Pvt. Robert Henry Kraft

Robert Kraft Lost in Western Front Battle

Again and yet again the long list of war casualties reach into even our small communities.

Two more young men of this area have been listed among those killed, according to word received by their families from the War Department during the past week. They are Pvt. Robert H. Kraft of Whitman and Lloyd Seifert of Harrison.

On Saturday the Henry Kraft family of Whitman received the usual telegram from Washington, D.C., expressing regret that it was their duty to inform them that their son, Private Robert H. Kraft had been killed in action.

The telegram was received at Harrison and very few details are available here. However, this week The Herald received a letter from Pvt. Kraft which is published in the Servicemen's column, and in it he states that he was then stationed in Belgium. He had just gone overseas in December.

Kraft was a former student of the Lusk High School.

The Lusk Herald
March 15, 1945
School Section
LESTER HOY KILLED ON WESTERN FRONT

Lusk High students were grieved to learn of the death of their schoolmate, Lester Hoy. Lester was a member of the class of '45. He had played football all three years that he attended high school. Lester was one of the first boys from the class of '45 to go into the armed forces. In June he joined the U.S. Army and took his basic training in Alabama. He was shipped across just before Christmas.

A short time ago word was received that Robert Kraft had been killed in action in Belgium. Bob was a member of the class of '44. He had received all of his schooling except his last year in the country schools. Bob went to Lusk High the first semester of his Senior year and then graduated before going into the army.

Lusk High wishes to extend its whole-hearted sympathy to the families of both Lester and Bob.

Thon Book 4
Date Unknown
Re-Burial Services for Pvt. Robert H. Kraft to be Held Saturday Afternoon; Wieten-Dupes Post in Charge of Rites

The remains of Pvt. Robert H. Kraft, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kraft of the Indian Creek community, will arrive in this city Friday, December 5th, with re-burial services scheduled for two o'clock Saturday afternoon, December 6th, in the chapel of the Peet funeral home. Services will be held under the auspices of Wieten-Dupes American Legion Post No. 4.

Young Kraft, who would have been 20 years old within ten days of the time his life was claimed, was inducted into military service in May 1944, following his graduation from the Lusk high school.

He received his infantry training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, and shortly before Christmas of 1944 was sent overseas landing in France. At the time of his death, February 7th, 1945, he was serving in the machine gun section somewhere in Belgium.

Surviving Private Kraft are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kraft, a brother, Don, and two sisters, Thelma and Barry Lee, all of whom reside at the family home in the Indian Creek vicinity.

Note: Research is continuing on verifying birth and death dates. Birth dates include 2/17/1925 on the US Headstone Application on Ancestry.com, and on Findagrave.com as well as on gravestone, and 2/27/1925 in cemetery records. Death dates include 2/26/1945 on US Headstone Application, and cemetery records, and 2/7/1945 on Findagrave.com, on gravestone and in the reburial article in the Lusk Herald.

Images & Attachments

Related/Linked Records