270th Field Artillery Battalion

Today I learned that Bert Mullens and Buck Mullens are the same person (A Btry Ammo Section). I got a message from Buck's Grandson's wife, letting me know. How awesome is that!! Without this forum and others like it, no way would I have ever reached her.

 

Is Bert still alive?

 

Unknown ATT. Odds are NO, but you never know. I replied to her message and am waiting on her response. Hopefully the Grandson has some stories/info that Grandpa passed on.

 

Misfire entry. Answered my own question.

 

Does anyone know of a living member of the 270th? I have found 648ea names that was assigned to the 270th at one time or the other. Odds are not in my favor of finding anyone, but would love to get this info into their hands.

 

I learned today he is! I got a message from his Grandson’s wife today that she showed him some info we all have gathered and enjoyed what she showed him.

 

I thought that he might be since I couldn't find an obituary, death announcement.
Glad to hear, thanks for letting us know.

 

Update: I am sending Buck a package of some manuscripts written by former unit member after the war (3ea in total), In one of the manuscripts, they mention Buck on several occasions.Hope he finds joy in that.
I am compiling a list of "Non-Battle" questions that I would love to hear about. Stuff like: Did he get to visit Shakespeares hometown when the Battalion bivouacked there one night. Did he get to see the Bing Crosby show when he visited the Battalion, or his thoughts on getting a haircut from a German POW, etc... I have plenty of AARs and other documents to learn about the battles, but very few personal recollections.

Any suggestions on other questions of these types?

 

Reunion photo

 

I may or may not have found some additional information about the medical section assigned to the 270th. I am waiting on confirmation that it is not the same report as I already have. New info is getting hard to find, so I am kinda eager to hear back from NARA.

 

A big hole in my research is information about the liaison aircraft assigned to the 270th. I see in the AARs that at least 1ea L4 "Grasshopper" plane was used for observer duties. It crashed on 1 Jan '45 killing both the pilot and the observer. LTs Anspach and Emberts. The crash is not listed in any Missing Aircrew Reports (MACR) since they were not missing, I do not know the tail number of the A/C so that makes things a little harder. I have yet to find a database that listed the crash. The tables of equipment and person authorizations I got from NARA doesn't have the A/C or its mechanics listed. I assume I have copies of authorization documents from early in the war and the A/C was added later on as they identified the need for aerial observation. Any idea on where to look?

Finding the SN to the aircraft or the 240mm howitzers assigned to the unit would be awesome. Both have eluded me thus far.

 

That’s a neat visit! Be fun to take a ride and do some sightseeing in it. I have found a few Facebook groups that specialize in liason aircraft from the WWII era. Extremely knowledgeable group on all things L birds. L1/2/3/4/5s and a lot about the German equivalents.

To complicate things just a little more for us "Not So Good Researchers", the ground ID number usually painted on the tail of the aircraft is unknown. When the Bn was assigned to the XV Corps, the number should have been a 29. When assigned to the 90th Inf Div, their number was 48, and later on when assigned to the 94th Div, their number was 65. Who knows what their aircraft actually had on it. maybe it changed as the supporting unit changed. Doubtful of that, but a possibility I assume.

 

Got an email from NARA today with some additional information I did not have in regards to the medical section assigned to the 270th during the war. Here is one page of the new info. If I can figure out a way to shrink down the size of the file so it will upload, I will post the charts, which are interesting to see. Charts injuries by category. Injuries, Dental, VD, etc..

 

Hope this way allows me to add them

 

This was an interesting report

 

I guess Excel wasn't a thing in 1945 LOL

 

If I was a guessing man, I would guess that the unit got some leave on/about June of '44, Oct '44, and March of '45. Those are the months with the highest V.D. cases.

The chart showing KIAs in Dec '44 were 1ea enlisted soldier from the attached AAA unit. The 3ea KIA listed for March of '45 is not mentioned in the AAR covering that time period nor any other document I can remember. The hunt continues!

 

I have kinda ran into a lull in finding new information about the fatal crash of the Units L4 observer plane. Waiting on a reply from the AF Historical Research folks to see if they have anything helpful. A new tactic I think may be worthy of some effort is trying to locate the field repair and recovery unit that went to the crash site and fixed/recovered the aircraft. Assumption being that they would have a record of serial numbers and repairs done to equipment they recovered/repaired.

A couple things I need to work out are:

What were those types of units called? Repair/Recover units, Echelons above Bn Maintenance, etc..?

Was it handled by the Bn Maintenance section which would have had enough equipment and persons to do it internally?

I am open to any other ideas as well.

 

Any suggestions on how to make an easy to read graph/timeline that shows the Battalions assignments? Being a non-divisional unit, it isn’t as simple as a routine Org Chart. I would like to have something along the lines of a horizontal timeline, but would like to capture when individual Batteries would get assigned to a different Div/Corps for a short duration, and depict when the whole Battalion changed Higher HQs too.

I have the data, just cant seem to find a graph/chart that depicts the info in an easy to read format.

Any examples or key words to search for?