Lodia Thomas Probert - k.i.a. - 337th Infantry Regiment

Lodia Thomas Probert is my Great Uncle, my Grandmother's brother. He was born in Lonaconing, Maryland on 22 October 1906. By the time he was 14 his family had moved to Baltimore. Lodia was going by the name Thomas in 1928 and in 1930 was employed as a Lithographer at a Printing Company. Lodia is working as a machinist at a Canning Company in 1940 and lives with his married sister, Elsie, my grandmother, in Baltimore.

On 15 May 1942 Lodia decides to enlist and become a part of the War effort. He is 5'6" tall, weighs 144 pounds, has hazel eyes, brown hair and is 35. He is given the rank of Private and assigned in the Army to the 3rd Battalion, 337th Infantry Regiment, 

               

85th Division, Company I.

                 Lodia Thomas Probert

On 21 May 1944 an order was given to capture the city of Terracina in Italy. The men of the 3rd were ordered to clear the eastern slope of Mt. Croce and once they achieved that they were to secure the area above the city of Terracina. On the 23rd of May during the securing of Terracina (this link is a description of the chain of events in Terracina on 23 May 1944) Lodia was killed in action. He was originally buried in Italy but in November 1948

 he was moved to the National Cemetery in Baltimore.  


At some point before he shipped out to Italy, Lodia married Evelyn M. Robe and nine months later she gave birth to Thomas Burdette Probert.