WW2 Fallen 100: WW2 Normandy Fallen - Hal Cisgen, 4th Infantry Division & Cleveland Indians organization

First Lieutant Ordway Cisgen served with the 4th Infantry Division in Normandy.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93634638/ordway-h-cisgen
https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/538672805425463510/

First Lieutenant Ordway Harold “Hal” Cisgen never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WWII fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.

Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org.

This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War II fallen in one free-to-access central database. We are going to need a lot of volunteers.

Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

He was born on August 20, 1920 in Lorain, Lorain County, Ohio. His father, Harold Frederick Cisgen, was born in New York. His mother, Lilian M Rolison, was born in England. His father worked as a salesman. Hal had one sister, Lois Naomi Cisgen. Hal attended Lorain High School, playing on the baseball team. He was working as a cashier in 1940. Six feet six inches tall, he was recruited for minor league baseball by the Cleveland Indians as a left-handed pitcher. For details of his baseball career, including statistics, see his biography at http://www.baseballinwartime.com/in_memoriam/cisgen_ordway.htm.

He enlisted in the US Army on September 4, 1942. He was assigned to the 4^th Infantry Division, 22^nd Infantry Regiment, 2^nd Battalion, H Company. He trained with the 22^nd in New Jersey, Florida, and South Carolina, and crossed the Atlantic in January 1944. The 4^th Division trained for the Normandy invasion in Plymouth, England. Hal married Mary Gertrude Leow on December 10, 1943.

The 22^nd Infantry Regiment landed at Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 with the third wave. Getting past the beach, they were sent inland, seeing action at Azeville, Crisbecq, Le Theil, and Cherbourg. The Contenin Peninsula campaign finished on June 25, and the regiment had its first rest in weeks. They had suffered a sixty-five percent casualty rate.

The “Battle of the Hedgerows” began in July as the First Army moved south. Progress was slow, with massive efforts to take one field at a time. The Germans had good defenses in place and wet weather made travel difficult. On July 7, the 22^nd began efforts to take the town of La Maugerie. The battle didn’t end until July 13, with many more casualties, adding to the losses at Utah Beach and Cherbourg. Lt Cisgen died in action near Periers on July 11, 1944 during this operation.

Hal’s daughter, Halle Lee Cisgen, was born in October 1944. His widow remarried later to Jack Schwind.

Lt Cisgen is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Lorain, Lorain County, Ohio.

Thank you, Ordway Harold Cisgen for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Hal.

_____

This profile was written by Marilyn N. Clark. "I have a long-standing interest in World War 2. My grandfather and numerous great-uncles served in that conflict. I have a BA in history from the University of Utah and have a lot of experience with volunteer genealogical research. It’s an honor to find and share information about these heroes that made such great sacrifices. Many thanks to Don for organizing this effort to share their stories.”

This is one of the final 50 stories (14) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.

Last year on this date I profiled Carlson's Raiders Fallen Edward Maciejewski, 2nd Raider Battalion. You can read about Edward here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

Follow on Twitter @ww2fallen100

Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100

WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org

Sources:

Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93634638/ordway-h-cisgen

US military headstone application https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2375&h=17307&tid=&pid=&queryId=66a2e1db681c95c4f0c7554590eed8a1&usePUB=true&_phsrc=uTN819&_phstart=successSource

1940 Census https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2442&h=31704169&tid=&pid=&queryId=66a2e1db681c95c4f0c7554590eed8a1&usePUB=true&_phsrc=uTN820&_phstart=successSource

1930 Census https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=6224&h=71231960&tid=&pid=&queryId=66a2e1db681c95c4f0c7554590eed8a1&usePUB=true#?_phcmd=u('https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name%3DOrdway%2BH_Cisgen%26event%3D_ohio-usa_38%26birth%3D1920_ohio-usa_38%26death%3D1944_france_5087%26count%3D50%26father%3DHarold_cisgen%26gender%3Dm%26mother%3Dlilian%2Bm_rolison%26successSource%3DSearch%26queryId%3D66a2e1db681c95c4f0c7554590eed8a1','successSource')