The Engineer branch insignia and the unit crest of the Engineer School on his collars. On his sleeve, is the Army Service Forces patch (the Services of Supply before March 24, 1943).

Uncle Arthur's Wartime [WWII] Experiences

Fort Belvoir Playing Card

On April 7, 1994, my Uncle Arthur died at age 75.   We were both stamp collectors since the age of 12 or 13.   As a result, I inherited his military album of his four plus years in the Army.   He never showed this album to me.   He did tell me, he served at Fort Belvoir.   That is about all I knew of his World War II years.   I do not think he talked to anyone else about his war years.   The album contains his military record with many WWII artifacts and photographs.   The album contains some patriotic covers from his stamp collection.   It is an amazing album!

On January 5, 1942 he got his draft notice to report for induction January 16, 1942 at Fort Dix, NJ.   He was 23.   His Army Serial Number was 32202680.   From January 22, 1942 to March 23, 1942 he underwent Engineer Basic Training with Company D, 1st Engineer Training Battalion.   This was part of the Engineer Replacement Training Center, Fort Belvoir, VA.   His notes say he was a Bricklayer (Belvoir taught plumbing, carpentry, and masonry)/Floor Mopping for 4 days with Company F, Officer Training Center.   Engineering is a very physical occupation, for example, building bridges or destroying land mines.   This was not a very good match for his abilities and personality.   However, the Army has a way of eventually getting the right peg in the right hole.   Arthur was smart, quiet, not athletic, and he could type.   The Army rolls along, not so much on its stomach, as on its paperwork.   On March 27, 1941, the Army started to use his typing skills.   This was a perfect match for his abilities and disposition.

He became a personnel specialist starting as a morning report (M/R) clerk.   The Army counts itself every morning to see who is present, sick, absent on leave, absent without leave (AWOL), missing in action, wounded in action, and so forth.   He was good at this job and rose rapidly to Staff Sergeant--at a rate seldom even matched in combat.   Staff Sergeants are squad leaders in the infantry but he was a Personnel Sergeant.   Usually, Personnel Sergeants are in the Adjutant General Corps.   However, being at Belvoir, he wore the Engineer brass castles the whole time.   Arthur was at Fort Belvoir for two years and three months.   Most of this time, his unit was in charge of training enlisted men to become officers.   He was a non-commissioned officer or NCO as a Staff Sergeant. He went through the grade progression showed in the table below.   His final grade of Staff Sergeant was effective April 7, 1943 while at Fort Belvoir.   I imagine Arthur was a good leader.   His record shows that he was.   Sergeants come in different kinds--there is no stereotype.   Leadership can come from respect of the knowledge you have and can impart.   The pictures in the album show Arthur maturing in this short time span.

Here is his Service Record by Rank:
RANK	DATE	TIME IN GRADE
Private	16 Jan 42	3½ months
Private 1st Class	3 May 42	1 month   >>>>>
Technician 5th Grade	4 Jun 42	5 months
Technician 4th Grade	31 Oct 42	3½ months
Sergeant	19 Feb 43	1½ months
Staff Sergeant	7 Apr 43	3 years ½ month
(Separation)	19 Apr 46	(4 years 3 months)

His notes show from September to December 1943 he became an acting First Sergeant and an acting Sergeant Major.   These four months show him doing work at the two highest enlisted grades.   This was quite a responsibility for a Staff Sergeant.   This work was not for the Officer Candidate Regiment.   I cannot say what he was doing, but, on 20 Dec 1943, Belvoir assigned him to Special Duty reporting directly to Captain Gough.

Postcard #571 Engineer Replacement Training Center Looking North - Fort Belvoir, VA

I have a good theory on what this duty was.   Then, all the services were getting ready for the Normandy invasion that was five months away.   The Army decided it would need more replacements for combat specialties than the programmed training would provide (they were expecting heavy casualties).   The Army decided to convert as many support personnel to combat to meet this need.   Fort Belvoir had to provide its share.   I expect, as a seasoned personnel sergeant, he helped identify these personnel.   During this duty, Arthur either volunteered himself or met the guidelines set up for conversions.   His days at Belvoir were numbered now. If he volunteered, he probably never told his family.   If he selected personnel, he may have regretted being part of the process that saw men get sent to the front lines of war.   Maybe, one of these reasons is why he did not talk much about the war.   Unknown to me, are how much the patriotism of the times versus the concerns of survival from the family, guided his decisions.

On 26 April 1943, the Army ordered him to go to Camp Butner, NC.   This began an odyssey that seldom found Arthur in the same place for more than a few months.   At the end of this paragraph is a record of Arthur's locations for the remainder of his war years.   Camp Butner was merely a stopover until the Army could schedule him into classes.   However, he did do some clerk duties while at Butner.   More important (as far as his family is concerned), he missed D-day at Normandy that occurred while he was at Butner. At right, his Camp Butner, NC Permanent Pass dated September 1, 1944.

Next, at Camp Sibert, he learned Chemical Warfare skills common to every soldier and sergeant in the Chemical Corps.

Arthur's 'peg' seems to be out of its proper 'hole' but he apparently never complained.   The graphic above is part of the Special Orders Extract sending Arthur from Camp Butner to Camp Sibert that is marked RESTRICTED.   His notes explain that 816 is his old job in Personnel, 010 is his civilian job and the DEML is his branch.   However, I have never seen the Engineer Branch abbreviated this way, it appears to be Demolition?

The last four months of 1944, Arthur spent at Fort McClellan, AL, the Army's Chemical Warfare Center.   This training completed his reclassification.   Arthur's specialty was now an Infantry Heavy Weapons Crewman in the Chemical Corps.   A copy of his graduation certificate is below.   It is signed or stamped by BG Paul L. Ransom.   This, and other copies of his certificates and orders, are photocopies which Arthur prepared from his Military Record.   The originals burned in the St. Louis fire of 1973 along with the records of 80% of other WWII Veterans.

The Army trained him to fire a 4.2 inch mortar with chemical rounds.   The most common round was just smoke to conceal friendly infantry movements.   However, the U.S. Army also had anti-personnel white phosphorus rounds that burned upon impact.   Other rounds were worse and not used in WWII.   This weapon had a range of 3 miles.   So, had Arthur seen combat, he would only be subject to spotty enemy fighter attacks but not artillery fires (mortar positions were on the reverse sides of hills).   This training took him past the German's last offensive action the famous "battle of the bulge."   The war was now in its last four months.

He next had short stays at Camp Shelby, MS and Camp Livingston, LA.   This was his final preparation before shipment overseas.   This was unit training versus the individual training he had up to this point.   While at Shelby, he got a pass to visit the French Quarter of New Orleans.   A large postcard back to Union City states:

"We got to New Orleans last night at 11PM. Got a room at DeSota Hotel. And went to some night clubs in the old French Quarter. Had a wonderful steak dinner at 'Le Patio Royal'. A salad of shrimp, lettuce and tomato with a marvelous dressing on top. T-bone steak, french fries, a good soup, french bread, apple pie, glass of sherry for $2.00. Really was super. In an old building full of antiques, with a 'patio' too of course. We (Tindermann, Fick) have since been wandering around the Old French Quarter. The others did some shopping in the little shops around. We were in some museum, saw all these old buildings, etc. A very nice city. Rainy day, but it didn't bother us."

For the next two-plus months, Arthur was in the replacement stream while the war ended.   VE-day was May 8, 1945.   You might think the replacement depot system was terribly inefficient and you are right--it was.   It was bad for the entire war and never got better.   Even healed soldiers, trying to get back to their original unit, these depots held for months.   However, for Arthur, I am glad it was very inefficient.   He lists his stops from March 27 - May12, 1945 as replacement depots in LeHarve and Hageau France, and Frankethal and a potato field in Germany.   While waiting at LeHarve, France, he mentions the extensive damage to the harbor.   Some pictures later show damaged buildings but I believe he missed the horrors of war.   I cannot find Hageau (France) on the map but believe it is on the way to Frankethal, Germany, his next to last stop before joining a unit.

Arthur finally joined a unit on September 13, 1945.   Again, he was lucky on the timing.   The Army was starting to move some units in Europe, to fight in Japan, when VJ-day came September 2, 1945.   The world was finally at peace and Arthur part of the liberation force in Europe.   His unit was the battle tested 3rd Infantry Division.   This division conducted four amphibious assaults on enemy beaches--Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, and St. Tropez.   They fought in Southern France into Germany, crossed the Rhine River (March 26, 1945) into the Bavarian Alps. They took Augsburg and their last battle was Salzburg, Austria (May 4, 1945).   A V-mail letter back home on his first day (Mother's Day) states he had guard duty in a jeep with three other Americans plus an English-speaking German Officer.   He says "the German soldiers are all around, guess they don't know what to do with them all."   For the time up to July 9, 1945, he lists he first was living in a Schoolhouse in Annaburg and then later a location in Salzburg.   He was really proud to be part of a unit, and one famous at that.   The 3rd Division had the famous Audie Murphy.   However, this unit did not have that much to do.   The picture shows Arthur and his 2d Squad, 2d Platoon, Company I, 30th Regiment, 3d Infantry Division.   Rotation back home was on the "point system."   So, most of the 3rd Infantry Division's veterans were going home.   The Army was deactivating units and people with low point scores transferred to remaining units.   The 3rd was staying in Europe so they were replacing non-volunteers (Arthur) with Regular Army personnel.

However, the Army is the Army.   The 3rd decided to operate a Non-Commissioned Officer's Transition School.   This school trains or retrains basic skills required of NCOs.   (Remember, there were many battlefield promotions to Sergeant where individuals never got formal training.)   Most of the time, this school was in Bad Wildungen, Germany.   The picture at right shows Arthur and two buddies, they probably worked in the tent.   The Bulletin Board reads CURRENT EVENTS.   The sign is not fastened to anything and is moved or held upright for photo opportunities.   I imagine, low-point men mostly made up the cadre.   They ran six classes through October 1945 and Arthur was back to being a Personnel Sergeant again.   While this was only a three month period, Arthur enjoyed it.   They gave him the same certificate as a course graduate.   This was the only Army document Arthur had framed and it was on his bedroom wall (pictured below, view image or save to see full size Certificate).   Bad Wildungen is a pretty spot and the area saw little war damage.   While here, Arthur got a 3-day pass to Paris Sept 30th to October 3rd.   This site shows souvenirs of this trip, which includes two nite club visits--the Follies Bergére and the Casino de Paris.   He also has a caricature drawing of him that I made the background of this page.   I think it is tremendous — Arthur at the height of a youthful adventure, self-confident yet reflecting his true "pretty-boy" look of that time.   The patch above his sergeant stripes is the 3rd Infantry Division insignia.   The 3rd is now at Wurzburg, Germany where it has been since Arthur's time--except a round trip to the Korean War.   (See Contents above for actual pictures of the sourvenirs mentioned above.)

The rest of Arthur's "Liberation Tour" consists of the Army shuttling him from one unit to another as his point total increased (with one hospital interruption).   He next did some clerking with a Quartermaster Depot Supply Company (Verdun, France).   At first, as a potato warehouse clerk--that is a real job, the photo at left shows a warehouse full of sacks of potatoes!   The Army changed his branch from Engineer to Quartermaster then but I do not believe he ever sewed this insignia on any uniform.

He was next transferred to two Field Artillery units (not part of his mortar training) at Camp Philadelphia, France.   This Camp was essentially a "tent city" except for the Theater (photo right).   He waited for just over a month (an Army penchant) and did some clerking for both batteries (companies).   For Christmas 1945, he was a guest of the American Red Cross's Union Terminal Club in Paris France.   (Perhaps this and other wartime benefits are why Arthur included the ARC as one of five charities he gave generously to in his will.)

From the day after Christmas until March 26, 1946 he was sick with Hepatitis (Yellow Jaundice).   He stayed in two Army General Hospitals (193d and 239th), the last near Paris.   The photo of him in a robe (left) shows him looking very good at the 193d.   The right photo is a Chateau near Paris that housed the 239th.   However, this sickness did not delay his return home. He did not get his 55 points until March 27, 1946.   On his orders, for release back to the states, the orders listed him as two of 32 soldiers with 55 points, all the others had more points.   So, it is unlikely the Army would have shipped him home earlier if he had stayed healthy.

His last two assignments were to a replacement (reinforcement) depot (Namur, Belgium) and an engineer maintenance company (LeHarve, France).   He notes he did some Military Policy work at the first, probably because of his rank.   The last maintenance unit assignment is strange to me.   I do not know why the Army assigned him to this Le Harve France unit for nine days while waiting for his ship to sail home (photo right).   (Perhaps, they were trying to change his orders and keep him in Europe longer?)   He sailed home on the Transport USS Harry W. Taylor (photo below, first view of NYC Harbor).

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