14th Replacement Depot

Anyone know anything about this?.....

Like where was it? I know my dad arrived in Scotland September 25, 1944..... I have a letter dated 12-09-1944 from England, and another in England dated Somewhere in England, sometime before Xmas, 1944.

In a another letter, he mentions that he landed at La Havre on December 15th by LST from the English boat that brought them over.

The morning report on December 27th, shows that he joined the 320th Co K from the 14th Replacement Depot APO 583 on that day.

Any ideas as to what he could have been doing in England all that time? Oh, and the January 9th V-Mail letter has an padres of TF-374 Co 101 REPL BN APO 551.

I wondering if the time spent in England was different training??

And then if he landed at La Havre on December 15th, perhaps they went to these replacement depots and were assigned somewhere fro there ? As I said, I'm wondering what the logistics of that was.....where was the 14th replacement depot?


Oh, and he writes in that letter on the 9th, that he just returned from the dispensary, hospital, and optical shop.......he will have new glasses at noon on the next day, he says.

Thanks again,
Anne

 

Here's a link to APO locations. (I never knew they moved around.) Note the date column uses the European format day-month-year.

http://www.7tharmddiv.org/docrep/Location%20of%20APOs%201942-1947.pdf

And here's an early postwar look at ETO replacement admin, including some mentions of the 14th Replacement Depot:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAAahUKEwjjgqr2voDHAhWTEZIKHTz5CUs&url=http%3A%2F%2Fusacac.army.mil%2Fcac2%2Fcgsc%2Fcarl%2Feto%2Feto-003.pdf&ei=NNu4VeOYEZOjyAS88qfYBA&usg=AFQjCNGm06XTbilPBL0_syRb88tp6x0yKQ&sig2=V9_2Qtryc7mZAEzSCexCRw&bvm=bv.98717601,d.aWw

Good luck.

Don

 

wow don, this is great.lots to be learned here about the replacement system, and maybe about trainings etc.................wish i had time to get into this,, but I'm getting overwhelmed with other responsibilities and am going to have to slow down a bit.

My dad's letters mention 3 or 4 apos...all were in new york though...........Mom did not save them all, but the last one was written July 1945, and it was #290 I think .He didn't leave to come home until September 5th !

My dad's letters do mention the mail system a few times though..................if anyone else is interested in reading these to aid research, I'd be happy to share. He was in Co K.

It's been very interesting to read some after action reports and other accounts of the battle of the bulge, and see where he was a short while before these letters were written in some caress.

 

Courtesy of the HyperWar "Green Book" collection...

Logistical Support of the Armies: September 1944 - May 1945, Chapter XI:

Another item that may be of interest is post #4 in the topic: Reinforcement Battalion Morning Reports

It isn't exactly addressing your inquiries, Anne. However, it does explain the difficulty in trying to track a soldier through the WWII replacement system.

 

Lots to digest here..........

I have not uncovered all the records or letters that used to be around here..............Have moved after 29 years and sthnuff could be buried deep if not totally lost...........

I know I've seen several different addresses.................What would a 101 Repl BN 374 Co and then TNG Co"F" mean ?????? -----another place it said TF 374 Co........


I'm wondering if he could have also been in the 12th and/or 15th at some time also ?????


I do know that he arrived in Scotland on the Queen Mary from NY on September 25, 1944.

I know that he landed at LaHavre by LST from the English boat that brought them over on Dec 15th, 1944.

Next, I know that he joined 320th reg Co "K" on December 27th, 1944.

There is almost 3 months unaccounted for in England, and 12 days in Europe.


Do you think, they could have been in the different types of training for all that long?

 

Thank you Don! This is Anne again ....... I was not able to delve into this last year, and in the time since I am at least understanding a bit more.................


Thanks for the APO locations link! ---- One question though........While the APO's I usually see are expressed as 3 digits, a letter from my dad indicates having once used an APO 15485 at Warminster ......The column after the APO number lists a one or two digits number.... It seems a possibility that it was a two digit breakdown of the APO number........but I did not find a two digit number 85 under the apo 154..........I found at least 4 different apos listed for Warminster (129,153, 261, 582). Interestingly, apo129 is what my father says his apo was when at Codford, which I do not see listed at all...........Google Maps though, shows that they are all less than 28 miles from each other............Any ideas???


I do not know that the locations moved around, I meant my father had used several different apo addresses when he was overseas.

This early post war ETO document is amazing! Lots to be learned here.....can't absorb it all at the time, but In'm excited to have this reference

 

Thank you Tommy !.................

There is so much information in the document you sent....I've skimmed over a bit and am overwhelmed.....so much was happening

Wow!! the info about the replacement system is overwhelming....I had skimed over info from another book last summer, and realize how much there is to take in about it. Need to go over this with a fine tooth comb to see where dad could have fit in..........At first glance, seem that the big push to retrain people to the 745 rifleman position started just after my dad joined the 320th as a rifleman.....................MR show he joined from the 14 Replacement Depot on December 27, 44, and this big retraining effort began on Jan 1, 1945 ?...............Because of the fire in St Louis, I do not have all of his records, and so am trying to reconstruct the hard way. ......I have MR from the 320th from December 1944 through May 45, I haven't begun to trace his steps from his arrival in Scotland from NY on September 25, 1944......... I know from a letter that he landed at La Harve on Dec 15th.....and that he used the above apos in england and scotland before he left...

A letter from my mom to him written 9Jan45 uses the return address of TF-374 Co 101 REPL BN APO 551...
...what do you think the TF stands for..........?????????9

Also before that a letter he wrote on December 9 from somewhere in England uses the same address basically....


SO, I know he landed at La Harve on Dec 15 with the above attachment I would think,, and joined 320th inf Co K on December 27th from the 14th Replacement Depot. I've heard about these "cigarette camps, and wondered if he had gone through those, .......................anyway,m looks like it took him 12 days after landing to finally get placed............................

Any other thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated..............

 

I have tried figuring out the "TF", but have not come up with anything. Unless someone else has some insight, that one may remain a mystery.

 

Whenever I've seen "TF" in Army related writings it means Task Force. TF Huddleston, for example. These were temporary units formed pursuant to some specific task or objective. Being part of a replacement depot, and this is just a WAG, it could refer to a facility where personnel were temporarily billeted.

 

I had considered that as well -- a designator for a specific area occupied by 374th Replacement Company. As you say, just a WAG which doesn't really move the ball down the field.

Anne, I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to figure out that one detail. Keep it in the back of your mind, though. Sometimes the answers for things like this are found when you're researching something else.

 

Hi Anne,

Glad to see you back in the hunt. A couple of random thoughts:

Looks like the Army destroyed all WWII troop movement passenger lists, so that easy method of finding his original unit is a no go.

Queen Mary website shows 9,000+ on the 25 Sep arrival. Some arrivals list what units were on board. Unfortunately, this load does not. Looking at division arrival dates in UK shows no divisions arriving on Sep 25.

I would suggest you reread Logistical Support of the Armies, v. 2, starting about p. 311 and continuing for a dozen or so pages. That covers the fall of '44. In particular, p. 321 describes a 15 Dec memo with a mention of a 12 week rifleman retraining course for non-infantry qualified GIs already underway on that date. 12 weeks won't fit between 25 Sep and 15 Dec, so If I had to guess, I'd say your father was trained in a non-rifleman infantry specialty and arrived in UK as a replacement. With a surplus of that MOS, he became a prime candidate for MOS 745 retraining. Just a guess, though, so keep looking for facts. With an infantry specialty, the retraining course was only 6-8 weeks. With a few weeks bouncing around UK, that might be just enough time.

One last random observation to point out the complexity of your hunt. I have a UK station list for Apr 44. A station list was used for administrative purposes - what unit was where. Apr 44 would have seen just about the peak American strength in UK, so Sep 44 was likely a good bit lower. Anyway, this Apr list shows about 12,000 different companies and separate detachments in UK. In other words, that's about how many different MRs were produced every day. Tidworth, also likely at its wartime peak, had 266 different company and smaller units listed.

Your best chance may be to find additional letters dated close to 25 Sep that might list his original unit. I don't know about wartime censorship, but seems like I've seen hometown newspapers mention a GI's unit - completion of training, home on furlough, etc. If available, might also be worth a look.

Just for the heck of it, you might want to ask NARA for the Sep or Oct 44 Tidworth station list (they were compiled on the last day of the month). You could probably eliminate a pile of units and get a feel for what was going on with the balance. If you decide to do this, I'd be happy to help you refine your request to avoid the dreaded NARA "come look for yourself' response they send when someone submits a vague request. No guarantees.

For everyone else, NARA's online catalog is still very hard to use - primitive search criteria possibilities. The good news: they are slowly filling in detail on ETO records. Almost zero documents, but more indexing with general descriptions of box contents. FWIW, their catalog shows right at 100 cubic yards of ETO records in the collection. Maybe they could line 'em all up and send me a copy.