Killed in Action WW2
Holland
401st Glider Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
------
SHELL FRAGMENT KILLS AKRONITE IN FOXHOLE
By Helen Waterhouse
A SHELL SCREAMED over the Holland front. Crouching in their foxholes a group of weary glider infantrymen raised their heads - breathed easy. It had passed safely over. But a little later one of them went to take cigarettes to their comrade, PFC James Kiss, in a nearby trench. What he saw made him turn back.
"I want to remember Jimmy as he was," he said. "A splinter of the shell must have struck him but I couldn't touch him -"
This was the tragic story as written home to Mrs. Joe Kiss, of 711 Harvard st., by a girl friend of the Akron soldier living in England. She had learned the details from one of the buddies in the other foxhole. But Mrs. Kiss still won't believe her son is gone. "Perhaps he was just badly hurt," she says in spite of a killed in action telegram form the government.
Kiss is one of two men reported killed in action. Four other were reported missing and four wounded. ... One of the reasons why Mrs. Kiss will not believe her son died on Oct. 13, as the belated wire stated, is that she received 50 golden chrysanthemums from him on Christmas day - her 50th birthday.
Also a series of conflicting wires came to her before the final one announcing his death. All arrived within a week. The first said that the glider trooper was missing in action - the second told her he was safely back with his outfit and the third was the death wire. Kiss had previously been wounded in action when his glider ran into a tree on D-Day.
Kiss was an only son. He had served overseas for a year, taking part in several glider invasions. He was formerly employed at the Acme store at Wallhaven.
(Akron Beacon Journal, 15 Jan 1945)
Killed in Action WW2
Holland
401st Glider Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
------
SHELL FRAGMENT KILLS AKRONITE IN FOXHOLE
By Helen Waterhouse
A SHELL SCREAMED over the Holland front. Crouching in their foxholes a group of weary glider infantrymen raised their heads - breathed easy. It had passed safely over. But a little later one of them went to take cigarettes to their comrade, PFC James Kiss, in a nearby trench. What he saw made him turn back.
"I want to remember Jimmy as he was," he said. "A splinter of the shell must have struck him but I couldn't touch him -"
This was the tragic story as written home to Mrs. Joe Kiss, of 711 Harvard st., by a girl friend of the Akron soldier living in England. She had learned the details from one of the buddies in the other foxhole. But Mrs. Kiss still won't believe her son is gone. "Perhaps he was just badly hurt," she says in spite of a killed in action telegram form the government.
Kiss is one of two men reported killed in action. Four other were reported missing and four wounded. ... One of the reasons why Mrs. Kiss will not believe her son died on Oct. 13, as the belated wire stated, is that she received 50 golden chrysanthemums from him on Christmas day - her 50th birthday.
Also a series of conflicting wires came to her before the final one announcing his death. All arrived within a week. The first said that the glider trooper was missing in action - the second told her he was safely back with his outfit and the third was the death wire. Kiss had previously been wounded in action when his glider ran into a tree on D-Day.
Kiss was an only son. He had served overseas for a year, taking part in several glider invasions. He was formerly employed at the Acme store at Wallhaven.
(Akron Beacon Journal, 15 Jan 1945)
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