Harold G Russell

Bomber Pilot is Missing in Action

FIRST LT. HAROLD G. RUSSELL
Word has been received by Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Russell of Altoona that their son, First Lieutenant Harold G. Russell, is missing in action in the European Theater of Operations.

Lieutenant Russell was piloting a Flying Fortress.

The message to Mr. and Mrs. Russell from the Adjutant General of the Army was as follows:

"We regret to inform you that the Commanding General of the European area reports your son missing in action since June 22. If further details or other information of his status are received, you. will be promptly notified."

Lieutenant Russell was graduated from the Army Air Forces four-engine, bomber school at Hendricks Field, Sebring, Florida, after enlistment as an aviation cadet. He was promoted to First Lieutenant April 1, last.

It is believed his plane was shot down while on a bombing raid over Europe.

Liberated from German Prison; on Way Home

LT. HAROLD G. RUSSELL
Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Russell of Altoona received a letter from their son, First Lieutenant Harold G. Russell, today, informing them that he had been liberated from a German prison camp by the American Third Army, had been flown out of Germany to France, and expects to be home around June 1.

Lieutenant Russell, pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress, was shot down over the Ruhr District in Germany on June 22, 1943 and had been a prisoner of the Germans for nearly two years.

He said that the Americans were giving them all the food they could eat and that white bread tasted like angel food cake, after not seeing any for a couple of years.

General Patton visited the prison camp the day before, he wrote.