Francis X. McGraw

Francis X. McGraw was born on April 29, 1918 in Philadelphia, PA to Mr. and Mrs. John McGraw. When he was two, the family moved to Camden NJ, to the then brand new homes at Yorkship Village, known these days as Fairview. The family lived at 3110 South Merrimac Road, directly across the street from St. Joan of Arc Church, where he and his family attended services.

    He graduated from St. Joan of Arc Grammar School in Fairview, and in June of 1937 graduated from Camden Catholic High School, then in Camden, NJ.

From the time of his graduation until his joining the Army, Francis McGraw worked for the Campbell Soup Company in Camden. He also played third base on the St. Joan of Arc team, which participated in the city-run Kobus Twilight Baseball League in the late 1930s. Playing for this team he was a teammate of William Gradwell, a neighbor who had played for Woodrow Wilson High School in East Camden. One of the players he faced was another former Wilson student, Jerome L. "Babe" Carpenter. Both would be killed in separate accidents not related to combat while serving with the United States Army during World War II. 

3110 South Merrimac Road, home of the McGraw family

The home (second from right) was unoccupied as of March 2002.
    Click on the links and on the photo for enlarged  views of this building.

Photo #1               Photo #2

On May 30, 2007 I was informed that the home has been re-occupied. 

Campbell's Soup Wins Slugfest from 12th Ward, 12 to 8
Victory Gives 'Soupmen' Deadlock for Sunberth
St. Joe's Routs Polish, 13-1 as Walker Robins Trounce Sacred Heart
LINCOLN ALSO TRIUMPHS

Outslugging Twelfth Ward, Campbell’s Soup went into a tie for first place in the American Division of the Kobus Twilight League when it defeated the "Warders" 12 to 8 at Dudley Grange Park in one of four games played last night.

In another American Division tussle, St. Joe's Polish soundly trounced the Polish American Citizens Club, 13 to 1 at Broadway and Everett street.

In a pair of National Division tussles, the Walker Robins gained a firmer grip on second place when it whipped Sacred Heart at the Fairview Ball Park, 13 to 1 and Lincoln took the measure of St. Joan of Arc at Seventh and Jefferson by the score of 5 to 1.

Pitchers in the Campbell's-Twelfth Ward fracas took a beating with the "Soupmen" collecting 13 blows off Mike Huggard and Martin, while the "Warders" slapped Norm Young for 11 safeties.

Campbell's lost no time in putting the game away, tallying seven runs in the first inning and then added one in the third and two in the fourth to clinch the verdict. The "Warders" tried hard to overcome the lead and in the sixth session put on a rally which netted five runs.

Gresk was the hitting star for Campbell’s, rapping a pair of singles and a home run, while Herb Dunn sparkled at the plate for the Warders with three for four.

The Polish-Americans were no match for St. Joe's Polish, Jim Stubbs setting down the former outfit without much trouble, giving up but six hits. St. Joe's on the other hand rapped T. Martin and Huston for 19 wallops with Stubbs and Gray pacing the offense, each getting four hits. Walt Nowak also hit hard, getting three for four. Galecki was the only Polish-American who could solve Stubb's offerings, smacking three singles.

The Walker Robins also had little difficulty with Sacred Heart, scoring in each of the six innings with the exception of the fourth. Carpenter worked on the hill for the Robins and set down his foe with only two hits, while his mates clubbed Phillips, Rudolph and Savich for 11 bingles. Warren, Jones and Carpenter led the attack with two hits apiece. Sacred Heart's lone run came on a homer by Cianfrani in the second inning.

Two runs in the first and three in the eighth spelled victory for Lincoln over St. Joan of Arc. Schoekolf went the route for Lincoln and spaced out eight hits, the Saints' lone run coming in the third on a homer by Gondolf. Lincoln collected eight hits off Franks and Collins with Lyback and J. Schramm each getting two.

On February 25, 1942 Francis McGraw was inducted into the Army of the United States of America at Fort Dix, NJ. He received his Basic Training at Tullahoma TN, and also received training at Camp Edwards at Cape Cod MA, in Petersburg VA, and in Florida at Camp Carrabelle in Carrabelle FL. 

He left the United States for overseas service on December 12, 1942 and arrived at Canastel, Algeria on December 26th, 1942 as a replacement to H Company, 2nd Battalion. 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, otherwise known as The Big Red One. H Company, commanded by Captain Gilbert H. Fuller, was the heavy weapons company of the 2nd Battalion, and McGraw operated a .30 caliber machine gun. 

While in North Africa, he participated in the Battles of Ousseltia Valley and Kairouan Pass from January 17 to February 10, 1943; Gafsa, El Guettar, Tunisia from March 17 to April 10, 1943; and Beja and Mateur in the Tunisia Campaign from April 18 to May 8, 1943.

On July 10, 1943 he took part in the Invasion of Sicily, serving with his unit in Italy until August 17, 1943. He remained with his unit in Sicily after the fighting there ended in August of 1943 on occupation duty. The 26th Infantry Regiment sailed for England in October of 1943, to train for D-Day, the Invasion of France.

On June 6, 1944, PFC Francis McGraw landed in France. His unit was the divisional reserve regiment on D-Day, and landed late in the day, around 6:30 PM.

From the time of his landing in France, McGraw and his unit saw much heavy combat. Fighting in the hedgerows of Normandy proved extremely deadly, and there were many casualties. After taking the German city of Aachen in October, the men had a few days respite before taking part in what is now known as the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. This dense, dark forest, an area 30 by 15 kilometers wide, was filled with concrete bunkers, dug-in strongholds, gorges, German soldiers, streams, barbed wire, trip-wired booby traps, muddy roads, and mines: truly a Green Hell.

On November 16th, 1944 at 11:15 AM American and British bombers along with fighter bombers and escort planes bombed enemy territory north and north-east of the 26th Infantry's positions. This mission was supposed to be carried out by a group of 2000 planes. It was the beginning of the Allied drive to Cologne and the Rhine. The attack was set for 12:45 PM and at that time the 2nd Battalion pushed forward toward their objective, brushland in the vicinity of Schonthal, Germany.

The German military offered fierce resistance to the Allied forces. Casualties were heavy, and on November 17, H Company commanding officer Captain Fuller was wounded. On a cold and rainy day, November 19, 1944 elements of the German Army supported by artillery and large caliber mortar fire counter-attacked. PFC McGraw's responsibility as a machine gunner was to defend his unit's position, near Schevenhutte.

Campbell's Soup Wins Slugfest from 12th Ward, 12 to 8
Victory Gives 'Soupmen' Deadlock for Sunberth
St. Joe's Routs Polish, 13-1 as Walker Robins Trounce Sacred Heart
LINCOLN ALSO TRIUMPHS

Outslugging Twelfth Ward, Campbell’s Soup went into a tie for first place in the American Division of the Kobus Twilight League when it defeated the "Warders" 12 to 8 at Dudley Grange Park in one of four games played last night.

In another American Division tussle, St. Joe's Polish soundly trounced the Polish American Citizens Club, 13 to 1 at Broadway and Everett street.

In a pair of National Division tussles, the Walker Robins gained a firmer grip on second place when it whipped Sacred Heart at the Fairview Ball Park, 13 to 1 and Lincoln took the measure of St. Joan of Arc at Seventh and Jefferson by the score of 5 to 1.

Pitchers in the Campbell's-Twelfth Ward fracas took a beating with the "Soupmen" collecting 13 blows off Mike Huggard and Martin, while the "Warders" slapped Norm Young for 11 safeties.

Campbell's lost no time in putting the game away, tallying seven runs in the first inning and then added one in the third and two in the fourth to clinch the verdict. The "Warders" tried hard to overcome the lead and in the sixth session put on a rally which netted five runs.

Gresk was the hitting star for Campbell’s, rapping a pair of singles and a home run, while Herb Dunn sparkled at the plate for the Warders with three for four.

The Polish-Americans were no match for St. Joe's Polish, Jim Stubbs setting down the former outfit without much trouble, giving up but six hits. St. Joe's on the other hand rapped T. Martin and Huston for 19 wallops with Stubbs and Gray pacing the offense, each getting four hits. Walt Nowak also hit hard, getting three for four. Galecki was the only Polish-American who could solve Stubb's offerings, smacking three singles.

The Walker Robins also had little difficulty with Sacred Heart, scoring in each of the six innings with the exception of the fourth. Carpenter worked on the hill for the Robins and set down his foe with only two hits, while his mates clubbed Phillips, Rudolph and Savich for 11 bingles. Warren, Jones and Carpenter led the attack with two hits apiece. Sacred Heart's lone run came on a homer by Cianfrani in the second inning.

Two runs in the first and three in the eighth spelled victory for Lincoln over St. Joan of Arc. Schoekolf went the route for Lincoln and spaced out eight hits, the Saints' lone run coming in the third on a homer by Gondolf. Lincoln collected eight hits off Franks and Collins with Lyback and J. Schramm each getting two.

USNS Private Francis X. McGraw (T-AK-241) was a Boulder Victory-class cargo ship built at the end of World War II and served the war and its demilitarization as a commercial cargo vessel. From 1946 to 1950 she served the United States Army as a transport named USAT Private Francis X. McGraw. In 1950 she was acquired by the United Staes Navy and assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service. In 1974 she ended her career and was scrapped. Private Francis X. McGraw was laid down as SS Wabash Victory (MCV hull 796) by the California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles, California; launched 6 September 1945; sponsored by Mrs. A. Easterbrook; and delivered to the U.S. Maritime Commission 7 June 1945.

Operated by the Interocean Steamship Company under General Agency Agreement, Wabash Victory carried cargo and passengers to Eniwetok, Ulithi, and Okinawa and, from there, back to the U.S. West Coast between 8 August and 3 November 1945. Employed along the Oregon and California coasts for the next four months, she transited the Panama Canal in mid-March 1946, then headed across the Atlantic Ocean to France. On the 28th, she arrived at Le Havre to begin transporting men and equipment between Europe and the United States.

Two and a half months later, on 14 June 1946, she was transferred to the U.S. War Department but continued her transatlantic runs as an Army transport. Renamed Private Francis X. McGraw, 31 October 1947, the Victory ship remained a unit of the Army Transportation Service until 1 March 1950.

The ship was returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission, she was simultaneously transferred to the Navy, given the designation T–AK–241, and assigned to the newly formed Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). Since that time, Private Francis X. McGraw, manned by a civil service crew, carried supplies and equipment to "far flung" ports for MSTS, Atlantic.

Although primarily rotated between Caribbean, North Sea, and Mediterranean runs, she has, when necessary, and particularly from the mid-1960s into 1970, been diverted from such assignments to carry cargo to Pacific Ocean ports. Pacific assignments have included delivery of chemical weapons to Okinawa in 1965 and removing those weapons to Johnston Atoll in 1971 under Operation Red Hat.

The vessel was decommissioned and struck from the Navy List at unknown dates. She was transferred to the U.S. Maritime Administration on 8 May 1974 and was sold for scrapping on 21 August 1974.

Camden Courier-Post - May 28, 2007

War hero's monument neglected

By CAROL COMEGNO
Courier-Post Staff

Outnumbered by the enemy and already seriously wounded, hometown soldier Francis X. McGraw had a life choice to make.

He could abandon his position and get medical aid or he could stay with his machine gun at his foxhole and keep firing.

In what would be his last stand of World War II, the Army private first class chose to fight, repelling advancing Nazi troops in a German forest, single-handedly silencing their machine guns while exposing himself to fire and killing many until he was wounded again, this time fatally. He died on that day -- November 19, 1944 -- but the heroics of the 26-year-old inspired his unit to victory at the start of the Allied march to Cologne and the Rhine River.

For McGraw's actions, President Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor -- the nation's highest honor for military heroism.

On Memorial Day, a monument to the local hero sits near his boyhood home in Fairview at Merrimac and New Jersey roads. The site is obscured and on a neglected, overgrown plot of city-owned ground behind a parking lot and near city tennis courts. Railroad ties, intended for landscaping, are in disarray after being moved by construction workers at an adjacent housing redevelopment project.

"The city should be taking care of the grounds," said Francis Pike of Glassboro, president of the athletic club. The club moved to Gloucester City after being forced out of its Collings Road clubhouse because of redevelopment by the city and RPM Development.

He said the city used to at least cut the grass.

"We never had responsibility for the little park because it's on city ground next to the tennis courts," said Pike, who acknowledged knowing little about McGraw as a newer club member.

He said the monument perhaps could be moved to a more visible location in Fairview now that there is a new apartment building in front of it that is part of the Fairview Village II redevelopment phase.

McGraw's closest living relative, brother Thomas McGraw, laments the property's condition.

"There's not much I can do about it. I think Fairview is not what it used to be, but it would be nice if someone could take care of it," McGraw, 85, said.

Patrick Keating, the city's public works director, and an assistant went to the site late Friday and tended to some of the bushes after an inquiry by the "Courier-Post."

He agreed with others that moving the monument to another site would be desirable. The monument was erected on Memorial Day 25 years ago by the Independent Citizens Athletic Club of Fairview and the Fairview Village Lions Club, which is now defunct.

"We take care of other monuments, but I didn't even know this one existed," Keating said.

City workers will return next week to complete the cleanup.

McGraw described his brother, a 1937 graduate of Camden Catholic High School who worked at the Campbell Soup Co. factory before the war, as a "genteel" man who never picked a fight but who could defend himself.

"I think about him a lot and go through his every agonizing moment of his last day. I would not have been that brave," he said.

An elementary school across town in East Camden was named for him -- the Francis X. McGraw School at Fremont Avenue and Dudley Street. In Europe, the U.S. Army headquarters in Munich -- McGraw Kaserne -- was also named in his honor after World War II until it closed in 1990 due to U.S. military downsizing.

At least two portraits of McGraw hang in Camden -- one in the public school and one in Malandra Hall in Fairview.

The Medal of Honor citation signed by Truman said McGraw initially halted the enemy advance at the Battle of Hurtgen Forest near Schevenhutte, Germany. When the Germans brought up machine guns to counterattack him, he lifted his machine gun atop a log, stood up in his foxhole and destroyed both of their guns.

After his own machine gun was hit and then splattered by mud from rocket attacks, he remounted it and even cleaned it so he could continue using it. He was severely wounded while making several trips across the battlefield to retrieve more ammunition.

After exhausting even that ammunition, he grabbed a carbine and shot several more soldiers before being killed.

"The extraordinary heroism and intrepidity displayed by Private McGraw inspired his comrades to great efforts and was a major factor in repulsing the enemy attack," the citation concludes.

He also was awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and other medals for taking part in five major battles, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy and invasions of North Africa and Sicily.

Joseph DiFante of Haddon Township, a longtime Fairview resident and active military veteran who is still a member of American Legion Post 71 in Fairview, said the monument site looks a "mess" and proposed the stone be moved so it would be more visible, perhaps to Yorkship Square.

Camden Courier-Post - June 6, 2007

The long-neglected and forgotten monument to a local World War II hero and D-Day veteran is attracting much-needed attention.

The city and two nonprofit Fairview organizations have committed themselves to maintaining the mini-park that is home to the stone monument honoring Pfc. Francis X. McGraw, a Medal of Honor recipient from Fairview.

A city public works crew has been out several times, including Tuesday, sprucing up the park since its deplorable condition was reported by the "Courier-Post" on Memorial Day weekend.

The Fairview Village Association, a homeowner and tenant group, and the Fairview Historical Society want to help care for the monument placed on the city-owned grounds 25 years ago.

The park, a little-noticed plot at Merrimac and New Jersey roads tucked away from the main thoroughfare of Collings Road, was littered with trash and debris from an adjacent construction site. Those walking by could not see it because it was blocked by overgrown or dead weeds, bushes and trees.

"The newspaper article brought to light something that many of us in Fairview never knew -- not only that the memorial is there, but that the hero it honors was a hometown Fairview (resident)," said Adam Greenman, president of the village association.

Greenman said he is exploring the possibility of moving the monument to a more visible location.

McGraw, who lived at 3110 Merrimac Road in Fairview, was inducted into the Army at Fort Dix and became a machine gunner in the 26th Infantry Regiment, dubbed the Blue Spaders. He fought in five major battles from North Africa to Sicily and Germany.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, 63 years ago today, McGraw and his unit landed on the Normandy coast of France. He was not awarded the medal for action there. He was not in the first wave of troops.

The regiment had sailed to England in October 1943 to train for D-Day after their role in the Invasion of Sicily.

D-Day led to the allied march across the Rhine into Germany and to the eventual defeat of the German army of Nazi Adolf Hitler.

Five months later in a German forest known as Hurtgen, McGraw's one-man stand against advancing German soldiers led to his death from enemy fire at age 26 -- but not until he had killed a countless number of the enemy. He stood with his gun atop a log above his foxhole, exposed himself to fire, and then risked his life even further to resupply himself with ammunition several times. His heroics inspired his unit to repel the attack, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

President Harry S. Truman honored him posthumously with the Medal of Honor -- the nation's highest military award. McGraw is buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.

Pat Keating, city public works director, said his men pulled out stumps of dead bushes Tuesday and trimmed other bushes. He said he also wants to plant some new shrubs there.

Keating personally went to the site with his assistant just before Memorial Day to pull weeds and start the cleanup after being contacted for a comment.

"I think if we repositioned it to face the street and set it far enough away from the fence and removed the construction debris, it will be a lot better."

Kevin Friel, recording secretary of the Fairview Historical Society, said his group would like to plant flowers and work with the village association.

"Because I am new resident, I didn't even know the monument was there," Friel said. "We are really sorry the memorial got neglected for so long, but now that we know about it, we're stepping up to the plate to see our servicemen are honored."