Any WWII/Military History Buffs?

I'm trying to find out some details about my father's service in WWII--he never talked about it, and he died recently. According to a history of his division, he was among the first 4 Americans in the 1st Army to reach the Rhine, on March 5, 1945.

I've been unable to find any more specifics--many sources reference "the first 4 Americans to reach the Rhine at 04:20 hours" but only the division history ("Spearhead In The West") names the four men.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Mysterion said:

I'm trying to find out some details about my father's service in WWII--he never talked about it, and he died recently. According to a history of his division, he was among the first 4 Americans in the 1st Army to reach the Rhine, on March 5, 1945.

I've been unable to find any more specifics--many sources reference "the first 4 Americans to reach the Rhine at 04:20 hours" but only the division history ("Spearhead In The West") names the four men.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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I tried once to get information on family members and what the did during WWII...and it is hard at best...

Good luck ..I had an easier time tracing my family history to the 1600's than I did finding info on the WWII vets..

If memory serves, MarSellus Wallace (our member not the fictional character) is a WWII expert. Hopefully he'll chime in soon.

I'm no 20th century expert, but what what we historians in general would do is try to locate the archives containing documents on your father's military service. I don't know where the US service records of WWII are being kept (and whether they are already accessible to the public - in Belgium you have to wait 70 years), but my guess would be in Washington DC. I'm sure the archive employees could help you out where to start looking.

If your father was a regular GI, and no officer, I think the chances are slim of finding information about him. His unit (division, regiment, maybe platoon) will be documented, however.

It might be kind of tough to find information about your father, specifically.

You mentioned that he never talked about his service. This might be a sign that he saw some heavy, and brutal, combat. My father was a WW II vet and I knew some of his friends who were in some SERIOUS action in the Pacific. As a young guy interested in history I tried to get them to talk about some of their experiences, but they just couldn't. I kind of think that some of them just didn't tell anybody about some of the things they saw.

One of my uncle's brother was a B-24 pilot, and one of the best documents I've ever seen was put together by his son-in-law. He did a lot of it through searches on the internet, but the real foundation to this wonderful scrapbook was the extensive diary his father-in-law kept as a pilot and all of the saved letters he wrote home. The local papers sometimes would write stories about the "local boys" and their experiences, and in this scrapbook was a newspaper article about his plane making a very risky landing with a live 500 lb bomb stuck in the bomb bay. His diary entries about combat were sparse, like, "April 29th 1944. Bombed tank factory near Munich. Heavy flak. Saw 3 planes going down."

Any letters or photographs hidden somewhere in an attic? I think your best approach is to start from your source (dad) and work your way from there. Unfortunately, if he didn't keep much around to document what he went through, you may have a tough time. Good luck, though!

Don

Stauff said:

I'm no 20th century expert, but what what we historians in general would do is try to locate the archives containing documents on your father's military service. I don't know where the US service records of WWII are being kept (and whether they are already accessible to the public - in Belgium you have to wait 70 years), but my guess would be in Washington DC. I'm sure the archive employees could help you out where to start looking.

If your father was a regular GI, and no officer, I think the chances are slim of finding information about him. His unit (division, regiment, maybe platoon) will be documented, however.

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Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of military records were destroyed in a fire several decades ago, and not all of them had been committed to microfilm/fiche. Such is the case for many WWII vets. The VA has a fine website, and are generally helpful in at least pointing you in the right direction for finding additional information.

I was able to find out very specific information on my (late) father-in-law, and actually connected him to several members of his unit, all of whom are retrettably dead by now. I wish I could retrace my steps for you, but I started with the VA, I believe.

In the 1980's, as a member of the Navy, I remember having to research records for upcoming retirements, etc-- that's when I learned of the substantial fire (perhaps St. Louis? not remembering specifics) that destroyed many WWII and Korean Conflict records.

Good luck...remember, we're losing these vets at an alarming rate-- ANY oral history you can record from him would probably be invaluable to future historians, no matter how "pedestrian" it might seem today.

I'm usually more interested in German military history, but I reiterate with everyone else and say check with military archivists in D.C. I tried doing that with several of my relatives but didn't have much luck.

A lot of records were also lost during the war. My maternal grandfather served in the Navy as a CPO during WWII in the Pacific Theater, and his records went down with his ship. He was later reassigned as a cook since he took some culinary classes before the war.

His brother served in the USAAF, and flew planes over Dresden during the fire bombing. He's dead now, but on the rare occasions that I did meet with him, he utterly REFUSED to talk about the war. If the subject was brought up, he'd leave the room.

My paternal great uncle served at the Battle of Okinawa, went MIA on his ship, and was later pronounced KIA. I inherited his Purple Heart and service medals, so I have them framed on my wall below his photo. I tried to get the bulk of information on him when putting together a book of my family's history. Unfortunately, his records are gone as well, and being a lowly Seaman First Class, not much was on him to begin with. The only thing that I have about him are some photographs he took with his buddies, his medals, and the letter from his C.O. sent to my great grandmother breaking the bad news.

It is strange. Even though I never met him I still feel a special affection for my late great uncle. Hang on to anything you have on your relatives. Not only are they apart of your history, but apart of all of ours as well.

Thanks, guys. I live in Washington, DC, so that's a definite step up. My dad was a First Lieutenant, ex-ROTC, so that may make it easier. I've got his discharge papers and dogtags, but nothing else. I know for a fact that he did see very brutal combat as a recon officer in the Ardennes and elsewhere. He also was head administrator for a DP camp in Germany after the war.

Sounds like time to check out the Archives--and the VA is quite near my home.

Thanks again, and any more ideas/leads very much appreciated.