I have his service records, discharge papers and birth certificate. I know from a couple stories he told me when I was younger that he was on a mortar team and at some point captured a Nazi train, but I'm having trouble finding out much more.
Under "Battles and Campaigns" on the service records it shows Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. Under "military occupation and number" it says "Squad Leader 653." The top part of the page is cut off, but says "Co G 320th Inf," so maybe that gives some clue?
Lastly, there is another page that shows his "assignments" and lists 3 months as a Private with principal duty being "basic tng inf" (?), 11 months as Pfc (?) with principal duty bein gunner, 7 months as Pfc with principal duty being Rifleman and then 3 months as Sergeant with principal duty being squad leader. There are more specifics below that stating "Summary of Military Occupation... Squad Leader: Was a squad leader of a mortar squad, 60mm, within a weapon platoon of a rifle company. Was in charge of & supervised the activities of his squad of 6 men & a mortar. Was responsible for placing the piece into position, observing and making correct fire adjustments. Was also responsible for functioning of the weapon."
I'm happy to provide more information if that' s useful. I really appreciate any light anyone could shed on this. I know a fair bit about World War 2, but have no idea how to read these records and would like to read more about what he specifically did in the war.
Thank you!
'Co G 320th Inf' = G Company, 320th Infantry Regiment. That regiment's campaign credits/battle honours match up exactly with the ones shown on your great-grandfather's service records. This site has some interesting battle narratives from the 320th's operations in Europe.
The regiment was assigned to the 35th Infantry Division during its European service, so a good place to start might be the 35th Infantry Division Association.
The 320th was organised during the First World War; reassigned as a reserve regiment at the end of the war; reactivated when the Second World War started; inactivated at the end of the war; and eventually turned into a training unit.
That story is true of so many wartime units: they're created during a period of massive wartime military expansion, and then set aside when the army is demobilised and scaled down at the end of the war — and their regimental heritage too often disappears with them.
There isn't a formal regimental history of any substance that I can see. However, there's an unofficial regimental site, with a 'Story of the 320th' pamphlet that might be of interest to you. It's a pretty detailed narrative history of the 320th's operations in Europe, albeit written from a battalion level — so it's not the most personal history.
Here's my parsing of your great-grandfather's service records:
The rest should be reasonably clear — you've got some explicit detail there about what his command of a mortar team entailed.