S-Sgt. Van Anglen Missing In Action

Parents Learn Son Last Heard Of Sept. 3 in France

(1944) -- S/Sgt. Kenneth Van Anglen, Son of Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Van Anglen of Hillside Avenue has been missing in France since Sept. 3.

His parents received the official telegram from the war department on Oct. 2.

Last Saturday, they received a letter from their son which he had written two days before the action after which he was reported missing.

A member of the Essex Troop since November 1940, S-Sgt. Van Anglen was federalized with the troop in January 1941.

After training in South Carolina, half of the Essex Troop was sent to England, Van Anglen being with the other half which was sent to North Africa.

His cavalry reconnaissance unit participated in the African and Italian campaigns, then went to France.

He is a graduate of Nutley High School and worked at Wright Aeronautical corporation. A brother Richard is at the apprentice seaman training center at Samson, N.Y.

POW/MIA

S/Sgt. Van Anglen
POW, Arrives Home
Liberated by Russians
Home Coming Was Delayed
By Being Wounded

(Year unknown - 1945) -- His long imprisonment in a German camp behind him, S/Sgt. Kenneth Van Anglen of Hillside Avenue who was liberated from Stalag IIC at Kurstin, Germany on Jan 31 arrived home early this week for a sixty-day leave.

Liberated with S/Sgt. Van Anglen was Cpl. Joseph Finlay, of Park Avenue who arrive home two weeks ago. The two soldiers were separated in Warsaw, where they had made their way after being released when S/Sgt. Van Anglen was hit in the left temple by shrapnel during an air raid.

Van Anglen was hospitalized and operated on and after three weeks he was sent to Odessa, sailing from there to Naples where he picked up an American ship to Boston.

After completion of his furlough, Van Anglen will go to Atlantic City where he expects to undergo operations on his eye, the vision of which has been impaired.

Van Anglen has gained back about 25 pounds of the weight he lost while in the German prison camp, is in excellent spirits and says of all the places he has been since he entered service there is no place like the United States.

Cpl. Finlay, S/Sgt. Van Anglen and Sgt. Herbert Thornack of Rutherford, all of who were captured in France and imprisoned together, held a reunion Tuesday to talk over their experiences.

(PEAVER - Prolly Nutley Sun)

According to Kurt Van Anglen, son the POW: S-Sgt. Van Anglen, with the 117th Cavalry was captured in the French town of Montrevel where they had been sent to cut off the German retreat to Berlin.

These POWs were force-marched to Germany where they were imprisoned in Stalag IIIC. They were released in early February 1945 by Russian troops.

Around mid-February, S-Sgt. Van Anglen was wounded when an anti-aircraft round burst in a tree. He spent several months in hospitals in Europe and Washington, DC, before returning to civilian life in Nutley.

On his return, S-Sgt. Van Anglen married Eleanor Katt, sister of Sgt. Charles W. Katt, U. S. Army, a Nutley son who died Nov. 27, 1943. With his wife Aileen, Sgt. Katt had a son Charles Richard. Aileen remarried and raised young Charlie Guttilla with her new husband. Charlie Guttilla was killed in action in Vietnam on Feb. 20, 1967.