US army 19th Anti Aircraft Artillery group

Welcome to the forum Chris, You might try doing a search at this site: U.S. Army Center Of Military History
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19th Anti-Aircraft Group

Correct name 19th Antiaircraft Artillery Group

From the Unit Citation and Campaign Credit Register (1961)
Credited with Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Central Europe Campaigns & Ground Combat, EAME Theater. EAME -> European, African, Middle Eastern. They were all lumped together.

Interesting they were not credited with the Ardenne/Alsace (Battle of the Bulge) Campaign, which was sandwiched in between Northern France and Rhineland Campaigns. I believe it must be a typo since...
Stanton's Order of Battle, World War II (1984)has this:
10 Feb 43 Activated at Camp Davis NC as 19th Coast Artillery Group (AA)
26 May 43 Redsignated 19th Antiaircraft Artillery Group
23 Dec 43 Departed New York P/E
31 Dec 43 Arrived England
17 Jul 44 Arrived Utah Beach, Normandy and enagaged Brittany and Crozon Peninulas
20 Oct 44 Entered Belgium in suppor of the 9th Army
7 Nov 44 Entered Holland.
1 Mar 45 Entered Germany
29 Jun 46 Inactivated in Belgium

Aug 1945 location - Goslar Germany

Stanton adds the Ardenne-Alsace Campaign, further making me think that the omission above was a typo.

Groups normally were attached to corps or army headquarters. I am about to leave for dinner with my family. When I get the time, I will look at the dates and location Stanton provides and see if can correlate them with possible matches. Knowing who the 19th AAG was attached to at given times can aid in locating more info about them.

 

I cannot find a list of subordinate units. Since a AA Group's force structured could and did vary, it will be hard to pin down which AAA battalions were assigned to 19th AAAG.

My strong suspicion is that the 19th AAAG was assigned to the VIII Corps (Middleton), at least through late October.

The two Corps that were operating inlamd from Utah Beach on the date the group landed were the VII & VIII. They also were in Brittany on the day provided above. Then, looking at the 20 Oct 1944 entry in my post, only VIII Corps was operating with the 9th Army on that date. That leaves me to think the the 19th AAAG was probably assigned to the VIII Corps, althought it also could have been assigned to Army instead.

Between 22-23 Oct 1944, the US First (Hodges) & Ninth (Simpson) Armies switched frontages, with the Ninth Army movng north into the 21 Army Group (Montgomery) area and the First Army remaining with the 12 Army Group (Bradley). The VIII Corps stayed in place and apparently transferred to the First Army. It was covering the Ardennes areas when the 106th, 28th & 4th Infantry divisions, elements of the 9th AD and the 14th Cav Group (as part of VIII Corps) were hard by the German offensive, Watch on the Rhine, what we now call the Battle of the Bulge.

I suspect that the 19th AAG stayed with VIII Corps, but I cannot verify it.

Several AAA Battalions played critical roles in the first week or so of the German offensive, engaging enemy ground forces as the Germans swamped the forward American defenses. I would not be surprised if these battalions were part of the 19th AAAG. Two that I can mention are the 440th & 447th AAAB and possibley the 634th. ***I cannot verify anything more about these specific units, I am just giving them as something to research further***.