My great grandfather died in world war 2 fighting on September 23rd in eloyes, France. He wrote a letter to family in sept 16th with a new address to company m 143rd (he was in the 36th infantry). 3 days later he wrote saying he was in a machine gun platoon and reminded my great grandmother of his new adress. He also remarked how he was in the real thing now on the front.
In his letter previously last one being July 31st in Italy with the po CO B Inf.
Now I guess what I’m asking is how did replacements work in the us army in the European theatre (specifally operation dragoon)?
And what is the likely he was in this unit co m from the onset of OP DRAGOON, was he in a replacement unit (this co B.) or was co B a seperate unit in the 36th thay he was fighting in?
Any info will Help
So I'm going to quote this writeup from another site which is a good description of the way the U.S. Infantry regiments designated their companies in World War Two:
The other companies of the battalion, however, were known as the “letter companies.” Identification of the “letter companies” ran consecutively through the three battalions of the infantry regiment: 1st Battalion contained A, B, and C Companies (rifle companies) and D Company (heavy weapons); 2nd Battalion contained E, F, and G Companies (rifle companies) and H Company (heavy weapons); 3rd Battalion contained I, K, and L Companies (rifle companies) and M Company (heavy weapons). The letter J was not used, as it could be confused with the letter “I” when handwritten.
So basically B Company was a rifle company in first Battalion, and M company was the Weapons company in 3rd Battalion 143rd Infantry regiment, which was one of three regiments in the 36th Infantry Division. A weapon's company usually contained a machine gun platoon, and could sometimes be divided in combat and allocated amongst the companies by the battalion commander.
Why did your relative move to a different Company and Battalion? I am not sure.
The way replacements typically worked is that they were sent to units from replacement depots after units suffered casualties. If you were already in a rifle company you usually stayed there unless you had to leave the company because you were wounded or promoted or some other unusual circumstance.
However, the 143rd Infantry regiment had 40ish days between being withdrawn from line in Italy on 28th June 1944 and boarding ships for the invasion of southern France. This would have been a period of time when replacements were integrated. Possibly your relative was moved from one company to another during this time for some reason. Typically replacements performed better if they had some time to get used to their new units before combat. When replacements were dumped by the army into a unit of strangers while actually in combat, the casualty rates were much higher.
I would think it's probable that your relative switched battalions in Italy and fought the Dragoon campaign in company M. However, Dragoon was a campaign of rapid maneuver, in which the 36th division often formed task forces comprised of different units put together rapidly, so it's possible that his transfer happened during the campaign for a different reason.
If you want to read the 143rd's war diary/AfterActionReports, you can struggle through the PDFs here: http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/after-action-reports-wwii/
I hope you find this useful or interesting. I've seen some other posts on this sub that go into more detail about the U.S. Army replacement policy, which is somewhat controversial, but I can't find them straightaway.