A Company, 1st Battalion, 117th Infantry, 30th Division

I changed the thread title to accurately reflect the correct unit nomenclature. You can also refer to it as A Company, 117th IR, 30th ID. dropping the battalion reference. A Company was always in the 1st Battalion of any infantry regiment. There were two other infantry regiments in the 30th ID - the 119th and 120th.

Could you provide his name? I have some 30th ID records and did have contact with some men of the 117th, who have since died.

On Aug 7th, the 117th IR was fighting north of Mortain, France, in an engagement the 30th ID is famous for. The stand by the 2nd Battalion/120th IR/30th ID on Hill 314 east of Mortain is legendary.

A Company of the 117th Infantry Regiment (A/117) was defending St Barthelemy, north of Mortain, against an assault by the 1st SS Panzer Division (Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler). A/117 was supported by a tank destroyer platoon, from the 823rd TD Battalion, which was attached to the 30th ID. I've been to St. Barthelemy, although we did not stop, as the veteran I was with fought south of Mortain.

There was significant fighting all day long on the day your father was captured, with heavy losses on both sides. A/117th was essentially destroyed. The next day there were one officer and 27 men accounted for. An rifle company at full strength had 193 men, although by Aug 7th, your father's company was no where near full strength.

There are large numbers of books that talk about the fighting at Mortain and many provide names of soldiers. I might can give you the location close to where your father was captured as the battle is well documented.

 

I have a roster of sorts compiled by the late Frank Towers, of ~30,000 men who served with the 30th ID during the war.
He has Carl M Chittum, Staff Sergeant captured MIA (missing in action) 7 Aug and subsequently listed as POW.(prisoner of war). MIA was sort of a catchall term they used if the disposition of the soldier was unknown. Towers also shows he earned a Purple Heart.

There is another level below "company"- "platoon." Did he ever say which platoon of A Company he was in?

As KodiakBeer mentioned above, the events leading up to Aug 7th were significant. The Germans launched heavy attack on the area around Mortain in an effort to push to Avranches on the coast and cut off supply to the US 3rd Army that was spilling out into France. A and C Companies of the 117th were defending the St. Barthelemy, north of Mortain against a concerted attack by tanks and infantry during the night and early morning. They have very little with which to stop the tanks and were overwhelmed.

Company A was holding the village with the supporting AT (anti-tank) guns of the 823rd TD Battalion. They had arrived hastily and did not really have much time to prepare earthworks and the like before they were hammered by artillery, tanks, and infantry. To their northwest was B/117, which was hit hard and began to fold. C/117, to the southeast also begin to disintegrate under heavy armored pressure. As B/117 and C/117 retreated, that left A/117 still in the village. The AT guns were knocked out and A/117 tried to use bazookas to knock out the German armor, but were by and large prevented from doing so by the accompanying German infantry.

There is a passage in the book Victory at Mortain (Reardon, 2002, pg 129) that states "A number of soldiers from A Company, seeing that they almost surrounded, tried to escape capture by infiltrating to the west and north under cover of thick fog. Some made it safely to the American lines; others were captured by the Germans. The weapons platoon surrendered after firing off their final rounds of 60mm mortar ammunition." Perhaps this is a reference to your father's capture?

A "weapons platoon" was part of the rifle company that contained mortars and heavy machine guns.

 

This might be a better map, from Victory at Mortain, pg 125

Did your map come from Saving the Breakout, by Featherstone?

 

Odd, I see it in my post and in your post.

Anyone else see not see the map in post #10?

 

Map by Slipdigit posted Jun 8, 2019 at 11:37 AM

How about here?

edit.

I tired again.

 

No map for me.

 

Good show!