Has anyone heard of a similar unit. Obviously it had to do with POWs, but does anybody know what they actually did??

Pvt. Abbott from Mississppi was with this unit and was killed in a non-hostile incident on April 25, 1945. He is buried in Margraten.

This is one of a few quite obscure units I have come across lately.

Same goes for the 500th Medical Collection Company. Anybody know what they did EXACTLY? I only found a on-line reference on the Indiana Historical Society website.

And for a last Q; What did a (US) Port Company do???

Thanks in advance all!

Stevin

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Pvt. Abbott (Thomas Jefferson) was my maternal grandfather. All that I have been able to find about him (other than the information you have outlined above) is that he was killed by stepping on a mine. I have never been able to find out any relevant information regarding his unit.

I found your post quite shocking, in that you specifically mentioned my grandfather. May I ask why you referenced him in your post? I, too, am looking for any information regarding the 6950 POW Overhead Detachment.

I'll have to dig out a book that has been packed away, but I am almost certain that a Medical Collection Company consists of ambulances. It make day or two and somebody else may have the definative answer by then.

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JW

I found this:

http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksd.../EPWs/EPWs.htm

Search for text 'overhead' on the page and find this:

Planned capacity of Central Prisoner of War Enclosures in France.— Even at the beginning, Central Prisoner of War Enclosures were too few, too small, and understaffed. This led to overcrowding (fig. 34) and impeded the application of preventive medicine measures as well as the processing and handling of prisoners. The following report and comments give information about the deficient planning and its consequences.


Theater planning for the handling of enemy prisoners of war was rather unrealistic. It left much to be desired and apparently ignored the difficulty experienced in North Africa in handling a large influx of POW's. This cannot be completely laid to inadequacies in the Theater Provost Marshal's Office which was planning within the restrictions imposed by the overall concept of the operation. For instance, the planners asked for 49 Military Police Escort Guard Companies; only 19 were authorized by the War Department. As there was no T/O&E for a Prisoner of War Camp Overhead Detachment, the Theater Provost Marshal planned a provisional one and got authority to activate eight of them, one for a POW camp in England and seven for use in France. Each of these POW Camp Overhead Detachments was estimated by the planners to be able to handle 6,000 POW's. Thus the planning was geared to accommodate at any one time a total of 48,000 POW' in the eight camps. The capture rate for the first 90 days was estimated at 1,000 a day. This would require that about one-half of the number captured during the first 90 days would have to be shipped out of the theater.

I have suspicions that they were small, temporary MP units formed to guard POWs in the ComZ who were in transit camps in route to permanent camps in England or CONUS or possibly overflow camps for these transit camps.

On down on the page, there is interesting reading on my country's mistreatment of German PoWs.

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Best Regards,
JW

KL, Stevin runs a fantastic website about the Allied casualties in the Netherlands. I'll send him an email and tell him to take another gander at this thread, he'll probably be able to help you a least a little.

Thanks also to Slipdigit for the great information. What a helpful collection of Rogues we have here!

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Very interesting! Thank you for all of the information and prompt responses!

Port Company information.

http://www.qmfound.com/black_service..._in_combat.htm

From the webpage:

Looks like they were mostly stevedores, man-handling equipment over the beach.

__________________
Best Regards,
JW

Otto, thanks for letting me know about the posts to this thread. Very much appreciated.

There is not much I can add to this at this point. Many thanks to Slipdigit for the information. It has helped me a lot!!! Gives me a few more ideas for further investigation.

Pvt Abbott is buried at Margraten and therefor of interest to me, as I wish to include him on my website. Many thanks to K L Ensley for the additional information. I will be in contact!

Otto, thanks again for dragging me back here. It has been too long. Reading posts I realize...how much I miss it....

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