August 1944 – took part in the invasion of Southern France
– landed and liberated St. Tropez
– the 3rd Infantry Division fought its way up the Rhone Valley, through the Vosges Mountains, and reached the Rhine at Strasbourg, Germany, on the 26–27 November 1944
Killed in Action:
– 5 December 1944 – Strasburg – Germany
– hit by mortar fire
Memorial Service:
– 18 December 1948 – Senne Funeral Home, Bellwood
Buried:
– 18 December 1948 – Glen Oak Cemetery – Hillside, Illinois
Orchard Section Lot: 4 Grave: 3
Medals: Purple Heart