Larson was the second Laurel boy killed in WWII

Eldon Larson was the second Laurel serviceman to be killed in action in World War II.

Born in Wakefield on Jan. 29, 1917, Eldon was the second of seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gustav Olson.

When Eldon was nine years old, his mother died after losing a baby. Raising seven children alone was more than Mr. Olson could handle. Carl Larson, a brother of Mrs. Olson, offered to take two of the children. Mr. Olson agreed and Eldon and his sister Elzada were adopted by Carl and Elsie Larson of Laurel. They became Eldon and Elzada Larson.

Eldon and Elzada attended school in Laurel. Elzada graduated in 1938. Eldon, who should have graduated in 1934 or 1935, is not listed as an alumni. In 1937 Eldon moved to California where his biological father and his younger siblings were living. He went to work with Mr. Olson painting houses. The Advocate reported that Eldon married in May 1938 and he and his wife were living in Alhambra, a suburb of Los Angeles.

In January 1942, the Advocate noted that Eldon had enlisted in the Army and had been sent to Fort Knox, KY, for training. There was no mention of a wife. In May, Larson’s unit -- the 6th Infantry Battalion of 1st Armored Division -- was sent to Northern Ireland for additional training. In his last letter to Carl and Elsie Larson, dated October 5, 1942, Larson wrote that his company was being shipped out. He probably didn’t know it at the time but his final destination would be North Africa.

Operation Torch, the first Allied invasion of French North Africa, had been in the works for some time.One of the objectives was to draw German forces away from the Eastern Front to relieve pressure on the Soviets who were our friends at the time.

The joint chiefs of staff were strongly opposed to the operation on the grounds that it might cause Spain to join the Axis and close off the Straits of Gibraltar. But hoping to score a military victory before the November Congressional elections and keep the Democrats in control, President Roosevelt gave his military commanders a direct order to proceed.

Launched in the early morning hours of November 8, 1942, Operation Torch involved simultaneous amphibious attacks on Casablanca on the Atlantic coast and also on the cities of Oran and Algiers on the Mediterranean.

Larson’s unit — the 1st Armored Division — was part of the task force assigned to take Oran. Larson was a gunner on a tank. The attack began at 2:45 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 8. The port was under the control of a Vichy French naval force and they resisted the landing.

Operation Torch not only was the first major Allied amphibious assault of World War 2, it was also the first involvement of U.S. troops in the European -North African theater. Torch was a success and within a few days all three North African cities had been captured and the U.S. gained a base from which to invade Italy in 1943.

Eldon Larson did not live to celebrate the victory. He was killed in action on the beaches of Oran on Nov. 8, the first day of the assault. He was killed by the French not by the Germans. Shortly before Christmas, Carl and Elsie Larson received a letter from the War Department stating that Eldon had been killed in action “somewhere on the Western European Front.” But they were not told how he died or where his body was buried. The Purple Heart Eldon was awarded posthumously was mailed to the Larsons in February 1943.

On May 27, 1943, joint memorial services were held in Laurel for Eldon Larson and Harold Anderson who was killed in action about the same time but in another part of the world.

The Larsons still did not know where their adopted son was buried. They thought it might be at Casablanca. In March 1942, sister Elzada Larson married Ralph Stroman, a welder who had been working in Laurel. Stroman entered the service later that year and was sent to North Africa in 1943. He told the Larsons that he would try to locate Eldon’s grave. He later told them he had found it but couldn’t remember where.

The mystery was solved in September, 1943. In a letter published in the Advocate on Sept. 29, Seabee Paul Ross said he was driving a command car and took a wrong turn out of Oran. The road ran past an American cemetery and Ross decided to stop and walk around.

“I stopped to look at the graves,” he wrote, “and was dumbfounded to find one bearing the name Eldon F. Larson.” He said the grave was marked with a white cross bearing Larson’s name, rank, outfit and the date of his death — Nov. 8, 1942.

Ross also noticed a metal plate on which was stamped Larson’s name, serial number, next of kin, and home address. The address was 3 N. Primrose, Alhambra, Calif. Also stamped on the plate was the name of a woman Ross thought was Larson’s wife. Her name was Adelia Newman and she was not the woman Eldon married in 1938. Ross said Eldon’s grave was Number 7 from the right in the first row. “I am writing this with the thought that Mr. and Mrs. Larson and Elzada will take comfort in knowing he is not lying alone and forgotten on some deserted battlefield.”

Although the Larsons were told they could claim Eldon’s body after the war apparently they did not.

Around 1948 the bodies of 2841 American servicemen were exhumed from temporary burial sites and moved to the new North African American Cemetery and Memorial in the city of Carthage, Tunisia.

PFC Eldon Ferdinand Larson is buried in Plat G, Row 18, Grave 14.

His name is also on his parent’s stone in the Laurel Cemetery.