A Butler County infantryman from Mars has been reported missing in action in the Italian theater of operations, it was reported by the War department today.

Private First Class John E. Davidson, son of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Davidson of Mars, has been missing in action since May 14, 1944, according to official messages received by the family last night.

The missing soldier is the husband of Mrs. Fay Davidson of Butler R.D. 7 and has been in the service since December 1942.

The last letter received from Private Davidson was written on May 10, just four days before he was reported missing in action.

Private Davidson served in this country at Camp Van Dorn, Miss., and Fort Dix, N.J.

A twin brother, Corporal William H. Davidson is in the service as well as Private First Class Thomas M. and Corporal Charles L. Davidson, brothers of the missing soldier.

A search of lists of WWII military dead, wounded or missing soldiers gave no clue of Davidson's fate.

More excerpts from the Butler Eagle's front page on June 10, 1944, can be found on Page 8.

A Butler County resident who saw his first service with the English Eighth Army in the wastelands of North Africa and who later transferred to the American army, has been killed in action in Italy, it was announced today.Sergeant Harry L. Walters, son of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Walters of Harrisville R.D. 1, formerly of Butler R.D. 2, was killed in action while serving with the Tank Corps on May 23, the official telegram from the War Department revealed.Sergeant Walters had been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in the North African campaign and also the red and white Gold Conduct ribbon for three years of active enlisted service.He took part in the British campaign in Egypt with an American tank detachment assigned to the British army. The county soldier was presented when the combined Allied armies stopped Marshall Rommel at El Alamein at the Egyptian border.When Rommel tried to fight his way through Egypt at Bardia, Sergeant Walters was on hand with his tank outfit to put a stop to the advance and some of the hardest fighting took place in the sector occupied by the American tankmen.After the invasion of North Africa Sergeant Walters went with the landing force to Sicily and later landed on the beaches of Italy. It is believed that he was at the Anzio beachhead when the Germans tried desperately to chase the invaders into the sea.Details of the action in which the Harrisville district soldier was killed were given in the official communication.He leaves his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George B. Walters of Harrisville R.D. 1, and a sister, Miss Jean Walters, at home.

ALLIED SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, London, June 10 — An American armored column was reported by the Nazis today to have driven within 10 miles of Cherbourg after other Allied forces captured the Normandy towns of Isigny and St. Croix in new advances which linked their beachheads along a front of nearly 60 miles.Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley's United States forces seized the French costal stronghold of Isigny and six miles to the west battled fiercely for Cartenan, bastion of the German defenses athwart the base of the Normandy peninsula, while the right wing drove toward Cherbourg.

LONDON, June 10 — Thousands of American and British warplanes went to the support of Allied armies in France today, taking advantage of improving weather to strike at German troop concentrations, air ports, rail centers and gun posts behind the Normandy front.

ROME, June 10 — A new democratic government, considered 100 percent anti-Fascist, was set up in liberated Italy today, pledged to rid the nation completely of fascism and further Italy's war effort against Germany, its former Axis partner.White goateed, 71-year-old Ivanoe Bonomi, retaining the posts of foreign affairs and interior minister, formed the new cabinet within 24 hours after he was named premier to replace Marshal Pietro Badoglio.

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Naples, June 10 — Allied troops, plunging forward 14 miles in a single thrust, have captured Tuscania, 50 miles northwest of Rome, it was announced today as the Fifth and Eighth armies pounded in pursuit of battered German forces withdrawing along the entire Italian front.Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark's had spurted 50 miles across the plains north of Rome in five days, and the inability of the hard hit German 14th army to make a stand now laid open the Nazi flank to attack by the Eighth army.

WASHINGTON, June 10 — Price Administrator Chester Bowles today brought all used passenger cars under price control, effective July 10, and established specific prices for different models at levels that prevailed last January.Bowles said used car ceilings would discourage the hoarding automobiles and protect the public from further increases in used car prices. He said these prices have gone up on an average of 20 percent in the past year and a half and 30 percent in two and one-half years.Bowles set up specific dollars-and-cents prices at the January 1944 levels for about 6,000 models of 23 makes manufactured from 1937 through 1942.All sellers, both private individuals and dealers, are covered by the new program. It does not, however, apply to used trucks which are under a separate price regulation.

Declaring the fifth war loan drive that opens in Butler County next Monday morning will prove the most important campaign of the entire war, Elias Ritts, chairman of the countywide appeal, warned the people of Butler County today that they must tighten their belts and “do more than they ever did before in the matters of individual purchases.”