Help needed on information regarding B Company of the 119th Infantry

I am basing everything on the only document that I have - his discharge paperwork (WD AGO Form 53 - 55). I wish I were able to upload the document so that you (and others who have responded) could see it. Box 30 of the discharge paperwork lists his "Military Occupational Specialty and No." as Truck driver, light - 345, and, Anti-tank Gun Crewman - 610*". The asterisk is explained in the remarks section (box 55) as *Rifleman - 745.

In Box 31, it lists "Military Qualification and Date". In this field is typed "Marksman M-1 Rifle 12 Oct 43 and 2d Cl Gunner 37 ??AT 23 Oct 43**". The ??AT could be MMAT or possibly BRAT. I can't tell. It appears that the typewriter did not strike the platen strongly enough. The double asterisk is explained in box 55 as **Combat Infantry Badge 19 Nov 44.

The remaining remarks in Box 55 are "No lost time under AW 107" and "Entitled to One Foreign Service Bar".

In Box 33, Decorations and Citations, it lists the following: "Purple Heart & Oak Leaf Cluster"; "European African Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbon with 3 Bronze Stars". I'm assuming that the Purple Heart and the Oak Leaf Cluster are for the two times that he was injured.

I hope this helps.

 

Thank you.

 

Also, in Box 6, Organization, the typing lists: Company "B" 119th Infantry.

 

To the Williams,

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Both are Freeware and do not require purchase. Either will work fine to resize the JPEG. I have used the Photo Views for several years.

Remember, keep the file size below 500kb(the maximum allowed to post as an attachement).

 

Finally got them small enough to upload. Thanks for your patience!

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Yes, almost certainly he was trained as an antitank gunner...the qualification is for 37mm AT. The asterisk and reference to Rifleman 745 indicates he was retrained and the award of the CIB confirms he served as a rifleman, further confirmed by the organizational note. He may or may not have ever served as an AT gunner in Europe, but if he did it was not on the 37mm gun since that was replaced by the 57mm gun in England.

 

Thank you for this additional information.

 

Irl died in 1977. He may have received this medal but I can't say one way or the other. There were several nieces and nephews alive at the time of his death, but are now deceased. But that fact is nice to know. I appreciate your help and the information that you have supplied.

 

That would be nice to know. Thank you very much for your help.

 

I will try to contact the VA. And that brings up another question. The dates that are shown in Box 34: Wounds received in action: Are these the date of the injury or the dates he received initial care at a hospital? Hopefully they were the same or within a day of the injury.
Thanks again. I've found everyone here to be very helpful!

 

From the discharge it is impossible to determine what unit he was serving in at the time of his first wound. If lightly wounded and treated at an aid station, he might have returned to the same unit. However, if his recovery took longer, not necessarily. You'd have to get the B119 morning reports to see. That's impossible at the moment since NARA is essentially shut down due to the ChiCom Cooties.

He arrived in UK three months after the 119th landed, so either he was a replacement - or - he was serving in a different unit in May 44.

AT Gunner seems to be his secondary MOS. Light truck drivers in AT Gun companies were authorized an M1 Rifle while AT Gunners got pistols.

If I had to guess, I'd say he was wounded in July while serving in a different unit, went to the hospital, recovered, and was sent to a replacement depot where he was retrained as a Rifleman, then sent forward to the 119th as a replacement. Again, this is not the only possibility.

There's more little niggling details to go over, but absorb this first, then I can confuse you further.

 

I hadn't considered that he may have been in another unit. Could the NARA tell me that?
Thanks for your help. I really appreciate this.
Marty Williams

 

Thank you for your service. You will need to tell me your story sometime.

 

I wondered about that. I had read about other soldiers being pinned down and help could not reach them until the enemy fire was extinguished. I appreciate your input.
Marty