699th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Co. (Tank)

Looking for info on my father. He served in this unit in 1945 (European theater). Can anyone help with any information as to what units the 699th might have been attached? He was also part of the 1802d Special Regiment. Any information / direction would be much appreciated!!

 

The 699th was with the Third Army in May 45, but not in Apr. An incidental mention in the fold3 material shows them working salvage near Le Havre while awaiting movement orders, perhaps suggesting they had just arrived.

Might be useful to ask NARA for any Apr 45 historical or operations reports to maybe reveal what they were up to between Mar and May. Hopefully NARA could find it without parent unit info. At least you know it was ETO.

Can't help with the 1802nd. You might ask USAMHI what they have on the unit - you might get date and place of organization, movement dates, etc., but you would need to include the service.

Good luck.

 

My father was also in the 699 Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Co. He is still alive, though the memories from so long ago are not strong.

 

My dad ended up in the 699th Ordinance HM Co. and left for Europe on 17 Feb 1945. Here is a photo of his training battalion. On the bottom is written "COC 11th Armored Replacement Battalion/ Capt. H. C. Ransom Com./Fort Knox, KY Nov 1942 Might this be helpful to you? (My dad is on the lowest platform, 8th from the left.)

 

The following is a transcription (w/ commentary) of the “travelogue” my father, Mearl Lawrence Smith, Tec 4, 699th Ordinance Heavy Maintenance Company. This was hand-written in a shirt-pocket sized booklet with a black, plastic cover, 20 lined sheets folded; 40 pages. He started this when he got on his first ship and carried it with him throughout the rest of his service.

His training platoon was: 2nd Platoon Co F 11th B. N. A. F. R. T. C., a part of the 11th Armored Replacement Battalion. He was attached to the 699th Ordinance HM Company and followed the Ninth Armored Division to and across Europe; from Portsmouth in England, to La Havre, France, all the way to Nuremberg where prisoners were being disarmed and rounded up. From there he was sent to Nancy, France, then south to the Mediterranean. He got on a ship; Gibraltar, Panama Canal, South China Sea, the Philippines, ending up in Tokyo Bay. That’s where he caught his ship for home. Please note: My father told me that he never once fired his rifle, except in practice.

Disclaimer: My father was a farm boy; the account is kind of sparse and his spelling and handwriting were a little problematic. I’ve cleaned up the spelling. Three words contained in (…) are proper names of places or ships that I have not yet been able to identify. [Any WWII/geography experts out there?]

I

“Over Sea’s Service”


Feb. 17, 1945 Left States on ship SS Mariposa.

Feb. 26, 1945 Arrived in Liverpool, England.

Feb. 27, 1945 Arrived in Portsmouth, England & stayed at Hilsea Barracks.

Mar. 12, 1945 Left on ship (Q-A-? m-n bia.)

Mar. 13, 1945 Arrived at La Havre, France. From ship to land on L. S. T. boat. Town blown all to Hell! Slept in heavily mined area.

Mar. 14, 1945 To Harfleur, France.*

[*I believe Dad’s Company, awaiting orders, spent these two weeks in the port augmenting the repair operations. The only mention that I’ve found so far of the 699th Ordinance HM Co was in a report from the La Havre Port Commander about using the 699th and one other Company to finally catch up on their repair backlog.]

Apr 2, 1945 Left Harfleur, France, went thru Belgium.

Apr 4, 1945 Arriving by truck in Aachen, Germany. Lived in apartment houses!

Apr. 15, 1945 Left Aachen, Germany on super highway to Brüdl, 10 miles from Cologne, Germany. Run Germans out of their homes & stayed in them. I was in Cologne Castle!

Apr. 31, 1945 Left Brüdl, Germany, crossed Rhine River, stayed in Frankfurt, Germany overnight.

May 1, 1945 Arrived in Nuremburg, Germany about a hundred miles from Berlin. From Rhine River, we came down Ruhr Valley & the (Saar) Basin.

Jun. 16, 1945 Left Nuremburg, Germany, back to France down thru Nancy, France.

Jun 20, 1945 To (aralse) staging area.

Jul 22, 1945 Left from Marseilles, France on the Mediterranean Ocean, thru the Strait of Gibraltar.

Jul 24, 1945 Sailed along Spain July 23-24 on the ship SS Monterey!

Thru the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic, thru the Panama Canal into the Pacific.


[NOTE: This short passage is in a different hand - as if someone wrote in Dad’s book by mistake.

IV

ETO Battle Stars

1- Ruhr Pocket

2- Central Germany

3- ETO Victory (Rotalon)



IV



Jul. 30, 1945 Came by Puerto Rico

Aug. 2, 1945 Arrived in Panama. Stayed in Panama City in barracks at Albrook Field, a Sixth Air Force base. Came thru Panama Canal. Came by Michel Islands & Caroline Islands

Aug. 27, 1945 Came by Saipan and Corregidor, the Philippine Islands.

Aug. 27 1945 Docked in Manila.

Oct. 31, 1945 Left Luzon Island.

Nov. 16, 1945 Arrived Shirogawa, Japan by L. S. T. ships.


Thru China Sea and Pacific Ocean; ran into bad storm!

From Shirogawa, Japan to Camp Leoper, near Sendia, Japan.

Dec. 24, 1945 Left Sendia, Japan.

Dec. 28, 1945 Arrived by L.S.T. ship to Yokohama, Japan.

Jan. 18, 1946 Left Yokohama by truck to 4th Repl. Depot.

Jan. 25, 1946 Caught a ship in Tokyo Bay to come home. – Ship CCNY Victory.*

[*Note: On June 23, 1945 the C.C.N.Y. Victory was officially commissioned at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard. {A City College of New York Victory Ship.} Intended for cargo, the C.C.N.Y. Victory was repurposed as a troopship, used to transport soldiers during redeployment into the “Far East.”]


Feb. 5, 1946 Morning of February 5, 1946 we seen land the good old USA. And started thru “the Strait of Juan de Fuca.” Picked up (Piolet) at 3:00 o’clock, then sailed for five hours, arrived & docked at Seattle, Wash. At 8:00 o’clock Tuesday evening Feb. 5, 1946. Coming thru the Straits, we came along the coast of Vancouver, Canada.

Feb. 6, 1946 Disembarked Wednesday morning in Seattle Harbor. Went by truck to Fort Lawton, Washington.

Feb. 7, 1946 Left Fort Lawton to train.

Feb. 8, 1946 Traveling thru Montana & Idaho


XXXXX

Sgt Richard Steffensen 37752493

Hqd Co. 2nd Bn Para Glider Inf.

A.P.O. 468 % P.M.

U.S. Army

[This name appears, sideways on the page, a few pages after the 9-page itinerary. I have a picture taken at the USO Club in Manila of my dad and old buddy from Iowa, Richard Eugene Steffensen, later my uncle Gene.]


On the two facing pages at the center of the book, where the string binding is, are nine names all written in different hands (Members of the 699th?):


Donald O. Nelson

1320 Freeman Ave.

Racine Wisconsin


Rudolph S. Schaefer

1110 South 16th Street

Milwaukee 4, Wisconsin


Charles A. McCartney

4651 Cliff Ave.

Louisville, Ky.


Lester G. Taylor

218 Main Street

Texarkana, Texas.


Manny Scrofani

662 Grand St

Bridgeport, Conn.


John Plunkett

16 King Street

Northfield, Vt.


Rodney G. Spaulding

18 Church St

Wakefield, Mass


Paul P. Neznik

Amsterdam, New York

RoDa#2(?)


George Morte

61 Hayward St.

Milford, Mass.

 

My Daddy was also in the 699 maintenance. He was originally stationed at Fort Knox, Ky, from 1941-1944 then they left for Europe, Philippines, Japan 1945-1946

 

I have information that my Dad. Laurens Eugene Wright was with your Dad. I have your Dad’s name and address written in a log that my Daddy had. I can’t get it to load. Hubert L. Smith, Greensboro, Alabama, Route I. It’s in your Dad’s handwriting