Private 1st Class John Frame (1915–1945)

*John Frame (Courtesy of the Delaware Public Archives)*

Home State	Civilian Occupation
Delaware	Mill worker at Continental Diamond Fibre
Branch	Service Number
U.S. Army	32076682
Theater	Unit
European	Company “C,” 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Awards	Campaigns/Battles
Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart with three oak leaf clusters, Combat Infantryman Badge	Sicily, Italy (including the Volturno and the Anzio beachhead), Southern France, Vosges Mountains, Colmar Pocket

Early Life & Family

John Frame was born in Newark, Delaware, on September 28, 1915, the fifth of eight children born to James Rudolph Frame, Sr. (1875–1954, a worker in a local fibre mill) and Mary Ann Frame (1881–1962, née Mooney). His father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother in Ireland. An older sister died as a young child before Frame was born. He grew up with three older brothers, a younger brother, and two younger sisters. He was Catholic.

If his family did not move between the glimpses recorded in census records in 1920, 1930, 1935, and 1940, Frame lived most of his life on Creek Road (Road 311). Today, very few homes remain on Creek Road, which mainly follows the west bank of White Clay Creek north from downtown Newark into Pennsylvania. The road is largely closed to vehicular traffic and portions have been incorporated into the White Clay Creek State Park trail system. One of his neighbors as of 1930 was James Roland Wilson (1913–1944), who would be killed in action during the Normandy campaign.

Census and enlistment records state that Frame’s highest completed level of education was eighth grade. Frame was recorded on the census for the final time in April 1940, working as a farm laborer.

When Frame registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was working for Phillips Brothers Contractors in Elkton, Maryland. At the time, he was described as standing five feet, six inches tall and weighing 135 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes.

After Frame was drafted in 1942, his occupation was recorded as “semiskilled occupations in manufacture of textiles, n.e.c.” A March 3, 1945, article in the Wilmington Morning News stated that before entering the U.S. Army, Frame “was employed at the Continental-Diamond Fibre Company.” Two of his brothers also served during World War II: James Rudolph Frame, Jr. (1906–1992) in the U.S. Navy and Thomas Frame (1912–1991) in the U.S. Army.

Training & Mediterranean Theater

Frame was inducted into the U.S. Army in Camden, New Jersey, on July 22, 1942. According to a statement filled out by his mother for the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission, Private Frame went on active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in August 1942, attended basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and shipped out from New York in March 1943 en route to North Africa.

Indeed, morning reports establish that Private Frame was attached to Company “B,” 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix, New Jersey, on or about August 5, 1942, before he was dispatched to an unknown location for training on or about August 8, 1942. After basic training, he went overseas on March 5, 1943, as part of Shipment OGC-402. On March 18, 1943, he was attached for duty, quarters, and rations to Company “B,” 21st Replacement Battalion, 2nd Replacement Depot.

On April 1, 1943, Frame was assigned to the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. Known as the Cottonbalers, the regiment went overseas several months before Frame, in late October 1942, and participated in the invasion of French Morocco beginning on November 8, 1942. Private Frame joined Company “C,” 7th Infantry on April 4, 1943, near Port Lyautey, Morocco.

Private Frame and his new unit boarded a train on April 7, 1943, and spent some time training near Oran, Algeria. Frame first saw combat during the invasion of Sicily. The regiment landed in the vicinity of Licata on July 10, 1943. On July 15, 1943, Private Frame was placed on special duty with Company “E,” 7th Infantry. The unit overcame Italian resistance as it worked its way north―up the west side of Sicily―to Palermo, which fell on July 22. Private Frame returned to Company “C” on August 3, 1943. In early August, the 3rd Infantry Division headed east, where Allied forces were converging on Messina. Messina fell on August 17, 1943, though much of the Axis force managed to escape to mainland Italy. The Allies followed, with landings at Salerno beginning on September 9, 1943. The 7th Infantry Regiment arrived on the Italian mainland on September 20.

Private Frame was one of five men reported missing in action on September 29, 1943. However, four of the five, including Frame, were reported as having returned to duty on October 1, 1943. (In a spectacular example of bad recordkeeping, the fifth man returned to duty on or about October 5, 1943, without the event being reported to the company clerk, who was none the wiser about his status for another month.)

In early October 1943, the 3rd Infantry Division reached the soon-to-be infamous Volturno River. German forces had mined the near bank before withdrawing to the strongly fortified the far bank. Private Frame was reported as sick with an illness on October 12, 1943. As a result, he most likely did not participate in the action that night when the 7th Infantry Regiment crossed the Volturno, suffering heavy casualties in the process. A hospital admission card recorded him as suffering from liver disease and intestinal parasites.

Private Frame was evacuated to North Africa for medical treatment. He was admitted to the 64th Station Hospital in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, on October 18, 1943. On November 24, 1943, he was transferred to the 2nd Convalescent Hospital, located near Oran in Bouisseville, Algeria. where he remained until February 12, 1943. That day, he was discharged from the hospital and attached to Company “C,” 9th Replacement Battalion, 1st Replacement Depot, to return to his unit. He was later attached to Headquarters Detachment, 29th Replacement Battalion, Personnel Center No. 6, until March 1, 1944.

On March 4, 1944, Frame returned to his regiment, now located at the Anzio beachhead, where an amphibious operation intended to bypass the German defensive line to the south near Cassino had bogged down. After the failure of a German counterattack that began on February 29, 1944, months of stalemate followed. Frame’s unit endured occasional firefights with Germans nearby, but also air raids, artillery fire, and chilling winter rain (the latter three even when the regiment had been rotated off the front line). Frame was promoted to private 1st class on April 25, 1944.

The long-awaited breakout from Anzio began on May 23, 1944. The following day, while the 7th Infantry Regiment was struggling to capture Cisterna, Frame was wounded. A hospital admission card stated that Frame was wounded in the shoulder by artillery fragments in May 1944 and discharged back to duty the following month.

*U.S. troops land in the South of France (Official U.S. Army Signal Corps photo, National Archives)*

Combat in France

Following the capture of Rome on June 4, 1944, and the beginning of the Allied landings in Normandy two days later, Frame’s division spent the next few months recuperating and training. Their next mission was another amphibious operation, Operation Dragoon, against the South of France. On August 15, 1944, the 7th Infantry Regiment landed west of Cape Cavalaire, roughly halfway between Marseille and Cannes. Although the Germans were soon routed, John C. McManus wrote in his book, American Courage, American Carnage: 7th Infantry Chronicles, that “The regiment lost 58 killed” on the first day of Operation Dragoon, “the single deadliest day the regiment experienced in World War II.”

Private Frame earned the Bronze Star Medal during combat in France. An excerpt of the citation, printed in Journal-Every Evening on August 7, 1945, stated:

On 25 August 1944, Private Frame and an officer braved the fire of three tanks, four machine guns, and small arms at point-blank range that had killed or wounded 12 men, in order to rescue one of the casualties near * * *, France. When Private Frame, who had crawled approximately 100 yards to the wounded man, found himself unable to evacuate the casualty alone, the officer came to assistance and completed the act of mercy.

Although the location was censored in the citation, the 7th Infantry was in the vicinity of Montélimar at the time. Private Frame’s medal was presented posthumously to his family one year later.

At some point, apparently after August 1944, Frame was promoted to private 1st class. During the remainder of the summer and fall of 1944, Allied forces pursued German forces across France, with resistance stiffening close to the German border.

Frame’s mother stated he was wounded again in France on September 29, 1944. That is supported by a hospital admission card, which stated that Frame was wounded in the shoulder and back by artillery fragments in September 1944. The 7th Infantry Regiment would have been in the vicinity of the Vosges Mountains at that time. Frame returned to duty in October.

Frame was wounded for the third time, probably in the vicinity of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in northeast France, on October 31, 1944. His hospital admission card stated that he was wounded in the chin and forearm by a bullet or other projectile. John C. McManus wrote in his book that the on that day, the 7th Infantry Regiment were advancing on “the crossroads at Le Haut Jacques” when “All at once, a diverse array of enemy weapons opened fire on the riflemen: mortars, machine guns, artillery, flak wagons, rifles, mines, and machine pistols.” It took six days and hundreds of American casualties before Le Haut Jacques fell. Once again, Frame returned to duty the following month, in November 1944, during which his unit supported the capture of Strasbourg.

The Colmar Pocket

In December 1944, the Germans launched a counterattack through the Ardennes popularly referred to as the Battle of the Bulge. However, the German offensive did not constitute the only threat to Allied forces on the Western Front. McManus wrote:

To the south of Strasbourg, the Germans had forged another bulge west of the Rhine in Alsace, a concentric ring of German-held territory commonly referred to as the ‘Colmar Pocket,’ after the Alsatian city that constituted the center of gravity, if not quite the center point, of the pocket.

With the Allies still preoccupied with the Ardennes and then another German offensive known as Operation Nordwind, which began on December 31, 1944, Frame’s regiment was initially assigned to prevent the Germans from advancing out of the Colmar Pocket. Once the German offensives had been defeated, the Allies began an operation to cut off the Colmar Pocket.

John C. McManus wrote in American Courage, American Carnage:

The attack would begin on January 22, 1945. A few days previous to the attack, the 7th Infantry was withdrawn from the front. The men enjoyed a few days in the rear, warming up, sleeping, washing, and eating hot food. They welcomed the respite, but knew it was only temporary. […] At 2100 hours on the twenty-second, the 1st [which included Private 1st Class Frame’s company] and 3rd Battalions led the attack in frigid conditions. In total silence they crossed Bailey bridges at Geumar over the Fecht River.

McManus wrote that the men of the 7th Infantry Regiment wore improvised snow camouflage and carried extra bandoliers of ammunition. “On the right flank of the regiment, 1st Battalion soldiers moved forward as best they could through the thick snow. Their objective was Ostheim, a small village” defended by a minefield and strong German positions. McManus added that “A and C Companies battered their way into Ostheim by the early-morning hours of the twenty-third. Working with tanks, they destroyed German resistance in Ostheim by the afternoon of the twenty-third.” During combat that day, January 23, 1945, Private 1st Class Frame was struck in the head by artillery fragments and killed. He was buried at a temporary cemetery and reinterred after the Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France. During his career, Private 1st Class Frame earned the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart with three oak leaf clusters.

*Private 1st Class Frame’s report of burial (National Archives)*

Notes

Full Name and Date of Birth

Frame’s birth certificate recorded his date of birth as September 28, 1915, and his full name as John Lee Frame. Frame’s draft card gave his date of birth as September 28, 1916, and his enlistment data card recorded his year of birth as 1916. His draft card and military records do not give any middle name.

Date Joined Company “C,” 7th Infantry

A payroll record establishes that Private Frame was assigned to the 7th Infantry on April 1, 1943, and was a member that regiment’s Company “C” by the end of the month. The Company “C” morning reports do not mention any new men joining April 1–3. The morning report for April 4, 1943, stated: “Following named E/M. asg’d To and jd Co. as of 1000. Per S.O. ^#43 Hq. 7th Inf. (See atch’d List.).” In many cases, when a large number of men were involved in a particular change, a list or roster would indeed be included with the morning reports in question, and microfilmed after the war. In this case, however, no such list appears with the microfilmed morning reports.

However, the morning reports do not list any other large group of men joining Company “C” during the month. The morning reports also show that on April 4, 1943, the number of men present for duty increased by one private 1st class and 52 privates. This is the exact number of men listed in a supplemental payroll roster of men who joined Company “C” that month, including Frame. Thus, it is possible to state with certainty that Private Frame joined Company “C” on April 4, 1943.

First Wound

The document filled out by his mother stated that Frame was wounded for the first time in Italy on May 24, 1943. A March 3, 1945, article in the Wilmington Morning News states that the date was actually May 24, 1944. Indeed, the 7th Infantry Regiment was not in combat in May 1943, and the Allies had invaded neither Sicily nor mainland Italy at that point. Furthermore, his hospital admission card data also gives the date of his first wound as May 1944.

Unit

The World War II Memorial Volume completed by Delaware’s Public Archives Commission in 1949 erroneously listed Private 1st Class Frame as a member of the 7th Infantry Division rather than the 7th Infantry Regiment, apparently due to his mother simply writing “7th infantry” on his form.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the Frame family for providing a family history, and to the Delaware Public Archives for the use of their photo.

Bibliography

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Last updated on December 6, 2024