The Alpha Dead Man
Captain Robert Moffat Losey, shown here as a West Point cadet,
was the first American casualty of World War II.
The first American to die during World War II was an Army meteorologist named Captain Robert Moffat Losey. Capt. Losey was assigned as a military attaché to the U.S. embassy in Finland. His mission was to observe the details of the Russo-Finnish War and then report back. His professors at Caltech described him as “Perhaps the most brilliant student who ever attended the school.”
Adolph Hitler’s blitzkrieg revolutionized modern war.
Credit: German Federal Archives
The World Goes to War
World War II began in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. That operation precipitated a cascade of events that eventually drew in most of planet Earth. We humans have been institutionally slaughtering each other ever since we discovered that we had opposable thumbs. However, the Second World War took all of that to the next level.
Capt. Losey had already been spirited to safety in neutral Sweden. However, on April 21, 1940, he volunteered to return to the combat zone to help evacuate embassy staff. While passing through Dombas in Norway, Losey and his chauffeur were caught up in a Luftwaffe raid. They found refuge in a nearby railway tunnel, but Losey wanted to watch.
The Norwegian defenders tried desperately to defend against the Luftwaffe air attack.
Curiosity and the Human Male
Down here in the Deep South, we have tornadoes. Modern meteorology is such that these things no longer seem to sneak up on us anymore. Even way out in the hinterlands where we live, storm sirens are still close enough to wake us up. Automated cell phone messages will also alert anyone in the path of a developing tornado. You are really without excuse if you find yourself out in such a dangerous storm in modern America. However, notification is not the problem. The kill mechanism for the American male is actually curiosity.
When the sirens go off, my sweet wife grabs a book and a battery-powered lantern and seals herself up in our safe space. She’s happy to stay there for two days if that’s what it takes. By contrast, I like to keep an eye on developments. That means I’ll gradually work my way over to the window and make an informed assessment of the situation based upon my extensive practical experience as an actual man.
This used to drive my wife crazy. Eventually, she just sort of gave up. I have life insurance. After 37 years of marriage, she’s realized that trying to convince me not to stand in front of a big plate glass window to monitor an approaching deadly tornado is likely fruitless. Such was the case with Capt. Losey.
Losey and his compatriots were safe. Nobody could deliver ordnance through that much solid rock into a railway tunnel. However, he couldn’t help himself. He had never actually seen an air raid before. As a result, he posted himself in the mouth of the tunnel to take a look.
Adolf Hitler was a megalomaniacal scumbag. His delusions of
grandeur cost tens of millions of lives. Credit: German Federal Archives
Simple Foul Luck
War involves a great deal of seriously lethal random. Who lives or dies can often be a function of inches. In this case, Capt. Losey was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
An errant German bomb fell nearby and detonated. A steel fragment pierced Losey’s chest and dropped him where he stood. He was one dead man among many that horrible day, but his American nationality made his death an extra big deal.
At this early stage, Hitler and his minions were rabid not to drag America into the war. World domination is more readily undertaken piecemeal than all at once. In fact, an institutional inability to meter the violence was the Nazis’ ultimate undoing.
Several days later, after the details came to light, Hermann Göring sent a message to American General Hap Arnold. Göring was the commander of the Luftwaffe. The rotund German Field Marshal expressed sincere regret over the young man’s demise. At this point, there was little to be done about it. Capt. Losey was simply in the wrong place at a terribly dangerous time.
These Polish defenders fought the good fight,
but they were no match for Hitler’s legions.
Humanity is Broken
People are institutionally horrible. Nobody is really sure how many lives were lost in World War II. Estimates range between 50 and 75 million. That is a number that is beyond the human mind’s capacity to comprehend. By war’s end, the world’s combatants had produced enough ammunition to shoot every human being on the planet 40 times. With the benefit of hindsight, that’s frankly embarrassing.
Most serious wars are not fought for particularly noble goals. They are usually fought because of the delusional whims of a madman. Hitler, Tojo, Hussein, Gaddafi, Putin … in each case, some lunatic guy sees something he wants and then drags the whole freaking planet along for the ride. You’d think this deep into the Information Age, there would be a better way.
History has forgotten Capt. Robert Moffat Losey. Some 16 million Americans served in uniform during WWII. More than 400,000 of them never came home. That’s one in 40. Capt. Losey’s sacrifice was caught up in a veritable ocean of blood. However pedestrian though the circumstances may be, he was indeed the first.
