191st Tank Battalion

Thank you for the info, Lou.

 

Dear Jim,
Hi my name is Andrew Morris, my grand father was "whitey" His name is SGT Julius John Faricelli of able company 191st tank battalion 1940 to 1945, wounded in anzio italy and liberator of dachua concentration camp 29 April 1945. Please respond, thank you Andrew
Is it a diary of the war, he did send it to SFC Thomas Tuciorone 2 decades ago and Mr Tuc did pass away and my grand dad never saw the book again.

SFC (Ret)Andrew Morris
4 Bernadette Way
Washingtonville, New York 10992

andymorris70@yahoo.com

 

Dear Jim,
Hi my name is Andrew Morris, my grand father was "whitey" His name is SGT Julius John Faricelli of able company 191st tank battalion 1940 to 1945, wounded in anzio italy and liberator of dachua concentration camp 29 April 1945. Please respond, thank you Andrew
Is it a diary of the war, he did send it to SFC Thomas Tuciorone 2 decades ago and Mr Tuc did pass away and my grand dad never saw the book again.

SFC (Ret)Andrew Morris
4 Bernadette Way
Washingtonville, New York 10992

andymorris70@yahoo.com

Hi I am looking for any photos, history of 191 st Tank Bn, please respond to my email or send letter thank you.

 

According to General Orders 10, HQ, 191st Tank Battalion, dated 26 April 1944,
SGT Julius J. Faricelli, ASN 20200714, was awarded the Purple Heart for "wounds
received in action on 23 April 1944, in the vicinity of ***, Italy" (Image 2124, 25 September 2009).

SGT Faricelli belonged to A Company.

By the way, the 191st did not liberate Dachau. The main camp was liberated by 3rd Bn, 157th Infantry Regiment,
45th Infantry Division, and by the 42nd Infantry Division.

Members of the 191st may have visited KZ Dachau on 29 April or shortly afterwards, but they had no role
in the camp's liberation.


Dave

 

The History of the 191st was scanned by Mike Poole and can be downloaded here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d964jvd4k7xh25e/Rd-WGJXLvj


Dave

 

Hi Dave, thank you for the reponse:

I have the original certificate, uniforms and dog tags and V-mail and letters from 1940 to 1945 fom my grandmother and grandfather; SGT Faricelli was wounded at Anzio, Italy. I have the original letter he wrote for the Holocost Museum in Spring valley, NY. In it he stated he was part of Task Force made up from some members of 42 ID & 45 ID on the night of 28 April 1945. His tank crew took another Tank from another tank platoon and got it up and running. Then the few tanks left were able to head toward the camp, which was originally thought to be some type of production plant. The tanks were heading over hill at 0445 hours on the 29 April 1945 and firing at the camp. When close enough, they entered into the camp through the barb wire fence and shooting into low profile pill boxes and then throwing hand grenades. German came around the corner firing and my grandfather shot him with .30 Cal Carbine and killed him. I have the eagle from the German officers hat.

He joined the 27th Tank Company, New York Army national Guard in 1936 when he was 16. Talked into joining by Thomas Tuccierone who was platoon Sgt for (Able Co 191 Tank Bn) both were inducted as original members of Able Company 191 Tank Bn.

That is why I was interested in Jim Orville (reponse he had book signed by Whitey, that was my grandfathers nickname)

Thanks Andrew

 

Never heard of Shrineham. The Royal College of Military Science is/ was based at Schirvenham, Wiltshire. AKA "Watchfield Polytechnic"

At the end of World War II in Europe, the U.S. Army's Information and Educational Branch was ordered to establish an overseas university campus for demobilized American service men and women. It did this on the Beckett estate at Shrivenham. This, and two campuses in Europe, was set up to provide a transition between army life and subsequent attendance at a university in the USA, and therefore students attended for just one term (see G. I. American Universities) (wikipedia_)

 

I think you have nailed it Sheldrake. I also found an article titled, "The GI University in Shrivenham, England" which appeared in The French Review back in 1946.

 

Andrew,

There is no documented evidence that the tanks of the 191st Tank Bn, or any armor period, entered or reached Dachau KZ on 29 April 1945.

Remember, the Germans had blown all of the bridges, save one, across the Amper River. This last bridge could only carry light vehicles.

Moreover, the infantry of the 42nd and 45th did not reach the camp until late mid-morning/early afternoon.

Without any corroborating evidence, your grandfather's recollection is unproven.


Dave

 

Some useful information may be an article titled Dachau and its Liberation written by Brigadier General Felix L. Sparks, AUS (Ret.). I found it on the website www.45thinfantrydivision.com.

While the article doesn't support the details of Andrew's grandfather's story, it does confirm that the 191st was part of the author's Task Force and does place the 191st at least in the vicinity of Dachau.

Not long ago, I found a blog which had PDFs of the 191st Tank Bn unit docs. According to the S-3 Journal 27-29 April 1945, the 191st Tank Bn command post "opened in DACHAU (742691)" at 1515 on 29 Apr 1945. That is, of course, a reference to the town and not the concentration camp. However, it does confirm they were in the vicinity.

Andrew, it is possible that some of your grandfather's story may involve a melding of his experiences and may not have happened exactly as he described. However, I would consider anyone who was part of that Task Force to be one of the liberators of the camp. You are right to be very proud of his service and sacrifice.

 

"However, I would consider anyone who was part of that Task Force to be one of the liberators of the camp."

Simply untrue. The camp was liberated by 3rd Bn., 157th Infantry Regiment and elements of the 42nd Inf. Div.

We need to be honest about this and not let sentiment get in the way of the facts.

By the way, the blog you found contains my files. I did not give permission to the Arts & Memories Museum to put these online.
One of the files is copyrighted (mine).


Dave

 

I have no sentimental investment in the liberation of Dachau. My statement was based on the liberation of the camp was the result of the combined efforts of the entire Task Force -- a team effort if you will.

I suppose we could use a very narrow criteria for determining who were the "actual liberators". In that case, even your statement that it was the 3d battalion is "simply untrue" according to the commander who was there:

If there are copyright issues, I trust you will take that up with the owners of the blog/museum in question.

 

The commander who was there was the 3rd Bn CO.


Dave

 

That is correct, Dave. The article I have been referencing was written by the commander of 3rd Bn, 157th Infantry. He identified himself as such in the first paragraph.

 

My Grandfather Pvt.William Paez company A. I'm doing research anything is helpful. Any after action???

 

Welcome to the forum, spaez65.

Did you check the link (in post #31 above) to a blog with 191st unit files? There are unit histories (basically the same as AAR's in this case), S-3 journals and a casualty report.

 

The photo above was taken at the barbed fire fence on the West side of the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, the day that the camp was liberated by American troops. Stephan Ross, on the far left, had been a prisoner in 10 different concentration camps.
Stephan Ross is one of the most well known survivors of the Holocaust. I have a whole page on my website here, devoted to his story. The following quote is from my website:

The following information about Stephen Ross is from The New England Holocaust Memorial:
The effort to build the New England Holocaust Memorial began with a Holocaust survivor, Stephen Ross (Szmulek Rozental), who was imprisoned at the age of 9 and whose parents, one brother and 5 sisters were murdered by the Nazi’s. Between 1940 and 1945, he survived 10 different concentration camps.
Like so many others Stephen Ross suffered terribly. “His back was broken by a guard who caught him stealing a raw potato. Tuberculosis wracked his body. He once hid in an outhouse, submerged to his neck in human waste, to save himself from being shot. At one time he was hung [by his arms] for eating a raw potato.” At age fourteen he was liberated from the infamous torture camp Dachau by American troops. Stephen will never forget the soldiers who found him, emaciated and nearly dead. They liberated him from a certain death.”
When Stephen and his older brother, Harry, the only other surviving family member, were released from the Dachau Camp to seek medical attention, they came upon a U.S. Tank Unit. One of the soldiers jumped off his tank, gave Stephen and Harry his rations to eat and put his arms around Stephen. Stephen fell to his knees, kissed the G.I.’s boots and began to cry for the first time in five years.
The soldier took out of his pocket a piece of cloth and gave it to Stephen to wipe his tears. Stephen later found out that it was a small American Flag with 48 stars. This small flag is a treasured item and it will be kept by Stephen and his children as a symbol of freedom, life, compassion and love of the American soldiers.

On Veteran’s Day this year, there were several stories in the news about Stephan Ross, who finally met the family of Steven Sattler, the American soldier who had given Ross a small American flag to dry his tears of joy, 67 years ago.
One of these stories, from the Mail Online, is quoted below:

Stephan Ross, now 81, was ten years old when U.S. serviceman Steve Sattler came across him, emaciated and terrified at Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
After handing over his rations to the boy during the 1945 liberation, Sattler then gave the ten-year-old his handkerchief decorated with the Stars and Stripes. […]
Mr Ross, who now lives in Newton, Massachusetts, had spent the War in ten different concentration camps. […]
Sattler was a member of the 191st Tank Battalion who were part of the troops who liberated Dachau, about ten miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany.

Ross was actually 14 years old when he was liberated from Dachau. He had been imprisoned since the age of 9, and during those five years, he had been in 10 different camps.
The following quote is from the story in the Boston Globe:

Some 67 years ago, a broken, emaciated boy looked up and saw an American soldier sitting astride a tank outside the gates of Dachau, the 10th concentration camp the boy had endured during the long war.
The hazel-eyed soldier hopped down and handed the boy rations he was eating. The boy ate with his fingers before dropping to his knees and kissing the soldier’s boots. A radio crackled with orders for the soldier to move on as part of the liberation effort. But first, the soldier hoisted the boy up and handed him a handkerchief decorated with a 48-star American flag.
Yesterday, clutching that flag in a velvet pouch, the boy, now an 81-year-old man of Newton, thanked the family of the soldier in person for the first time.

Was a tank from the 191st Tank Battalion really parked outside the Dachau gate?
This quote is from a letter written by Lt. Col. Felix Sparks of the 45th Division, one of the two divisions that are credited with liberating Dachau:

A day or so after the fall of Nurnberg, I was designated as a task force commander, with the mission of moving with all possible speed towards Munich, Germany. At that time, I was a lieutenant colonel commanding the Third Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, Seventh United States Army. Attached to my battalion for this mission were the entire 191st Tank Battalion,, Battery C of the 158th Field Artillery, and supporting engineers from the 120th Engineer Battalion […]
At 0730 on the morning of April 29, the task force had resumed the attack with companies L and K and the tank battalion as the assault force.

According to Lt. Col. Sparks, the 191st Tank Battalion was involved in the liberation of Dachau, although the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gives credit only to the 45th Division, the 42nd Division and the 20th Armored Division as liberators of Dachau.
You can read the full story of the liberation of Dachau on my website here.

View attachment 25207



A day or so after the fall of Nurnberg, I was designated as a task force commander, with the mission of moving with all possible speed towards Munich, Germany. At that time, I was a lieutenant colonel commanding the Third Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, Seventh United States Army. Attached to my battalion for this mission were the entire 191st Tank Battalion,, Battery C of the 158th Field Artillery, and supporting engineers from the 120th Engineer Battalion […]
At 0730 on the morning of April 29, the task force had resumed the attack with companies L and K and the tank battalion as the assault force.

According to Lt. Col. Sparks, the 191st Tank Battalion was involved in the liberation of Dachau, although the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gives credit only to the 45th Division, the 42nd Division and the 20th Armored Division as liberators of Dachau.

 

S-3 Report dated 29 April 1945, talks about officer who was at Dachua Concentration Camp. Also Able and Baker Companies, spent the night of 29th into the 30th April 1945. Then the push to Munich with BG Felix Sparx, at the time was LTC. Spark 157th Infantry regiment. 45th Infantry Division. Attached were the 191st Tank Battalion, Battery C of 158th Field Artiliary, 120th Engineers and 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Infantry company L attacked through main city of Dachau. I & K companies of 157th along with 191st tank battalion drove 3/4 to 1 mile south west direction toward Munich. This autobahn ran into the railroad cars and the main Camp of Dachau. (Note: there are approximately 250 sub-camps to the main Dachau Camp, located with in the city. Many units did liberate all these smaller camps on 29 and 30th respectively.) Also the National Holocaust Museum gives credit to most units who first initiated contact with camps and 48 hours after the liberation can be given credit for liberation of the camps. (NY Daily News Article ) Lt. Steve Sattler gave his small United States Flag to young 9 or 10 year old boy named Stephen Ross along side the road near the main gate of Dachau approximately 730 am. Lt Steve Sattler and Stephen Ross were on the show which aired on channel 4: Wednesday, 29th December 1989, Unsolved Mysteries by Mr. Robert Stack. This is what brought Stephen Ross and the family of late Lt Steve Sattler together (passed away)