Newspaper reports, December wound and April1945 Army records; unresolved battlefield/award discrepancies retained.
Wartime news from home
Two Moberly newspaper reports bring Johnny’s wartime story back to his family in Salisbury. A January 9, 1945 notice identified him as Ben Roling’s son and J. F. Roling’s grandson. Reporting that he had been wounded in France on December 14, it also said he had been in the Italian campaign when Rome was taken.
On April 20, the paper reported that Ben had received word of his son’s death in Germany on April 3. It remembered Johnny as a St. Joseph’s School graduate who had been raised by his grandfather and Aunt Flora. It named his brother Frank, serving in the Navy; sisters Mrs. John Wagner and Mrs. Cleve Iman; and half sisters Virginia and Mary Lou Roling. Read the newspaper citations and source notes below.
A wound in December
Johnny's name appears in Company C's December 1944 casualty list. It records him as lightly wounded in action on December 14 and gives his hometown as Salisbury, Missouri. The entry supplies a firm date for an earlier wound, although it does not say where he was hit or describe the injury.
A family account suggests that Johnny may have received more than one Purple Heart. That remains a question for the award records: a wound listing and a later death listing cannot, by themselves, tell us how many medals he received.
Company C in Germany
The 753rd Tank Battalion's own April 1945 casualty report lists John W. Roling of Salisbury in Company C. It records that he was killed in action on April 3. That was 35 days before V-E Day, May 8, when the war in Europe ended.
The company's reports help describe the fighting around that date. By late March, its tanks had advanced through the Bergzabern area and moved on toward Wieblingen. On April 1, Company C was attached to the 253rd Infantry Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division. The following day its tanks supported infantry crossing the Neckar River.
A field medical tag preserved with Johnny’s additional Army papers now adds a direct account. It records that his tank was hit by an “AP gun” near Bittelbronn, Germany, at 7 p.m. on April 3, 1945, and that he was killed in action. The tag identifies him with Company C, 753rd Tank Battalion. A separate entry records the tagging at Mosbach the following afternoon.
Another wartime newspaper account
The Salisbury Press-Spectator carried another account on January 12, 1945. It printed the message received by Johnny’s aunt, Miss Flora Roling, identifying her nephew as Pvt. John William Roling and reporting that he had been slightly wounded in action on December 14 in France. The article’s headline instead said Italy. That disagreement is retained here. This is another report of the December 14 wound already described above, not evidence of a separate injury.
“John Roling Was Wounded in Italy,” Salisbury Press-Spectator, January 12, 1945, p. 1, family-preserved newspaper clipping. The visible quotation names France, despite the headline’s Italy. The article continues below the preserved image, so no claim is made about its unseen continuation. The clipping does not establish an additional casualty event or a Purple Heart award count.
Sources and research notes for this chapter
Contemporary newspapers: “John W. Roling Injured in France,” Monitor-Index and Democrat (Moberly), January 9, 1945, page 6; and “John W. Roling Killed in Action,” Moberly Monitor-Index and Moberly Evening Democrat, April 20, 1945, volume 26, number 235. The latter appears to be the front page from its masthead; no page numeral is visible. These reports were read from article crops and the corresponding page headers preserved by the family.
The death notice prints age 21 and grandfather “J. W. Roling”; the injury notice prints “J. F. Roling.” The separately qualified August 20, 1924 birth-index entry would make him 20 on April 3, 1945. Those discrepancies remain unresolved. Both reports name Ben as his father, but neither names his mother or supplies a service number. The newspaper’s broad account of his upbringing does not date every household stay described in Bob’s recollection. Its reference to the Italian campaign is a reported detail, not proof of Johnny’s role in a particular action.
753rd Tank Battalion, December 1944 casualty roster continuation, C Company, PDF page 281: Pvt John W. Roling, LWA, December 14, 1944, Salisbury, Missouri. The serial is partly degraded. View the original wound entry. Official Army terminology expands LWA as Lightly Wounded in Action; the terminology example concerns a different unit and battle. The classification does not establish an injury's medical details or a Purple Heart award count.
753rd Tank Battalion, “Battle Casualties for the Month of April 1945,” C Company row for Pvt Roling, John W., PDF page 118. The serial is ink-blurred in this copy; his service number, 37512628, is clearly printed in the separate original Chariton County Army casualty list. View the unit casualty report.
Company C March narrative, printed pages 5–6/PDF 105–106; April narrative, printed pages 1–2/PDF 147–148. Battalion diary, printed pages 1–3/PDF 120–122. The April 3/4 discrepancy is unresolved. The unit's movements do not establish Johnny's presence in every earlier action. Read Company C's April account.
December unit context: Company C’s outstanding-action summary describes fighting at Mittelwihr and Bennwihr from December 9–14. The located daily narrative skips printed page 6 between PDF 286 and 287, so the December 13–14 daily entries cannot be read. The surviving context does not identify where Johnny was wounded. Read the company summary.
National Archives: V-E Day and the surrender documents.
Unresolved battlefield episode: Company C’s account describes its 1st Platoon advancing through Billigheim and Bittelbronn toward Möckmühl on April 3. Enemy fire stopped the advance; a tank was knocked out, two crewmen were wounded and one man was killed. The killed man is unnamed. The battalion diary places an apparently matching episode on April 4. The new field medical tag independently places Johnny’s fatal tank hit near Bittelbronn on April 3, but the unnamed tank in this operational account has not been conclusively matched to him.
Johnny’s 64-page individual military casualty file is now in the family archive. It adds the correspondence and personal-property records described above.
Additional source: John W. Roling, Medical Department Form 52b field medical tag, family-preserved photograph from the additional Army packet. The injury entry gives April 3, 1945, 1900 hours near Bittelbronn; the separate tagging entry gives Mosbach, April 4, 1700 hours. The record does not identify his tank number or crew.