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A big brother to Bob
Bob Roling remembered Johnny as a big brother. A handwritten family chart identifies Johnny as a son of Ben Roling and Katherine Korte, and records that he died in World War II. In the family account passed down from Bob, Johnny stayed with Joe and Ida after his mother died, while his father, Ben, traveled for work. His older brother Frankie stayed with Aunt Flora. Johnny later returned to his father after Ben remarried. The family also recalled later visits and Sunday dinners.
The family memories, census households and Army records strongly point to Private John W. Roling. In 1930, five-year-old Johnnie was listed with his grandfather, John F. Roling, in Salisbury. Ten years later, John W., 15, was again recorded as his grandson. These two snapshots do not tell us when all of Johnny's stays with Joe and Ida occurred.
Entering Army service
Johnny was inducted into the Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on March 2, 1943. He spent the next week in the Enlisted Reserve Corps and began active duty on March 9.
Before entering the Army, Johnny worked as a lathe operator and had completed four years of high school. His service record names Ben F. Roling as his father, Aunt Flora as his emergency contact, and his brother Frank as serving in the U.S. Navy.
Source notes: Family-held additional Army personnel packet for John W. Roling: PDF page 33, “Official Statement of the Military Service and Death,” July 29, 1946; and PDF page 48, service-record sheet. The statement records induction and transfer to the Enlisted Reserve Corps on March 2, followed by active duty on March 9. The family entries name Flora Roling as his aunt and do not name his mother.
Malaria in Italy
Johnny was hospitalized with malaria in Italy in August 1944. He was admitted to the 37th General Hospital in Naples on August 5, and a blood smear confirmed the diagnosis the next day. His hospital card records his return to duty on August 23.
Source notes: Family-held additional Army personnel packet, JohnRolingfile2.pdf, PDF pages 11–13: field medical tag, August 4, 1944, and 37th General Hospital card, August 5–23, 1944. The hospital card records a positive smear for Plasmodium vivax on August 6.
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.
The family behind the file
The belongings sent to Aunt Flora
Johnny’s belongings tell a more personal story than a service chronology alone. One Army inventory lists twenty photographs, five letters, a religious medal, souvenir coins and a wristwatch. Another lists a camera, three rolls of film, a Bible and personal pictures. In August 1945, the Army Effects Bureau wrote to Aunt Flora about forwarding his property. One letter explained that a testament had been damaged by rust before reaching the bureau, but the staff believed she would want it regardless of its condition. These small possessions connect the soldier in the records with the young man his family remembered.
Source: John W. Roling, individual military casualty file, PDF pp. 45, 50, 53 and 58.
Asking where Johnny lay
In February 1946, Mrs. John R. Widmer wrote from Salisbury on Widmer Insurance Agency stationery. The family had been told that Johnny was buried in a military cemetery somewhere in Germany. She wanted the cemetery’s name, his plot and grave numbers, and the nearest town. The Army first explained his temporary burial at Bensheim, then wrote again in March with his new burial location at St. Avold, France. Her handwritten inquiry preserves something the official forms cannot show by themselves: the effort from home to find the precise place where he lay.
Source: John W. Roling, individual military casualty file, PDF pp. 29–30 and 33.
A brother’s choice
In March 1948, Johnny’s brother Frank signed the form choosing a permanent American military cemetery overseas as Johnny’s final resting place. The paperwork was witnessed in Salisbury by notary Gertrude R. Widmer. Later correspondence followed Frank’s move to Louisiana; the change recorded in the file was a change of address, not a reversal of the burial choice. In May 1949, the Army wrote that Johnny had been permanently interred at St. Avold and that military funeral services had been held at his grave. The records preserve both the family’s decision and the long sequence of correspondence after the fighting ended.
Source: John W. Roling, individual military casualty file, PDF pp. 9, 12, 17–19.
Remembered in France
View a historic image of Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, Saint-Avold, France, circa 1982. National Archives, photograph 117-LC-17 (public domain). This is a view of the cemetery, not Johnny’s individual grave.
A cemetery transcription drawn from American Battle Monuments Commission data lists John W. Roling, with the same service number, at Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold, France. It also lists a Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster. That is a useful lead toward a possible repeat award, but the official individual record or award orders still need to confirm the detail.
Sources and research notes
Family sources: Bob's recollections passed to his older son describe Johnny's stays with Joe and Ida and identify his father as Ben. An undated handwritten family compilation separately lists Ben Roling, his marriage to Katherine Korte, and their son John (Johny), who died in World War II. The chart's author and date are not established; this is family-record evidence rather than a birth certificate. Neither source supplies exact dates for the household moves. The frequency of later visits was recalled tentatively.
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.
Birth index: the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services database extract, released by Reclaim The Records, contains John William Roling, born August 20, 1924. Its four fields do not identify parents, birthplace or military serial. The name and date fit the census ages and strengthen the identification, but the index alone does not join the birth to this soldier. View the released index collection. This is an index entry, not an inspected birth certificate.
1930 census: Salisbury City, ED 21-18, sheet 7A, April 8, dwelling 192/family 201, lines 38–42. View the original census sheet.
1940 census: Salisbury City, ED 21-20, sheet 14A, April 16, household 361. View the original census sheet.
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.
Lorraine American Cemetery transcription, surnames R: John W. Roling, 37512628, Plot G, Row 6, Grave 27; Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster. This is a secondary transcription described as derived from ABMC, not a directly inspected official individual record. Army Purple Heart guidance explains that an oak leaf cluster denotes a subsequent award. The exact count remains unconfirmed here.
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.