Hello all, I'm new to the forum by stumbling on it looking for information about my Grandfather's units. I made a couple of posts on another thread and thought I ought to introduce myself and my interest. Granddad joined the army in June 1941 and was stationed in Fort Knox, KY where he was attached to the 58th Armored Field Artillery Battalion where he learned to fire mobile field artillery pieces. His battalion was transferred to the California coast soon after Pearl Harbor before moving out into the Mojave desert for training. After training, the 58th was stationed at Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia before being staged at Ft Kilmer for transport to Casablanca. He arrived in Casablanca on the second wave in late 1942. His unit saw their first action in the Tunisia campaign including heavy action at Maknassy. They participated in the invasion of Sicily where the mobility of the unit was used to great advantage. During this time Granddad served as FO and made the trip across Sicily on a "commandeered" motorcycle. His unit affected two amphibious landings in northern Sicily after running the entire length of the island to cut off the retreating German forces. In the second landing the Germans were prepared they lost about half of their M7s leaving the crews to fight on foot. Following Sicily his unit was sent to England for preparations of the D-Day landing. January 1944 to D-Day was spent there. On D-Day, Granddad landed as an FO foot patrol (His LT, Sgt, and himself) with the 5th Rangers on Omaha beach at H-hour. It was there that he suffered an injury during the trip up the beach (probably shrapnel--still don't know to this day) and after spending the night of June 6th in a barn, made his way back down to the beach for evacuation to England. At that point he was separated from his unit. In Sept 1944, he became attached to the 81st Field Artillery Battalion C company. They were in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Granddad tells me stories of running through the German lines in deuce and a halfs to resupply their 155s and maintain artillery fire during the siege. He wrote my Grandmother soon after the siege was lifted and tells of the shelling of the mess tent. After the Bulge, his unit traveled through the Rhineland, into Czechoslovakia and into Berlin. I marvel that I even exist. I am in the process of archiving his stories and trying to fill in the gaps so that my son will understand his legacy. Any information that anyone might have about these units please point me in the right direction. If there are relatives of men who fought with these units out there, please reach out. Thanks, Shane P.S. I found these books very helpful in understanding the 58th: Highways of Hot Steel: The story of the 58th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, edited by Fran Baker available on Kindle Honor Untarnished, by General Donald V. Bennett (ret.) available used on Amazon
Wow what a story Shane! Your grandfather is someone that I really admire and someone that everyone should admire! Welcome, welcome to this forum :cheers: ! Please extend my dearest thanks to him for what he did! I did find some info regarding the unit he landed with on D-Day, the 5th rangers, here is the link: http://www.rangerfamily.org/History/History/Battalion%20Pages/fifth.htm I wish you the best of luck in your completion of your grandfathers story!
Hi Shane. Nice to have you around. You might get lucky with info on the 58th. Glad you posted more about your grandfather. He sure did a lot.
Thanks for the welcome! Thanks for the 5th rangers link! I was under the impression that Lt Johnstone's FO party of the 58th landed with the 5th Rangers at H-hour at Pointe du Hoc. While Lt. Rosenbaum's, Lt. Runey's, and Lt. Henry's FO parties landed with the 5th Rangers at Vierville at H +40. Can anyone confirm? Shane
Welcome to the Forum, Shane. You might need to look for AARs or Operations Reports for the 58th AFAB.
hello shane, my father served with the 81st FABn in ww2. He was in a replacement pool and assigned to the 81st in the fall of 1944. He was in B battery. I would be interested to hear more about your grandfather. I am in the process of putting together as many of the "war stories" I can remember dad sharing with me. My son is interested in his grandfather and I want to pass these along to him..... also one interesting note you may or may not be aware of. Of what I can put together from my dads stories and my own research, in early April of 1945 the 81st FABn was supporting the 87th infantry division and they along with others liberated a concentration camp named Ohrdruf. This was a labor camp which was a subcamp of Buchenwald. The significance here is it was the first camp liberated inside germany by the americans or british and the only one Eisenhower visited. (Your grandfather may have been in that group that walked thru that camp.) Dad shared with me that they walked thru the camp the afternoon it was liberated and saw first hand all the atrocities we have read about.
Steve, Thanks for the correction, as I was sitting here working this afternoon I suddenly realized I had made a mistake. just now was able to get to it.... you beat me there! I think the 89th was the rolling "W" and 87th the golden acorn.
My father's unit was attached to the 87th from early Feb through the end of the war. Ohrdruf didn't ring a bell but I did find a couple photos from the camp in the 345th IR history section in the 87th large unit history. Sounded like they were adjacent to the 89th's units and were close to the camp. I couldn't find any text about it though. We would be interested in hearing any of your father's stories and/or seeing any photos if you're willing to share them. That's great you are collecting his memories, so much WWII history is quickly being lost now days. We just recently posted a history of the 602nd TD Bn (attached to the 89th), written postwar by a company commander, that has a small amount of information about their actions at the camp. Check this link and go to page 4 of the 12 page file: http://tankdestroyer.net/images/stories/ArticlePDFs2/602nd_Unit_Hist_Pt_2-12_pages.pdf
Thanks for posting! The 81st FA Bn were involved with the liberation of Ohrdruf, but they didn't stay long. They were supporting both the 87th and 89th ID in 1945. On April 7 the Bn command post was at Petriroda (2 miles from Ohrdruf), by the April 11they were already in Kircheim. Granddad said he saw it, but gave no details other than to say that he had no love for the SS he was guarding after the war. Check out this thread: http://www.ww2f.com/topic/52202-help-request-81st-field-artillery-battalion/ I have linked to the Bn history book. Btw, my memory was faulty when I said Granddad was in C battery. He was actually in B battery (his name is the last on the B battery roster). So he and your father probably knew each other. If you have any stories about the siege of Bastogne, I would love to hear them. I have a letter from Granddad to my grandmother about the shells landing all over B battery's position and their missions to take out the German artillery to relieve the siege. I'd like to get a thread started for the 81st FA Bn to get all the info in one place--just no time right now.
