Need to find regiment and unit

Behave boys....

 

Thanks for the comments on my mother. She was beautiful inside and out.

I figured out how to post an Avatar, which is me with one of my five grandsons. Although I didn't get into this research for the reason of writing about it, I carpool to work with a film professor (I teach anthropology) and she wants to do a documentary about my project. She is from China and thinks it is hilarious that the thing that started me out on this quest is to figure out a way to get Grandpa into a VA nursing home. As an anthropologist, I am ashamed to say that I didn't probe and ask questions that would be a big help now. I did make my husband take his father to the 60th Anniversary of Normandy. He was one of only 30 veterans there and shook the hands of President Bush, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg.

I have also learned that my grandson's grandfather was smuggled across Nazi lines in a pillowcase in France during WWII, actually running from the Nazis and dodging bullets. His mother was a "poor little rich girl" whose father was a Harvard professor and mother an Australian heiress. She was shuffled off to boarding schools and then right before the war when she was 17 her parents refused to let her marry her Italian boyfriend they met on holiday (who was drafted into Mussolini's army) and instead later that year married her off to a White Russian count who had no passport except a useless Norweigian refugee passport. So they made their way to Spain and then got on a boat to South America. They dined with the ship captain when everyone else was packed like sardines below. Eventually they made it back up to New York City. My grandson's grandfather (the one in the pillowcase) is still always concerned with where his next gourmet meal is coming from. The grandmother wrote and published a memoir that is fascinating.

It might be interesting for me to write something about the different backgrounds, personalities, and experiences of all of my grandson's great grandparents. One group of prisoners that my father-in-law might have been tormented about was a group of White Russians, who surely would have been immediately killed by Stalin. So there is a possible connection if I take some artistic license. And who knows what my mother could have been doing in the typist pool in the White House?

I have a feeling that this research will never end. I have a newspaper clipping of a front page of a NY newspaper which shows troops disembarking after WWII. The date was cut off but the notation in the scrapbooks says June 3, 1945. Grandpa's face is circled. I looked on the back and there was a story about an indictment of a NY crime family counterfeiting ration points, and I had my husband (a lawyer) look up the crime to figure out if the date might be wrong (the crime happened in May 1945, so the arraignment that was pictured could have been as soon as June 3). I found on a troopcrossing website that at least 20 ships landed that day in NY harbor and they carried RAMPS (returning allied military personnel), all either wounded or POWS. So, another mystery emerges as I peel back layers of the onion. What was he doing on that ship?

 

About the Bronze stars: I have no idea what the citations were for or where they are.

 

Alison, I am on a break from searching as I am studying for a staffing process at work and I'm trying to memorize a ridiculous quantity of policies! So after my 3 hour exam on Thursday (my first time driving since mid Dec - I've been on sick leave), I will try to see what else I can find online.

 

I have been giving short shrift to my teaching, so I know what you mean. I too have to set some limits on this endeavor. Thanks to you, I am making great progress. Here is a link that briefly describes the WWII memoir written by my NY grandsons' great grandmother.

bookblast_GaelEltonMayo

 

Found someone else's entry on the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion. As I searched tonight, I realized that I've usually been spelling Armored as Armoured - the Canadian/British spelling - maybe I'll find better links spelling the American way for an American Battalion!

U.S. Militaria Forum > 53rd armored infantry battalion

Also found a memorial site for the 4th Division http://webplaza.pt.lu/public/gries/page12/page19/page19.html this page is photos Central Europe, but there is another section which has one Veteran's excerpts from his diary re the trip over etc which may be of interest.

 

This is an account of the surrender of German troops to the 87th in Czechoslovakia
perhaps that will help...

Personal Account: The Mass Surrender of German Troops to the 347th Infantry Regiment

 

hi can someone help me? I am from Germany (Vogtland, Plauen).
I'm looking for pictures and home movies of the 87 Infantry as they 1945 in Vogtland (plauen) was.

 

please help me

 

Hi nilo85,

Can I suggest you make your own thread request in the Information Requests area - as there may be more activity. I don't know how much success you will get regarding movie footage. Good Luck.

 

Allison, I am the son of an 89th Inf Div officer. My Dad was also very well known within the 89th WWII Society as a member of the board. I am now searching a book with all the members names listed alphabetically within each Regt, Bn, & Co. It will take a little while but it will be worth the effort. My mom just past away and I am going thru all the albums, scrapbooks, etc. of their 59 yrs together. Get back to you later. Regards, pjbpapa

 

I just sent Alison an email linking her back here, so hopefully she will log on to the Forum. I know she is continuing to research, but has had many other responsibilities calling on her time over the past few months.

Thanks pjbpapa - this a really good lead for her.

 

Alison responded to my email. She is currently away and does not have her log in information for the Forum, but will log on once she returns.

She reports that her research did help to get her father-in-law admitted to a VA hospital, but sadly he has since passed away. She is very interested though in continuing her research.

 

Geeez macrusk you are a fountain of knowledge eh

 

Hi,

John W. Hall served in Company C, 46th Armored Medical Battalion. If you would like know more about him and his unit, I would like to invite you to visit my website: www.pattonsbestmedics.com. I gave published Morning Reports, After Action Reports and a database of over 1400 medics that served in the 4thAD.

Reinier Groeneveld