Lt Fred ______ of the 303rd QM Rhd Co - Northern Ireland 1944 - Can anyone help me find him?

My grandmother kept three letters from a Lieutenant named Fred from during the war. They were obviously quite close, and I would love to discover who he was and what became of him.

Can anyone give me a push in the right direction?

This is what I know so far:

(1)
His name was Fred and he was a Lieutenant

(2)
He was part of the 303rd Quartermaster Railhead Company.
I've only found one specific reference to them during the war, and after the name of the unit it had in brackets "(colored)" which leads me to guess that he was African American.

(3)
He moved to Northern Ireland in November 1943 and was there until at least 25 April 1944. He gave his address as: Depot Q-111-D, APO 813, US Army in April 1944, and as APO 813 in December 1943.

(4)
Previous to this move he was somewhere in the west of the UK - probably around Bath or Bristol.

(5)
The letterhead on one letter is of "Camp Gruber, Oklahoma."
It may be he trained there and was from Oklahoma, though he could have just found any old paper that was to hand.

(6)
He had a friend named Lieutenant May in his unit.

(7)
He was probably well educated - he quotes Belloc and Voltaire in his letters.

(8)
He was a christian.

Is this just a needle in a hay-stack, or does anyone think they would know a way to narrow him down to one man?

 

Welcome to the forum, Lewis (sunny). Am I correct assuming you don't have a last name for Fred? That makes things tough.

I'm familiar with African American combat units and they pretty much always had white officers. Good chance it was the same with all AA units.

During April and May, 1944, APO 813 was; Victoria Barracks, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was most likely the same location in 1943.

Here's some info about Camp Gruber, very few units mentioned: http://www.3riversmuseum.com/camp-gruber-the-war-years.html

This is the best place for your research, you'll get more views than posting in the New Recruits section.

Good luck!

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for your reply.

Yes unfortunately I have no last name, which I know makes things difficult.

Thanks for that info about the white officers, although from what I've come across, I think front line units may have been an exception, as it was more of an ad hoc situation when african-american troops were put in rifle platoons. It never really says anything either way in anything I've come across about service units, although I know there were African American officers, some very high up. Does anyone know anything concrete about how segregation worked in practice when it came to the command structure in these rear units?
For artillery, etc I have no idea though.

Thanks also for the link for Camp Gruber. It all helps to put the pieces together. Would this mean he enlisted in Oklahoma, or this was the nearest camp to home?

Further info on the 303rd - I've found a reference elsewhere on the forums to a book of Unit Citations and now have discovered that the 303rd was given campaign credits for Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe, Northern France and the Rhineland, and was part of the Occupation in Germany 20 May - 30 Oct 1945.

I'm assuming, though that they were fairly far behind the front lines.

 

In September 1943 they were here.
Porton 303 Quartermaster Railhead Company

In December 1943 they were here.
Derrymore Park 303 Quartermaster Railhead Company
In June 1944 here were their locations.


[SIZE=medium]303 Quartermaster Railhead Company (-) [/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]Armagh[/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]Armagh, NI[/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]303 Quartermaster Railhead Company, 3 Platoon [/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]Ballywillwill[/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]Down, NI[/SIZE]


and I see them in France in August 1944. So they must have moved to the continent in July 1944.

They are mentioned here on Black Units of the Army. http://www.bjmjr.net/ww2/uk_63044.htm
and Lest We Forget here. http://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/
without any detail.

Here is a link to a photo of them at Balliwill https://www.flickr.com/photos/111021196@N07/13724278935/

If you have the letters with the APO do you have his Service Number?

 

In chapter VII of the book The Employment of Negro Troops (from the US Army in WWII series), there is a section titled, Plans for Mobilizing Negro Officers. It's an interesting read and a much more complicated issue than one might expect.

I do agree with Steve that you should not assume Lt. Fred was African American just because the unit was a "colored" unit. The odds might be a bit better, but it is not a certainty.

 

I've had a stroke of luck and managed to discover that his name was Fred T Hurley - a 2nd Lieutenant.

By good fortune he mentions in a letter being in complete command of the unit until mid January 1944 when a 1st Lieutenant arrives. I managed to turn up a numerical listing of units from the European Theatre Historical Division Historical records on Fold3, which lists.a 2nd Lt F T Hurley is listed as CO of the 303rd on 31 Dec 1943.

Can anyone help me with where to go to from here? I'm totally stumped n trying to find an officer's record.