Literary Figure. Born Edward Reginald Crone, he was a student at Hobart and William Smith in Geneva, New York when he enlisted in the Army in the spring of 1943. He was sent to the Advanced Engineering School at the University of Alabama but was eventually was sent to the European Theatre of Operations with the 106 Infantry. His unit took part in the Battle of the Bulge where he was captured in the Ardennes. Along with 150 other prisoners he was dispatched to Dreseden, Germany in cattle cars where they were housed in a meat-packing plant. Living on starvation rations, the prisoners took part in forced labor clearing the city of rubble and bodies after the Allied firebombing. Crone, though suffering from malnutrition, tended to trade his food for candy whenever possible. He died less than a month before the end of the European war and was interred in Dresden. Following the war, his family had his remains brought back to the United States for interment in Rochester, NY. Fellow POW Kurt Vonnegut eventually admitted that he used Crone as the role model for the character of Billy Pilgrim in his novel "Slaughterhouse Five".
Literary Figure. Born Edward Reginald Crone, he was a student at Hobart and William Smith in Geneva, New York when he enlisted in the Army in the spring of 1943. He was sent to the Advanced Engineering School at the University of Alabama but was eventually was sent to the European Theatre of Operations with the 106 Infantry. His unit took part in the Battle of the Bulge where he was captured in the Ardennes. Along with 150 other prisoners he was dispatched to Dreseden, Germany in cattle cars where they were housed in a meat-packing plant. Living on starvation rations, the prisoners took part in forced labor clearing the city of rubble and bodies after the Allied firebombing. Crone, though suffering from malnutrition, tended to trade his food for candy whenever possible. He died less than a month before the end of the European war and was interred in Dresden. Following the war, his family had his remains brought back to the United States for interment in Rochester, NY. Fellow POW Kurt Vonnegut eventually admitted that he used Crone as the role model for the character of Billy Pilgrim in his novel "Slaughterhouse Five".
Bio by: Iola
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