First news of Charles’s casualty came to Ruby Lee, designated emergency addressee by Charles himself, on December 9th, 1944, in the form of a telegram and letter. At this point, his status was MIA, and it would not be officially switched by the Department of War to KIA until December 14th, 1944, when the department received sufficient evidence of such. His burial report at Limey did list him KIA.
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On June 2nd, 1945, Davis, Jr. was sent a letter with an enclosed check for $10.08, which was a conversion of the 500 francs in Charles’s possession at his death. Adjusting for inflation puts this at $144.75 today. Within thirty days of receiving the letter, Davis, Jr. was shipped Charles’s personal effects, including a cigarette lighter, black wallet, tobacco pouch, fountain pen, a dime, and two English coins.
He later received a letter on May 9th, 1946, officially notifying him that Charles had been temporarily buried in Limey. |
On April 23rd, 1947, he was mailed another letter, this time enclosed with a photograph of the Limey Cemetery. Eventually, Davis, Jr. received the pamphlet “Disposition of World War II Armed Forces Dead” as a guide to complete the form “Request for Disposition of Remains” on July 21st, 1947. In this form, he chose option 1: Charles’s remains “be interred in a permanent American military cemetery overseas.”
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