As I mentioned in the title, though I never met my grandfather, I'm told he never talked about his experiences in WW2, and it doesn't seem like he saved many physical artifacts from the time.
However, we recently found him included on this old passenger list, which includes his unit designation and some other information: http://imgur.com/cyOeupD
He's #123 on the list, and obviously I know his name, but can someone parse the rest of the information provided on his row?
I'm totally unfamiliar with military unit hierarchies. For example, I found this picture of 63rd Infantry Division, 255th Infantry Regiment, but I have no idea if that's necessarily related to his 255th Infantry Regiment or if there are separate ones, etc... http://ww2db.com/images/battle_berlin4.jpg
What unique designations could I use from this to know for sure that I'm looking at information for his group?
Is there enough information here to start piecing together any sort of a story?
Thanks!
Just from that sheet you can see he was part of the Headquarters of the 1st Battalion of the 255th infantry regiment. And that he was part of the Signal Corps.
That 3 digit number on the end the MOS will tell you more accurately what his job was and what he was trained in.
The passenger list you have a copy of shows that he was part of the HQ company of the 255th Infantry regiment. You are correct in that the 255th regiment was part of the 63rd Infantry Division. The 63rd ID is a relatively well documented unit that served in France, and into the heart of Germany. The link here is for a Regimental history of the 255th which loads slow, but provides incredible detail of their actions (http://www.63rdinfdiv.com/files/255th_Infantry_Regiment_Operational_Reports_History_.pdf). Read through this history, note the specific mentions of the 1st Battalion, then find the locations on Google maps and you will have an in depth understanding of where he was. The 63rd Infantry division association website ( http://www.63rdinfdiv.com/Homepage.html) has lots of photos and stories that are worth looking through and is run by a veteran who as of last year was still answering e-mails and putting people in contact with surviving veterans who might of known their relative.
Oh neat! My great uncle served with the 63rd Infantry Division, too. He was wounded just prior to the capture of Heidelberg (ironically in the same general region that our ancestors came from).
The passenger list you have is quite curious. Could you find a date for it? It's interesting because it has them landing in Le Havre (northern France), while the history books say that they landed in Marseilles (southern France). There's any number of explanations for this, however a date would be really useful in figuring it out.
Thanks for sharing!
