Researching

That'll be a tough one, as AAA battalions were rather small units and they were shuffled around a good bit. I'll see what I can find. It was not uncommon to attach AAA to divisions for long periods of time, however, so you may can follow a division's track.

It is also possible that he could have not been a part of the unit on his DD214. As the war ended, individual troops as well as troop formations were being sent home. It was not uncommon for individual troops to be sent home ahead of the unit they fought with, as they had enough points to go home before the unit was schedule to leave. They would be placed in a another unit for the trip home and unless the soldier specified at the discharge center, their discharge paper would reflect the unit they came home with, not who they served with.

 

Uga06dawg, let's keep this request down to one thread please. I've combined the two you created into this one. Your information will not be so scattered by doing so.

 

I looked to see if the 62nd AAA was ever attached to a division and it was not. Detemining the whereabouts of independent, battalion-sized units that were not directly attached to a division is at best difficult.

Undoubtably they were a Corps or Army asset, making it harder to track their individual movements.

However,
They were credited with the Anzio, Rome/Arno, Southern France, Ardennes/Alsace and Rhineland Campaigns. This group of campaigns leads me to think the battalion was a constituent part of Lucian Truscott's VI Corps, as VI Corps was in all the mentioned campaigns, and in a couple of them, they were the only Corps involved.

Suggestion.
Research the VI Corps. Maybe you can find some mention of of the 62nd AAA as you read about VI Corps' action. Bear in mind, unlike a battalion, regiment or division, corps were administrative units only and their organization was flexible, often changing parts daily. They generally controlled 2-4 divisions, but they also had smaller specialty units, attached directly to the corps' command structure, to be used as needs dictated. Your grandfather's unit was one such unit and I would suspect they spent their time providing air defense for the other units attached to the corps and/or the corps HQ itself. I would not doubt that they were parceled out in company or smaller-sized groups and rarely functioned as an intact battalion and were usually a bit back from the front. They were on the sharp end of the sword, just not on the very tip of the point.

I would imagine if you do much digging into Anzio, you may find him there. I'll bet cash money he made it to Rome at some point. Look up the Marseilles landings (Operation Dragoon), the race up the Rhone River Valley and the Lower Vosges Mountains, in addition to the campaigns mentioned above.

Does this make sense to you?

 

Those two patches sound reasonable, as VI Corps was under 7th Army and 9th Army at different times.

The 78th ID was involved in the Ardennes-Alsace and Rhineland campaigns. The 62nd AAA was never seconded to the 78th, perhaps he met up with some of the men in that division.