Frank F. DeBellis was killed on D-Day 1944 during the invasion of Normandy. He was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, known as the Big Red One, and was assaulting Omaha Beach with F Company when he was shot.

John C. McManus portrayed DeBellis's last moments in hi his book, The Dead and Those About to Die
". . . the second section touched down in knee-high water, a rather shallow depth by the standards of the first wave. The men poured out of the LCVP and splashed their way onto the sand. . . . They ran into a storm of mortar and machine-gun fire. "Both BAR gunners were hit almost immediately," a post combat company interview with the survivors stated. "The man on the right, PFC Frank DeBellis, was killed . . ."

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Frank F Debellis