Tracking my great uncle's service

PFC Gerald Penn Vermilyea #6976302
US Army
1st Inf Div, 18th Inf Reg 3rd Bn K company
Buried in Tunisia ABMC cemetery
Plot F Row 2 Grave 4
KIA 23 Mar 43 at El Guettar
Purple Heart and Silver Star received.


From what I've gathered so far, I've found, a census from 10 Apr 1940 places him at Ft Wadsworth with the 18th Infantry regiment. On 9 January 1942 he was out to see on the USS Heywood, then again on 17 January 1942. I'm not sure what Battalion or Company he was in and am in the process of trying to figure that out. I have second hand info that he was a bazooka man but that could be false. Under that assumption I would expect him to be in a heavy weapons section. Going off of the ship rosters I've found some prominent names. One being Captain Joseph Sisson, who later becomes a Lt Col and 3rd Bn CO, and the 1st Bn as well per some sites. This has me somewhat leaning towards the 3rd Bn as an option. I've done a lot of reading of the overview of where the 1st Inf Div and the 18th Inf reg actions in North Africa and am familiar with the battles waged. Lastly I know that he died on 23 Mar 1943 at the battle of El Guettar. I assume from the reading that it would have been after "Wop Hill" was taken and the entrance of the 10th Panzer. I've included a copy of a newspaper clipping regarding the award of his silver star from The Fitchburg Sentinel dated Monday Aug 23 1943.

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Apparently I need to raid the closets more, found some additional documentation... The first one was actually a letter from CPL Milton R Scherer, who had a rough time at Bizerte. The manifests from the Heywood, I've seen mentioned on here on another post. I believe they were maneuvers that were conducted. I'd seen CPL Scherer was listed on the same ship each time, which isn't surprising due to them being in the same company.


CPL Scherer's story - He was a United States Army Corps World War II veteran. He was wounded by a machine gun and captured by the Germans at Bizerte, Tunisia, and a few days later was rescued by the British First Army on May 9, 1943.

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Welcome

Thanks for sharing his story. One suggestion for finding out what company he was assigned would be to obtain the regimental records from NARA at College Park, MD. There is a cost per page copy fee and it could be difficult to get just what you want. What I have in mind is the S-1 records for Personnel. They processed special orders for awards and other records. Besides the Silver Star there may have been records for campaign credit and Good Conduct medals. You might try requesting one month at a time between December 1942 and February 1943. You could also hire a researcher or visit yourself. Alternatively there is the 1st Division Museum near Chicago which probably has some of the these records.

Good Luck!!

 

Thank you for replying Earthican, all advice is appreciated. I've emailed the historian at the Cantigny museum, that seems to be a popular resource. I've also submitted a records request to NARA in hopes that his records weren't victim of the fire. I hadn't thought of regimental records, but S1 would be a great place to look. Any idea which for was used for award recommendations? I know the current one is a DA 638, but I'm not sure if it was in use back then. Thanks again for the response.

 

The Orders I have seen for awards look like typed memorandum -- Army style. I'm not sure if you will be able to specify what documents you are looking for or even limit them to the S-1 files. The successful requests seem to be: give me all the records for such-n-such dates. You do have to specify the unit and its division. The file could be extensive and therefore pricey and may still not contain the information you are looking for.

Tracking down the Silver Star award might be easier and by different means. Within the unit records the actual award could be any number of months after the date it was earned. But there are indexes of the Division General Orders which the museum might use.

Best wishes.

 

I've been attempting to thoroughly research the Operation Torch landings in attempting to pinpoint which ships carried the 18th Regimental Combat Team and or the 18th Regiment of the 1st Infantry division. I've tried to sift through an enormous amount of conflicting information. So far what I believe to be true is that the landings involving the 18th were in Z sector near Arzew, from the Central Task force, eastern force. Notes from the book Doctor Danger Forward and a few other websites make note of the three ships Reina Del Pacifico, HMT Ettrick and the Dutch ship M/V Tegelberg to be the ships carrying the 18th. I've been trying to scour the British National Archives and the Royal Navy sites for anything relating to these ships but have not been able to hit any pay dirt on any yet. Not asking for anyone to go out of their way hunting this stuff down, but if anyone has run across any of this information in passing, please post a reply. Thanks again.

 

You may want to post this particular inquiry on our sister forum, WW2Talk.com which is more UK-centric (in a good way, that is).

 

Excellent, registered and beginning another forum hunt. Thanks a ton for the info.

 

UPDATE - Found a rolled photo which was presumed to be something else. Turns out it is an original 1939 company photo for Company K of the 18th Infantry Regiment. I was shocked after re-hydrating it enough to unroll it and see what it actually was. I've turned it over to a Digital restorer who is going to re-flatten the photo and transfer it to digital format. I'll most likely get it retouched due to a bit of cracking and wear but it still looks great, Made some initial scans of the photo before bringing it in so I will try to photoshop it a bit into one big picture again and will post it here soon, If anyone knows anyone from the 18th Regiment, K company circa 1939, have them check back here for some results.

 

I'm sorry if I missed something here, but have you sent for his IDPF? A lot of information sometimes.
http://www.ww2f.com/topic/42627-individual-deceased-personnel-file/

Also, do you have a copy of his separation papers that you could post?
Dave

 

I've requested his paperwork, just waiting on the long return time for that, and nothing on the separation papers. But, he is in this photo. It is one that was given to my grandfather by my great grandmother and somehow got lost in the passed on belongings. This is conclusively my Great Uncle's company and that in itself poses a great relief in finally knowing. Anyways, here is the rough looking photo as promised, sorry for the poor scanning quality. The photo measures 28in in length, 10 in height and is still quite rounded from being rolled for some 75 years. Pieced it together as best I could and cropped out the dead spots. Enjoy.

**UPDATE** Received new properly scanned file today. Posted below.
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I was going to say 1939 to 1942 was a busy time for the 1st ID with a lot of changes. I would put you at 80% certain he stayed with K Company and it should help you focus a search.

Where did this header information come from? Somehow I missed it earlier and I don't see that it was edited later.

Excellent photo, I love the bugler on the far right, never seen that before.

 

Alright, firstly I apologize because I feel as though I'm spamming my own post. Secondly, I received the copy of American Iliad: The 18th Infantry Regiment In World War II by Robert Baumer with Mark J. Reardon and wow, what a book. The more I read the more confident I am in that I'm reading the actual history that I've been searching for all these years. On pg 99, in the description of the battle of El Guettar, and the determination of company K, it describes how after being overrun, battered and pretty much decimated, how the soldiers refused to give up the fight. "Another man crawled behind an enemy machine-gun position, and then blew it to bits with grenades." (I may be reading what I want to read into it all but the coincidences seem to be proving out. The above posted photo being one and this account supporting the Silver Star article in my first post is really convincing me.) It was a simple sentence in the book, but after reading all of the events leading up to this action, it would easily be deserving. Sadly, my great-uncle's name was spelled wrong in the Honor Roll at the end of the book, but it was a common mistake on most military documents I had seen for my entire family.

I'm going to have to try to find the reference material in the book which would be Stars and Stripes "The history of one day's battle" 1 May 1943 which looks as though it has some interesting info if not just a great story and written in the time period.

One other thing that sticks out to me is that it looks as though the group photo is possibly an infantry platoon sized group with the company CO, XO, First Seargent, Platoon Leader (Lt) front and center with NCOs complementing the front flanks and the enlisted in the 2 ranks behind. Not quite sure who the men in white would be, the one in the middle has "18 K" embroidered on his (surgical smock or apron?). I'll probably attempt to identify as many as I can in the future, but with the losses suffered during the war, I expect that to be quite difficult due to lack of photographs. Any input would be happily accepted and I'll update to the photo roster.

In closing, I'll be awaiting the personnel documents that I requested in hopes it will confirm what I believe, but I'm pretty much convinced I'm on the right track. If I find information proving otherwise, I'll accept it and try again.

 

Sounds sensible, keep an open mind, run everything to ground and see where it leads you.

The newspaper article reads like the family had the write-up for his Silver Star. Finding that might answer a lot of questions.


I actually suspect that is all of K Company in the photo. This was the state of the US Army in 1939. It is an interesting period to read on. The Army had to scratch and claw to get enough men to conduct maneuvers in 1940. Volunteers who saw events in Europe would help but so would deleting a regiment from each of the infantry divisions.

I think the men in white are the Company Cooks. Search quartermaster for the importance of selecting good cooks. The new junior officers of the rapidly expanding Army did not always appreciate the importance.

 

Thank you for keeping me grounded. Going to attempt to locate his wife and/or her next of kin for info. In the mean time enjoy the following..

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Found a picture in a paper while searching for his wife.. not quite sure why it didn't show when searching for him.

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Looks like I've checked most of those sites with my own searches, but a couple stood out for me to check on. Another lead I'm going to try to follow is the silver star award, from what I've seen the awards given were covered by general orders. A Corporal buried in the North African Cemetery with him was KIA on the same day and from the 18th as well. He was also awarded the silver star (possibly for that day which I am hoping). His Star was included in the Headquarters, 1st Infantry Division, General Orders No.22 (1943), so I am hoping that possibly it could be the same General orders I may be looking for. If anyone has access to these I would greatly appreciate a copy. Otherwise I'll have to attempt to FOIA the request. I had seen the book Index to the General Orders of the First Infantry Division, in World War II by Brandon Wiegand but I'm not sure how much information it would contain about what I am looking for. (and $50 seems a little much for me at the moment)
I also wanted to say thank you to you all for the assistance in my searches and for putting up with my research-addicted rants.

 

Found another nifty photo while searching more online. Once I received the company K photo back from the restorer all nice and flattened out and scanned (updated in the earlier post), I noticed a stamp in the lower right corner which read "Chas. B. Roper, Jr Photo No. 5693-B National Photo & News Service San Antonio, Tx. Apparently this company was contracted to do a lot of military group panoramic photos like the one that will be posted below. Anyways, it might make for a neat search for anyone that may be looking for something similar with other units as they had quite a few posted online. There seems to also be a collection donated to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. If anyone is anywhere near local to there I'd be really interested to find out if there may be any related to my search. I'll add a link to the collection site. Hope it helps anyone.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00265/hrc-00265.html#series10


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he's gotta be in there somewhere

 

I like the picture. Most of the stuff on the website seems to be pre-1940. Hopefully they have more to add to the website.