This date, June 23, some 70 years ago, marked a very unfortunate turn in the life of Lewis Edward Moore, one of The Greatest Generation who hailed from Lima.
On June 23, 1944, he was captured by the German army in Italy during World War II. Moore had been in the Army since 1925, and was a tank commander after being trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was a member of the 1st Armored Division, a part of the North African Campaign, and the invasion of Italy.
He had earned a battlefield promotion during the North African Campaign, to a first lieutenant. As a prisoner of war, he was held in a prison camp (Oflag64) in Poland, before being marched to a camp in Germany under severe wintry conditions, during the waning days of the war. He was finally liberated by the Russian army, I believe in April 1945. He remained in the Army until 1956, retiring as a major.
He died in Findlay in late 1978 at the age of 67. My Uncle Louie, a true American hero.
— Bill Moore, Lima