PFC John Frank Wojtach

PFC John Frank Wojtach was born in Cleveland, Ohio on 2 Dec 1918. He was the youngest of the 4 children born to Boleslaw and Michalina (Murawska) Wojtach. Both parents were natives of Poland having immigrated in 1904 and 1905 respectively. His father worked at American Steel and Wire in Cleveland as a wire drawer. Boleslaw died in 1926 and Michalina supported her family working in a garment factory. John's mother remarried in 1936. Step-father Anton Rutkowski was a Polish immigrant, combat veteran of WW1 and also worked at American Steel and Wire. John graduated from John Adams High School in Cleveland and worked as a time keeper for a play ground amusements company and for the Statler Hotel. 

John was drafted in May 1942 and after completing his basic military training was sent to England and assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company 1st Battalion 116th Infantry were he served as an anti-tank gun crewman. PFC Wojtach took part in the D-Day landing and fought with his unit until he was struck by fragments from an artillery shell and killed in action near Vire, France on 8 Aug 1944.

PFC Wojtach was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in the Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.