The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-22

Gb4 GkOg6lN4xO 4SA AS"NNANAA9 A AAAAS Captain Losey, 31, and a native of Iowa, was the Army's crack aero- nautical meteorological expert. He was sent to Finland during the Russo Finnish conflict to observe the performance of aircraft in Arc- tic weather conditions. When the Germans invaded Norway, he was rushed to that country from Fin land.
 Sterling cabled the state depart ment from Stockholm that at p. m., Stockholm time he received a telegram from Major Yssum, pre- sumably. a Norwegian army officer, telling of Losey's death. No details were given.
 Cable Message
 Sterling said the message from YSSum read:
 American military attache, Capt Losey, was killed by German bomber plane at Dombaas today. Inform Mrs. Hartman. He will be sent Monday, via Roras, to Fjellnas where instructions from legation are awaited"
 The telegram was sent from the Norwegian town of Opdal and was dated Sunday.
 Sterling said he had instructed the American naval attache, Lieut. Commander Ole O. Hagen, who now is near Fjellnas, to claim the body and to await further instructions. The state department instructed Sterling to obtain all possible in- formation about circumstances sur rounding Losey's death.
 Report Confirmed
 Washington, April 22-UP)-The American minister to Sweden, Fred erick A. Sterling confirmed today that Capt. Robert M. Losey, Amer icon military attache, had been killed in a German bombing attack at Dombaas, Norway.
 Losey was the first American of- ficial to fall a victim in the Eu- ropean war.
 Prior to his overseas assignment, 1tosey was with the office of the chief of air corps, Maj. Gen, Henry H. Arnold. In that capacity he was one of the chief advisers regarding meteorology.
 After the war in Finland, Captain Losey was detailed as air attache and assistant military attache to Norway and Sweden, with head quarters at Stockholm. Since the German invasion of Norway he has been active in observations of aerial combat in that sector.
 Losey, who held rating of air pilot, was graduated from the army's primary and advanced train- ing schools at Brooks and Kelly Field, Tex. Later he took a master of science degree in aero-engineer- ing at the California Institute of Technology. He was married.
 Losey was appointed to the U. s. Military Academy at West Point in 1925 and four years later he was commissioned second lieutenant in the field artillery. A year after graduation, in 1930 he transferred IO the ar corps.
 First Assignment
 Losey, 31, and a native Of An- drews, Ia., was given his new as- signment shortly after the German invasion of Norway. And one of the first things he was detailed to do was to help assure the safety of Mrs. J. Borden Hartman, U. s. minister to Norway, who has fol- lowed the refugee Norwegian gov- ernment to the northern portion of the country.
 Mrs. Hartman reported Saturday that Losey had gone into Norway to contact members of families oi officials of the American legation and consulate at Oslo and other refugees who were making their way to the Swedish border by way of Littlehammer. That was the last word received about Losey's where abouts or activities until American Minister Frederick A. Sterling al Stockholm reported his death to tht state department today.
 The refugees whom he was tt contact reached the Swedish borde, safely yesterday in charge of Lieut. Commander Ole O. Hagen, U. S naval attache at Stockholm.
 It was assumed here that Lose. had remained behind in his capaci ty as military attache for air, tt observe the military operations il the vicinity.
 Asks Full Report
 The state department requested a full report on details of his death but it was believed unlikely that any diplomatic action would be taker since his presence at the war from was in the line of duty.
 Losey was given his first oversea! assignment in February, going di rectly to Helsinki. When the wal spread to Norway, he was quickly