I’ve been researching (or attempting to) my Grandfathers info. He passed away in 2017 at 99yo. God Bless him. He had only a few stories he would tell in which none of them make sense for the most part to what his DD214 shows. He mentioned being with Patton’s armored infantry (4th Armored Infantry) which isn’t a unit. He remembered following the tanks with the hedgerow cutters on the front clearing out fields and towns. His dd214 shows him landing in ETO September 15, 1944. And with the 495th Replacement Co. That unit was part of 11th Depot. Supplying the 1st and 9th Armies. He was injured during the Bulge. January 5th according to the record and the unit shown on the record was “60th” which could be of the 9th Armored or 9th Infantry lol. There was also a medical clearing company the same 60th I believe. His timeframe of his story and record match up for that part. He also spoke of liberation of a concentration camp. And I can tell you that there is no doubt in my mind he was at one based on how his emotions took over when briefly explaining what he witnessed. There was nothing on dd214 stating he was credited for liberation. He wore the GHQ patch on right shoulder and can’t see the left on his formal army photo. He was part of the training cadre at Ft. Benning and with the 124th Infantry there. He never once mentioned Benning but I have the book as proof. He only ever said he did basic at Ft. Dix but again that makes no sense being there was no training a Ft.Dix 1942-1946. Head scratching. What do you all think? Thankyou
With the military anything is possible. Transcription errors are replete in the records. My mother received TWO KIA-BNR letters. (Killed In Action-Body Not Recovered). She read the second one with no small amount of disdain. She refused to accept my GI Life Insurance. Good thing, I would have had to pay it back, two years of half pay, not a happy thought. Bottom line is "choose the version that works for you." At this distance that would be the most practical thing to do.
Having worked in Military administration i can tell you as OP says "Anything is possible" - Human error from writing/typing the wrong thing to missing information is highly possible. Your Grandfather was in the ETO - Thats plenty for my respect.
The records do not often reflect each unit that he served in. A lot of reassignments at wars end to gather points to return home. My father landed D-Day +31 with the 72nd Publicity Service Battalion, assigned 3rd Army, at wars end he was sent to the 7th Army. Then sent back to 3rd Army for the Nuremburg Trials. Millions in uniform, mistakes and omissions made. Remember him as part of the greatest generation.
When did he enter service? Where did he enter service? When did he go overseas and return? Was he a selectee or volunteer? Fort Dix actually did do basic training earlier. The 12th Infantry trained selectees there until June 1941 when it moved to Fort Benning to join the 4th Infantry Division. The 71st, 113th, 114th, and 174th Infantry also trained with National Guardsmen and selectees after they were federalized as well. How does his DD214 show "60th"? 60th Inf? 60th Arm Inf? Just "60th" indicates a sloppy clerk-typist processing his discharge, which was fairly common, there are all kinds of mistakes in discharges. If he was infantry in the 4th Armored Division it would have been the 10th, 51st, or 53d, so it is unlikely he was with them. Medical Clearing Companies were all numbered in the 600-series in the ETOUSA, except for the 391st assigned to the 61st Medical Battalion of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade. The 124th Infantry was Florida National Guard and arrived at Fort Benning 11 January 1942, when it became part of the Replacement and School Command, so that follows.
He entered a He entered at Ft. Dix January 22, 1942. His medical record from January 5, 1945 when he was wounded shows “60” for his unit. The dd214 shows 495th replacement co. September 7,1944 he left US and entered the ETO September 15,1944 according to the dd214 Came home the end of November 1945. Was discharged just before Christmas that year.
And he enlisted. He and all his hometown buddies went together thinking they would all end up together lol. We all know how that ended up. most of the 124th Infantry were sent to form the 29th Infantry Division which landed on D-Day. I don’t believe he was one of those boys. He mentioned going somewhere (South) to train a segregated transportation unit and “get them straightened out” is how he put it. here is some confusion also. According to him, he was second wave on the beach. No idea which beach and when, but he claimed he was assigned to patrol the beach at low tide to recover the dead that were washing ashore. Again… if his dd214 was correct, I doubt they were patrolling the beaches in mid September. He then went on to mention burning Germans out of pill boxes with gasoline. I don’t believe they did that in Normandy but I’m pretty sure they did during Fort Driant and Metz. Which was early September. And also tanks running out of gas in the middle of a field and getting shelled like crazy out in the open. And had some negative things to say about old Blood and Guts. Said “if they hadn’t run out of gas, they wouldn’t have stopped until Patton took Berlin”. He was pretty annoyed by that lol.
Yep, he entered service while voluntary enlistments were still possible. That is not correct. The 124th Infantry, Florida National Guard, was federalized in the first wave of NG activations in November 1940, as part of the 31st Division. Like most NG units, it was badly understrength and in spring 1941 was brought up to strength with selectees from the draft. They participated in the Louisiana and Carolina maneuvers of 1941, but after Pearl Harbor were separated from the 31st Division when it triangularized and became the 31st Infantry Division. The 124th then went to Benning, where it became demonstration troops for the Infantry School, while at the same time it provided cadre for a number of other Organized Reserve regiments in 1942 and 1943. As such, it was perpetually understrength and when it was inactivated on 2 March 1944, only about 350 officers and enlisted men went to the 154th Infantry Regiment, which had been activated for the 31st Infantry Division in September 1942 when its 156th Infantry had been shipped to England. That brought the 154th up to strength and it shipped out shortly afterwards for New Guinea with the rest of the 31st Infantry Division. The 156th Infantry went to England along with the 29th Infantry Division, but it was never part of it and did not "form it". The 29th Division was Virginia NG and was federalized and brought up to strength much as the 31st Division was. In England, the 156th Infantry acted as school troops for the Replacement Command there and likely provided men for the 29th Ingfantry Division as well as later arriving divisions. Given he arrived in Europe in September it is unlikely he was in the second wave on any beach. If he was assigned to recover bodies off a beach, it was likely on the Cotentin Peninsula in late December 1944, when the SS Léopoldville was torpedoed five miles offshore on 24 December. If he did, then he did not join an active unit at the front until later, which is a little unusual. However, since that is such a specific memory and unlikely to be something he would pick up from other sources to overlay on his own memory (conflation, which is common).That could mean his memories of clearing pillboxes and tanks out of gas may have been conflated from later war movies and he did not join an AIB until spring of 1945. "60" remains odd.
