Robert Cone

Enlisted date: January 16, 1941 Boston, Massachusetts

Cone said he spent two days in a hedgerow battle and was shot in the right arm. When he escaped to a French farm, the owner turned him over to the Nazis and made him a prisoner of war.

Cone knew he was going to be captured, so he took off his dog tags because there was an "H" on the for Hebrew. He knew that if the Germans saw the "H" they would kill him. He was listed as MIA. When American troops advanced and found Cone's dog tags and listed him as a KIA, Robert actually spent 11 months in three POW camps in Germany (Stalag 3C Alt Drewitz Brandenburg, Prussia 52-14).

At some point a prisoner escaped and informed the army that Robert Cone was alive, they changed his status from him to POW.

Before being released by the Russians near the Polish border, he fought alongside the Russians as they fled. Cone walked to freedom through Poland, Russia, and Romania; he traveled by ship to Egypt; and finally flew to Italy, finally returning home.

All of his unit's medal ceremonies had taken place without him.

After returning home, Cone married Ida (to whom he would be married for 66 years); He raised three children Natalie, Ronna and Edward. Edward said that his father spoke very little about the war.

Robert S. Cone passed away on June 30, 2010 after a brief illness. He was 88 years old.

Cone is buried at Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon, Norfolk County, MA.