David “Dave” Robert Millice Army Serial Number O-548865. He was from Mascot, the son of Carl Theodore “Bo” Millice and Mildred Kuster. He attended the University of Tennessee for two years, and enlisted from Missouri.
Lt. Millice was taken prisoner of war in the vicinity of St. Vith, Belgium on 21 December 1944 and died in the POW camp Stalag IV-B from pneumonia. Prisoners who died in this camp were buried in a cemetery in Neuburxdorf near Mühlberg. A lot of the remains could not be identified after the war. Lt. Millice is still reported as missing and he is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing at the American War Cemetery Epinal.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4 December 1945
A search has been instituted by United States authorities and the Polish militia to determine the whereabouts of Lt. David R. Millice, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl T. Millice, 7628 Maryland avenue, University City. Lt. Millice was liberated by Russian troops last April from a German prison camp in Poland and taken to a hospital. He has not been heard from since. An Associated Press dispatch from Skoke, Poland, today said he reportedly was brought to a hospital there for treatment for pneumonia after he had been released from Oflag 64, a Nazi prison camp. However, he is not listed in any of the hospital records there and it is believed he was with a Russian hospital fields unit, which moved several months ago. Col. Walter Pashley, United States military attaché in Poland, in conducting the investigation with the co-operation of the chief of the Polish militia. Carl Millice, who is purchasing agent for the American Zine, Lead and Smelting Co., said the family had been notified by the War Department last April that his son had been liberated and taken to the hospital at Skoke. No further word concerning him was received until about two months ago when the War Department notified the family that he was strangely missing and an investigation would be made. Lt. Millice, 23 years old, entered service about two years ago, while in his senior year at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He was sent overseas in the fall of 1944. He was attached to an infantry division and was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 in Belgium. The family heard regularly from him while he was a prisoner of war, the father said, but has had no word from him since his liberation.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 4 December 1945
Warsaw, Dec. 19 – American Air Attache Lt. Col. Edward J. York yesterday telegraphed the War Department that investigation had established that Lt. David Millice, St. Louis, Mo., died in a Russian field hospital at Wagroneic, Poland, after his liberation from the Nazi concentration camp Oflag No. 64 last January. Investigation by officials at the nearby town of Skoki revealed that Lt. Millice was buried at the Wagroneic Cemetery, where they found a headstone bearing his name in Russian – “David Millice, American lieutenant, flyer, died in defense of fatherland.” Lt. Millice was an artilleryman, and it is believe the Russians confused the branches of service.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19 December 1945
The body of Lt. David R. Millice of St. Louis, missing since last April, lies in a cemetery near Warsaw under a headstone with his name in Russian and the words, “Died in defense of fatherland.” Investigation by the War Department established today that Lt. Millice died in a Russian field hospital at Wagroneic, Poland, after Red Army capture of a German camp where he was imprisoned. He was suffering from pneumonia at the time, and later was moved westward.
- Rank: Second Lieutenant
- Date of birth: 16 November 1922
- Date of death: 20 February 1945
- County: Knox
- Hometown: Mascot
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Battles: Battle of the Bulge
- Awards: Purple Heart, Bronze Star
- Burial/Memorial Location: Tablets of the Missing, Epinal American Cemetery
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XIV, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Dave R. Millice
Image Gallery
Click a thumbnail below to view at full size.
