I am looking for information on the 984 Ordnance Depot Company and their role in WW2. I am a beginner when it comes to this sort of research and am still learning about all of the different groups/branches etc involved in WW2 and how they were organized, where specific groups were stationed etc. The reason I am interested in this specific groups is because a family member served in it. I was told he "served under Patton" and set about attempting to find information that would confirm or deny that claim. I'm feeling now I was a bit naive in feeling I could do this- as it seems the amount of information regarding specific groups of soldiers during WW2 may be limited. I'm hoping somebody may be able to point me in the right direction? I have tried googling and found the unit (hopefully that's the correct term) on a list complied by someone named "Phil Grinton". It was a list "compiled from the original wartime list of US units in the UK". The 984 Ordnance Depot Company seems to have been stationed in "Hale" according to that list. Thank you.
The 984th Ordnance Depot as of 1 June 1944 was assigned to Third U.S. Army and attached to the 26th Ordnance Battalion of the 1st Provisional Ordnance Group. It was stationed at Hale, Cheshire. It's planned landing strength was 186 O & EM and 108 vehicles, including trailers. An Ordnance Depot Company was an Ordnance combat support supply unit. It was normally assigned to an Army or Air Force to operate depots supplying all classes of Ordnance materiel except ammunition. It could perform Army=level supply for an average of 15,000 to 45,000 men, subject to variations depending on the type of units in the force. The nominal organization was 5 officers, 1 warrant officer, and 174 enlisted men with 16 6-ton semi-trailer truck and trailer combinations, 1 1/4-ton trucks, 2 3/4-ton weapons carriers, 2 2 1/2-ton trucks and 1-ton trailers, 4 4 to 5-ton tractors, and 1 heavy wrecker (note that is only 29 vehicles, what the additional 79 planned for is unknown). I have not found the commanding officers name or when they landed, but it would have been sometime in mid to late July or after. Additional information, especially for names, would require pulling the Company Morning Reports.
"Ralph was in the 519th Ordnance Company, a supply and maintenance unit. THey worked on tanks, armored cars, trucks, and large guns. They did some small arms repair but mainly worked on the big stuff." From Thomas Wiley's Diary of a Common Foot Soldier, page 78.
The "519th Ordnance Company" was actually a Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company, Field Army (FA). It was a combat support maintenance unit, normally assigned to an army. It performed specialized 4th echelon maintenance on weapons and instruments and had a limited capacity for motor vehicle maintenance and repair. There were also the HM Co (Tk), specializing in tank and tank-based armored vehicle 3rd echelon maintenance and repair, the Ordnance Heavy Automotive Maintenance (HAM) Company, specializing in GP, scout cars, and half-track motor vehicle 4th echelon maintenance and repair, which also had a limited capacity for small arms maintenance and repair.