Colonel Doyle Raphard Yardley (April 21, 1913 – April 23, 1946)[1] was an American military officer. He was the commanding officer of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, who was captured and later escaped from a German Prisoner of War camp.[2]
During the invasion of Italy, the 509th was dropped behind enemy lines near Avellino. Col. Yardley was captured and spent 16 months as a prisoner of war in Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland.
Yardley was a resident of Dublin, Texas, and the son of Alvin Alfard Yardley and Emma Edna Huffman. Yardley died shortly after the war of a gunshot wound in the chest received while cleaning his gun.[3]