Franklin Z Criswell

T/5 Franklin Criswell was killed in action on 06 June 1944, serving with H&S Co, 37th Engineer Combat Battalion. On D-Day, Headquarters and Service Company came ashore near Exit E-1 roughly an hour after the first wave, landing under artillery, mortar, and small-arms fire that left the men briefly scattered on the beach. First Sergeant Wendell Cathey worked to pull the company back together about 200 yards inland behind a hedgerow, where a command post was set up and details began the grim work of collecting the dead while others started preparations for a prisoner stockade and cemetery. Mortar fire continued to fall on the company's position throughout the day, and enemy aircraft strafed the beach that evening; a single shell burst near the command post killed one member of the company and wounded two others from the maintenance section, which had itself been pinned down on the beach for hours after landing under heavy machine-gun fire. By nightfall the company held part of a growing prisoner stockade, even as nearby infantry secured the village of Colleville. T/5 Criswell was killed in action that day; the report does not specify the individual circumstances.