How to Find Battle Names In Which a WWII Veteran Particiapted

Good afternoon,

I have a Veteran's DD-214 showing the various WWII Campaigns in which he participated during his active duty (3-1943 till 1-1946). I would like to know if there is a way to find out exactly what "battles" he fought in within the given Campaigns. Any suggestions/recommendations would be hugely appreciated.

Sincerely,
SheilaQ

 

Sheila,

Unfortunately no, the War Department never defined "battle" except informally and instead defined campaigns. The only was to find participation would be to track where his unit was when he was an active part of it and then matching that location and time frame to events around it.

 

Hi Richard,

Thank you, yet again. Ohhhhhhhh . . . I was afraid of that. I do have the results of a search submitted to the Nat'l Archives and Records Admin. in College Park, MD. They have several "boxes" of stuff that contains information about the 708th AAA and MG Battery - no records of the 647th. I may be planning a trip in the fall to visit a friend near Baltimore. Given that I know Amos' son would go half crazy to have to sit and do research (LOL), I may surprise him and stop at the NARA on my home and do the research myself -- figuring I could make copies of anything of interest. We'll see if that works out. That may, however, get me closer to that level of detail. Unless, of course, you know something I don't about the records there and know it would possibly be a waste of time. Do let me know if so.

Thank you again!!

SheilaQ

 

Hi Lou,
Thanks for the idea. I've posted here on my reply to you. Hopefully Richard will be able to see it too. Thank you again for your help.

Sheila

 

You will often find unit histories that detail action down to the company level. Your local librarian can help you with manuscripts collections and DoD and the Army have their own files.

 

I'm a big advocate for Morning Reports when researching the service of WWII veterans. It gives one a better idea of where a soldier was on any given date. This helps to focus one on the parts of a unit's history that is most relevant to the soldier. Also, MRs are more likely to provide specific info about the soldier that will not be found in unit records or histories (i.e. promotions, illnesses, transfers to/from unit).