270th Field Artillery Battalion

Digging thru the 3rd Army AARs and ran across these 2 pieces of info about the battalion.
1st being the troop priority list List Index # 3530-B Shows 490pax assigned with 121 vehicles.
2nd being what looks like a Civil Affairs plan that attaches pax to the Bn. 7 pax aligned with the G5

 

Not sure where you are getting the idea that CA were attached to a FA Battalion? The Civil Affairs personnel were attached primarily to Army Group, Army, Corps, and Division, although some were also attached to geographic commands of ETOUSA and/or COMZ. Originally they were all part of the ECAD, the ETOUSA Civil Affairs Divisions, which was comprised of four "regiments" and some other elements. They were organized as either staff sections or teams of various sizes and eventually were reorganized as the G-5 Sections at Army, Corps, and Division, plus separate teams that were assigned to act as military government in liberated or occupied towns.

 

@RichTO90 what you mention above makes perfect sense now. The 270 designator was not a unit, but some sort of reference number for the 3rd Army’s / XX Corps CA plan. The 270th FA Bn fell under XX Corps for a little while and when I was looking at it thru the eyes of someone wanting to see new info, that’s exactly what I thought I saw. I did think it was a bit odd to have a CA detachment all the way down at battalion level, but I guess I got “buck fever” when I saw the 270. Thanks for the feedback!

 

I stumbled across this thread today and spent several hours parsing through the posts. I am the son of Delbert (later known as Bert) Ballengee. John Carlson is my nephew. Disclaimers: I have never served in the military and do not know the jargon or abbreviations. I have not done any research at NARA, so I don't know their jargon or abbreviations, either. I have never seen any after-action reports.

John Carlson has created a large archive of (mostly captioned) photos on OneDrive including many I had not seen before. I think my sister had them stored. The archive also includes a PDF version of Dad's memoir titled "Black Dragons Over Europe." Happy to send the link if you will PM me; however, I do not plan to be an active participant on this board, so it may be a while before I see your message. Here are some comments relevant to earlier posts:

* Dad died in 2017, so he is not around to answer any questions.

* The battalion crossed into France on July 24, 1944, D-Day +48.

* The cigarette camp where the battalion stayed before departing Le Havre was Camp Lucky Strike.

* My understanding is that, in Third Army, heavy artillery battalions were not assigned to particular divisions; rather, they were considered assets of Third Army and assigned as needed to any division requiring heavy artillery support.

* @Nicelyb found a better quality photo of Cy LeBlanc's L-4 than I have seen before, although the tail number remains illegible. His call sign was "Codger 62." Interesting that no invasion stripes are visible on the fuselage or wings. I have no proof that this plane belonged to Cy LeBlanc except my dad's recollection.

* I always heard LeBlanc referred to as "Cy." I did not know his given name was Cyrille.

* Wikipedia sez "Black Dragon" was a "popular nickname" for the 240mm howitzer. Dad did not know that. The title of his memoir was based on a comment made by Prince Félix of Luxembourg. The battalion was bivouacked in the vicinity of Kirsch-lès-Sierck, France, near the borders of both Luxembourg and Germany. On an official visit, the prince was given the opportunity to pull the lanyard on "A" Battery's No. 1 Gun, firing the first round at a target within the German border. Prince Félix said, "You are the black dragons over Europe." So maybe the nickname originated with Prince Félix, or maybe Prince Félix knew something my dad did not.

* I attended the 1965 reunion in Waco, TX. I was 10 years old at the time. I recall meeting an aging Lt. Col. Gabriel. He still had a carefully-groomed handlebar moustache. My dad had the highest respect and admiration for Lt. Col. Gabriel. A photo of those attending the reunion in Waco can be found in John Carlson's archive. I did not see (or did not recognize) Lt. Col. Gabriel in the photo. I don't think my dad attended many reunions after that. I recall that Luke Provenzano (from deep down in Louisiana) was the driving force behind the reunions.

* Provenzano and Floyd (later known as Glynn) Waldrop were close friends of my dad whose names I have not seen mentioned in this thread. Waldrop was nicknamed "Tripod" for his (ahem) exceptional masculinity.

* In closing, I'll share a brief excerpt from Dad's memoir:

"While making the run out of Normandy, we got a gun carriage stuck under a bridge. Colonel Gabriel went up to find out what happened. The men were letting the air out of the big flotation tires. This would lower the carriage just enough to allow it to pass under the bridge. About that time, we heard sirens and saw General Patton roaring down the road in his command car along with a leading jeep and a couple more following him.

"He went by us like a shot and pulled up next to the bridge. When he got out, he started yelling that we were holding up the 4th Armored Division, and "By God, somebody would be court-martialed!" Colonel Gabriel heard him, turned and stalked back toward him. He saluted General Patton. After Patton returned the salute, he said, "Hell, Gabe, I didn't know it was you. What the hell's the matter?" "General, if you'll just get your ass back there where you belong, I'll have this thing out of here in ten minutes. I ain't holding up the Third Army." General Patton looked at him with a baleful eye and said, "That's good enough for me Gabe. Get on it." Then he turned around and left just as he had come."

 

@Pirnack I am delighted that you found this thread and shared some information. I hope you found it informative and even enjoyable. John and I have communicated a decent amount over the last year or so and I was fortunate enough to receive a link to his share drive with all the photos and a copy of the memoir.
I have a ton of information, a large portion not posted on the internet, but the link John sent was hands down the best single source of information I have found about the unit. Bert was a genius all those years ago to document who and where on the photos. I struggle to convert the photos from the shared drive to a usable format to post here on the forums, so only a few of the many photos have been posted here on the forum.

here is a link to a blog I started. It shares even more photos I got from John and has a digital copy of the AARs. 270th Field Artillery in the ETO WWII. I am not a good Blogger, so the format is terrible, and do t expect to be dazzled with awesomeness. I am more than happy to send the AARs to you via email too.

The story of Patton and LTC Gabriel is funny. I have heard of other folks standing up to Patton when he would tear into them. I guess if you had a good reputation, and wasn’t intimidated by him, you could get away with it. Obviously, LTC Gabriel’s and the 270ths reputation was good enough for GEN Patton.

I shared this with John and think you might find it entertaining as well.


I got an email from Robert Presser’s great granddaughter and she shared a story I think you might find interesting.

“Born on December 17, 1924 in Henryetta, OK. he attended public school in Henryetta and enlisted into the army on March 29, 1943. He arrived in England on april 15, 1944 prior to the D-day invasions. Pfc.
Presser landed on Omaha beach on June 6, 1944
with the 270th Field Artillery Battalion. Pfc. Presser and his buddy Jimmy had both gotten into trouble in England. Rather than being sent to the brig, they were put in a truck hauling artillery shells for the 240 cannons. They were the lead truck on the LST. They came ashore with the 14th wave. When the door opened Pfc. Presser drove off into the water and the truck immediately submerged. He and Jimmy swam out the windows while the vehicles behind them drove right over the top of the truck. The water was over his head so he bobbed up and down and swam until he could get his footing. years later he told his son 'how the water was filled with blood and body parts. It stained his skin and uniform. He survived D-day without a scratch.”



I wasn’t tracking that the unit crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches until D+48 (48 days after D Day), but who knows the real deal. My official After Action Reports don’t start until Aug of ’44 and D Day happened in June.

Cool story none the less

 

@Nicelyb I do not have a Google account (and do not plan to create one) so I am unable to access your blog.

I believe Gen. Patton and Lt. Col. Gabriel knew each other in WWI, hence the brief and relatively friendly exchange. Lt. Col. Gabriel left the Army after WWI. He was recalled sometime in 1941-42 to form the cadre of the 270th because of his experience as an artilleryman in WWI. Perhaps he had experience with the M1918 240 mm howitzer in WWI.

Here are a couple of links that may be helpful when considering how and where to archive your materials online:

Tips on How to Archive and Back Up Your Digital Photos -

Backing Up Your Photos - Cloud Storage and Online Backup Reviews

I think it would be helpful to download all the attachments from posts in this thread, caption them as well as possible, and send them to John Carlson for inclusion in his archive. If you don't have a OneDrive account (or don't want one), Dropbox would be simplest way to send them to John. Place them all in a single compressed file (typically ZIP format), upload that file to Dropbox, and send the link to John. Alternatively, you could copy the files to a flash drive and physically mail the flash drive to John by postal mail. The archive could then serve as a repository for all materials related to the 270th. Do you have a scanner to copy of photos and convert paper files to PDF format? I recommend VueScan from Hamrick Software, which works with almost any scanner. Versions of VueScan are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

One issue with Dad's memoir is that he included photos from the internet to illustrate some persons, objects, or events not documented in his personal photo collection. For example, all photos of M35 prime movers were found on the internet and did not belong to the 270th.

There was an unsubstantiated rumor (of which I have no further details) that sometime in 1945, Maj. Arnold destroyed battalion records that might have cast him in an unfavorable light. My dad attempted to contact Capt. Culberson, Capt. Fillmer, and Capt. Ray to confirm or dismiss the rumor, but was unable to reach any of them before their deaths.

If Presser did land on Omaha beach on June 6, he must have been part of a detached unit. The 240mm howitzers were far to large and heavy to have been included in the initial landings.They required a significant amount of time to emplace and were not easily portable. I think your after-action reports are correct and indicate that the battalion did not get organized and start shooting until early August.

In the greater scheme of Third Army history, the 270th seems to have been an obscure unit. This thread is the first time I have seen any material about the battalion posted online or mentioned in an historical work.

 

@Pirnack You bring up a great idea of passing my info to John. I am more than happy to download everything I have onto a removable drive and mailing it to him. I have all kinds of newspaper articles I found online, various articles and documents collected from a number of sources. Would love for someone a little smarter than me to organize and make the info more user friendly.

The 270th is definitely not a widely talked about unit. It has made finding info about it, kinda challenging at times. I have had the extreme good fortune to come across folks like you, John, Jim Gabriel (LTC Gabriel’s grandson) and a host of other relatives. Without you guys, this research project would have died a long time ago.

 

@Nicelyb What has become of Jim Gabriel? I recall that he flew B-1s for the 7th Bomb Wing out of Dyess AFB in Abilene, TX. He corresponded with my dad, but I was not privy to the discussion.

How did you become interested in the 270th?

 

Your recollections are correct. Jim retired from the Air Force a few years ago and is living in TX if I remember correctly. He led me to the FA Museum in Ft Sill that has one of the 270ths howitzers on display.

I started researching the 270th a few years ago because my grandfather Merle Arnold was an A Btry Ammo bearer. He and LTC Gabriel were from the same small community in Indiana and as a career Army guy, the military history of it all just kinda intrigued me. I was a Forward Obswrver for the first part of my career, so I naturally had a thing for the Arrillery. I also wanted to show my mom what her father did in the war, since he never spoke of his service.

 

I visited my sister for the holidays. She is the Keeper of Family Historical Records. She produced a letter home from my father, in his handwriting, on onionskin paper. (Oddly, it is not V-mail. No idea why.) I've transcribed relevant parts of the letter as follows.

25 August 44
Somewhere in France

[Opening paragraph omitted as irrelevant]

For obvious reasons, I must destroy the letters I get just after reading them. So, if I don't answer all your questions, don't feel badly. I, probably, have just forgotten.

By this time you probably know that our progress in France has been more than gratifying. Personally, I think the Krauts are on the run for good, but we mustn't be too optimistic. Those babies are still doing a pretty good job of fighting. The only reason he's losing is because he's outnumbered in planes, men, and matériel, and we're fighting him off his feet. He's being "blitzed" in the same manner that he started this whole thing. We've taken prisoners who are completely dazed. They can't realize that the war machine they had built up for so long is being smashed before their very eyes.

I have been traveling quite extensively. War damage has been 1000% greater in Normandy than in the interior, say around [CENSORED]. In the small town of Montebourg, a village in Normandy not far from Valognes [editor's note: both in the Cotentin Peninsula], I saw not a single building intact, although there may have been 2 or 3 which escaped my observation. In Le Mans [editor's note: about 170 miles southeast of Valognes], however, it was quite a rare thing to see a building damaged. Jerrie did a good job of blowing out the bridges.

[Closing paragraph omitted as irrelevant]

 

They have been at it a long time and don’t see them stopping anytime soon.

 

I have always enjoyed reading personal memoirs/letters written during the war. It gives all the data I read in AARs and other official documents a personal touch. Majority of the time it’s very vague because of censorship and operation security reasons, but still paints a picture of what was going on in that persons world at the time. Thanks for sharing @Pirnack

 

This month in 270th FA Bn history

January was a very pivotal month for the 270th. Even tho the battalion was only around from 1943 to 1945, January had some of the most significant events.



25 Jan ’43 - The Bn was constituted into the US Army as a 105mm Howitzer battalion. (Letter Order# A-169 2 Army File AG322.012-5 GNMBF) Would be activated in March of that year at Camp Butner NC.



1 Jan ’44 - The Bn converted to a 240mm Howitzer battalion while at Ft Bragg NC and started conducting their Master Training Plan (MTP) all over again. 80 years ago today!



1 Jan ’45 - LTs Eugene Anspach and LaVerne Emberts were shot down in their L4 observation plane over what is now called Beckingen Germany. Both were KIA. WWII Map coordinates: wQ220882 / Modern day LAT/LONG 49.23.20N / 6.39.43E)




13 Jan 45 - C Btry was strafed by “Friendly” Aircraft


14 Jan 45 - PFC Gerhard Steppke WIA,


Steppke in Normandy July 1944



21 Jan 45 - C Btry displaced to Betting continuing to support 94th Div





** 1Lt LaVerne Emberts attended Field Artillery Plot Course P-34-I [the class was large so it was divided into 2 sections, I and II] at Ft. Sill OK that began on 14 Jun 1943 and graduated on 24 Jul 1943. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Army Liaison Pilot badge and entitled to draw flight pay ( which was 50% of his base pay). His grade in the last portion of the course- Stage 3- was 72/100. While he was in training he was involved in a "Class C" aircraft accident. I'm not sure of the details of that accident, but it was not serious.

 

Additional info about Anspach and Emberts

 

Haven’t had a lot of free time to dig into researching lately. Hoping that the pace of life slows down a bit so I can follow up on some leads.

 

Unfortunately, life as a travel baseball parent has not afforded me much time to do much other than work and travel the eastern seaboard to watch baseball. There are a few things I have found recently that deserves to be followed-up with, just need a few more hours in the day to fit it in.

 

Where would the Chaplain team be assigned that supported a non divisional battalion? The supported Division HQ? I haven’t seen anything on who supported the battalion with religious support.

 

Chaplains were not assigned to units, they were attached, and only the divisions had an authorized number of chaplains. The Airborne and Infantry Division were each authorized 13, while the Armored Division was authorized 8. Those attachments were drawn from an overall allotment based upon the strength of the Army as a whole. There was 1 chaplain authorized for every 1,200 Army personnel. 9,117 chaplains served in the Army from September 1939 to September 1945. At the end of the war there were 8,141 chaplains on active duty (Jewish 243, Catholic 2,278, and Protestant 5,620). That meant that as of say 1 June 1944, when there were 1,545,785 officers and enlisted men assigned to the ETOUSA (including Iceland Base Command), it was entitled to 1,288 chaplains. Of those though, only 256 were attached to divisions, the rest were sent on assignment as the Chief of Chaplains, ETOUSA saw fit. After the landings, many acted as roving preachers, going from unit to unit as required. Those attached to divisions also tended to the units attached and in support of the division as part of their flock.

 

I forgot to mention, but most of the chaplains were lieutenants and captains - those of the divisions all were. However, the ETOUSA Chief of Chaplains was a colonel. Each Army was also authorized an attached Chief of Chaplains, who was usually a lieutenant colonel, and the Corps was also authorized an attached Chief of Chaplains, who was usually a major.

The Army Chief of Chaplains during the war was William Arnold, a Catholic. He was appointed in 1938 with the rank of Colonel and during the war became the first Chief to first be appointed Brigadier General and then Major General.