Welcome to the WWII Forums! Log in or Sign up to interact with the community.

Retracing the 110th Infantry Regiment's history

Discussion in '☆☆ New Recruits ☆☆' started by Kiltedpilot, Jun 24, 2014.

Page 1 of 3
  1. Kiltedpilot

    Kiltedpilot New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2014
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    2
    Hello,
    I'm trying to take my wife to see where her father fought in the Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. We know nothing as he would never discuss it, ever. His paper tag from his duffle bag reads T/5 (name and serial no.) Can. Co. 110th Inf. APO 28. We don't know what the T/5 or Cannon Company means. I hear some people will serve as a guide over there but I don't know how meaningful they could make it in retracing the steps of her father. All we know is that wherever he was and whatever he saw, it was dreadful. I would like to keep the history alive for her father's sake and pass it a long to her and our sons.
    Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
    Thank you
    Jamie
     
    Kiltedpilot, Jun 24, 2014
    #1
  2. SKYLINEDRIVE

    SKYLINEDRIVE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2011
    Messages:
    1,434
    Likes Received:
    379
    Location:
    www.ceba.lu
    He was member of cannon company of the 110th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division. I will see what I can find.
     
    SKYLINEDRIVE, Jun 24, 2014
    #2
  3. Earthican

    Earthican Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2011
    Messages:
    743
    Likes Received:
    158
    Welcome,

    Good for your family to preserve his memory and pass it down.

    The Cannon Company of an infantry regiment was commanded by a Captain and had a total of six 105-mm Howitzers in three platoons. Roughly 114 men and officers. Similar to a Field Artillery battery.

    Being under the direct control of the infantry regiment commander, a Colonel, they were intended to be always available to support the three rifle battalions of the infantry regiment. The usual Field Artillery battalion designated to support the regiment could be directed to fire on other targets by the Division Artillery Commander.

    The T/5 is the rank of Technician 5th Grade -- two chevrons over a block "T" -- which is usually held for a specialist skill such as communications. There were roughly five T/5's in the cannon platoons plus an armorer-artificer, cook and truck driver in the company headquarters.

    If he was a radio operator he could have been a member of one of three forward-observer teams or platoon/company headquarters.

    The cannon company will not be mentioned much, if at all, in the military histories. It is generally assumed to be supporting the rifle battalions with indirect fire.

    Hope that helps.


    28th Infantry Division in WWII
    http://www.lonesentry.com/gi_stories_booklets/28thinfantry/

    28th Infantry Division in the Huertgen
    http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Siegfried/USA-E-Siegfried-14.html
    http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Siegfried/USA-E-Siegfried-15.html

    110th Infantry in the Battle of the Bulge
    http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/bulge/110thInfRegt/110thIRIntro.htm
     
    Earthican, Jun 24, 2014
    #3
    Fred Wilson likes this.
  4. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    May 21, 2007
    Messages:
    18,047
    Likes Received:
    2,366
    Location:
    Alabama
    APO 28 is part of his Army mailing address. To send a letter to him, you would have had to address the letter with what was on that tag. APO 28 is roughly analogous to "city" portion of mailing address (28 Infantry Division in this case). 110th IR is sorta like the "street" and Cannon Company is the "house number." It also how his unit was militarily described.

    He essentially put his name and mailing address (so to speak) on the duffel bag, as he would not have had the bag with him while in combat. It would contain items issued to him and intended for garrison duties and would remain stored in an army depot. For example, his Class A uniform would be there and any personal items that he did not want to bring with him (or was not allowed) while in combat areas.
     
    Slipdigit, Jun 24, 2014
    #4
  5. Kiltedpilot

    Kiltedpilot New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2014
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    2
    Wow! Thank you for helping us to unlock some of his service for us! We do know he was shot and taken for dead and was stripped of his gear or more, (any ideas on what this likely meant?) . But as the story goes, when he woke up his wound was a frozen bubble of blood and seeing a US truck evacuating, ran to it and was pulled aboard. It took him quite a while to get back to what was left of the 110th. He was heard to mention that he was one of 7 survivors of his group, unit, platoon, whatever that likely meant (again, any ideas?). That's all we know, again, he never spoke of it until the day he passed in 1980. At the end of his life he did mentally go back to the war whilst in hospital and had to be subdued by a team of medical staff. He was warning everyone of fire and was calling people by name as he shook them but they all apparently were dead. He then began to search for his weapon. It was an awful scene. I only include this as perhaps it might better help us find the location where all this might have happened. Any other bits of the the puzzle wold be greatly appreciated. Thank you all sincerely for your replies.
    Jamie
     
    Kiltedpilot, Jun 24, 2014
    #5
  6. KodiakBeer

    KodiakBeer Member

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Messages:
    6,329
    Likes Received:
    1,712
    Location:
    The Arid Zone
    KodiakBeer, Jun 24, 2014
    #6
  7. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    May 21, 2007
    Messages:
    18,047
    Likes Received:
    2,366
    Location:
    Alabama
    The 110th Infantry Regiment was hit hard early in the Battle of the Bulge after being bled white in the Hurtgen Forest earlier that autumn.

    A Time For Trumpets (MacDonald, 1984) can provide you good background on the fight that the 110th IR put up at Clerveaux. At Clerveaux, two battalions of the 110th held off four German regiments for several priceless days. They paid dearly defending the Magaret-Longvilly road in front of Bastogne and allowed 101st AB and CCB/10th AD to reach that critical road junction in time to defend it.

    The losses of men and equipment of 110th IR while making their stand were horrible. They lost 2750 officers and men, virtually the entire regiment, almost all of their vehicles, and all six howitzers of the cannon company. The 28th ID was split and would not fight as a complete division for, if I remember correctly, about a month.
     
    Slipdigit, Jun 24, 2014
    #7
  8. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    May 21, 2007
    Messages:
    18,047
    Likes Received:
    2,366
    Location:
    Alabama
    http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_8.HTM

    Read the whole section, but here are some pertinent paragraphs. Those boys were dealt a raw deal, but put up a hell of a fight.

    "The units of the 110th Infantry were disposed as follows to face three full German divisions. On the left of the regimental zone, the 1st Battalion (Lt. Col. Donald Paul) held the intersection of the Skyline Drive and the Dasburg-Bastogne main highway at Marnach, employing Company B and a platoon from the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion. To the southwest, Company C and the regimental cannon company were deployed in and around Munshausen, guarding the side road which cut cross-country from Marnach to Drauffelt. Company A, at Heinerscheid, was on the extreme left flank of the 110th and so lay outside the path of the XLVII Panzer Corps attack, as did Company D at Grindhausen. The 3d Battalion (Maj. Harold F. Milton) formed the regimental right, with its companies on both sides of the ridge line. Company K, reinforced by Company B, 103d Engineer Combat Battalion, garrisoned Hosingen, a village on the Skyline Drive overlooking two of the four roads which wound from the Our up over the ridge. To the south Company I held Weiler-les-Putscheid, a hamlet in a knot of trails and byroads on the forward slopes of the ridge line. The 110th Antitank Company was in Hoscheid just to the west. Both of these positions lay adjacent to the prospective boundary between the XLVII and LXXXV Corps. West of the ridge, Company L in Holzthum and the headquarters company and Company M in Consthum barred a direct approach to the Clerf crossing site at Wilwerwiltz. Behind the Clerf River and to the west of the regimental command post in the town of Clerf the 2d Battalion (Lt. Col. Ross C. Henbest) lay in divisional reserve. Separated of necessity by the width of the front and the requirements of some depth in the defenses athwart the east-west roads, the units of the 110th could offer little reciprocal support against an enemy attacking in any force."

    ...

    "In the 1st Battalion zone to the north the advance detachments of the 2d Panzer Division moved straight for Marnach, attempting with one quick blow to clear the Americans obstructing the through road from Dasburg to Clerf.7 While the German engineers labored at the Dasburg site to bring their heavy tank bridging equipment down to the river, the 28th Panzer Engineer Battalion and the 2d Battalion, 304th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, crossed the Our in rubber boats and moved west through the predawn darkness. The advance was delayed somewhat when the grenadiers marched into an American mine field, but by 0800 the leading Germans had reached Marnach. Company B and a platoon of the 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion were well entrenched there and gave the Germans a warm reception, although themselves under fire from batteries east of the Our. Minus his heavy weapons, the enemy failed to knock the Marnach garrison out of the way, but an hour later Company B radioed that three hundred Germans were northwest and southwest of Marnach. The 1st Battalion commander had already ordered Company A, located three miles farther north on the Skyline Drive at Heinerscheid, to send a patrol south and make contact with Company B. In midmorning Paul ordered Company C to march north from Munshausen, leaving the cannon company there, and counterattack the Germans in the Company B area."

    ...

    "On 18 December what was left of the 110th Infantry was wiped out or withdrew to the west.11 Survivors in the north headed toward Donnange and, with Company G, joined elements of the 9th Armored Division to make a stand. Those in the south fell back toward Wiltz, the division command post. The 2d Battalion, surrounded on the ridge east of Clerf, attempted to filter through the enemy lines in the early morning hours. Seven officers and fifty to sixty men did reach Donnange. Of the 1st Battalion, only a part of Company C retained its organization. It had held on at Munshausen, with the 110th Cannon Company and a section of tank destroyers, all through the 17th.12 The riflemen and cannoneers made a fight of it, barricading the village streets with overturned trucks, fighting from house to house. After the Germans captured the howitzers, a bazooka team of a company officer and a sergeant held the enemy tanks at bay, destroying two which ventured into the village. Before daybreak on 18 December the survivors, now only a handful, started west."
     
    Slipdigit, Jun 24, 2014
    #8
    Earthican likes this.
  9. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    May 21, 2007
    Messages:
    18,047
    Likes Received:
    2,366
    Location:
    Alabama
    Alamo in the Ardennes might be a good read.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=d5aDKXzGd_MC&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=110th+infantry+cannon+company&source=bl&ots=iHDMdzCoJ1&sig=50vmWtXl9WSxnw6FnPQzeDD1GEc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gBeqU7mKLNOGqgb8joHoBA&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=110th%20infantry%20cannon%20company&f=false

    In the notes, it lists the CO, XO and First Sergeant.

    Another book.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=xR7d9hLoKbMC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=110th+infantry+cannon+company&source=bl&ots=h4DVUjXSQC&sig=vjQ_aBNC2L_Y-NbnWMZyhRUlWYA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gBeqU7mKLNOGqgb8joHoBA&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=110th%20infantry%20cannon%20company&f=false
     
    Slipdigit, Jun 24, 2014
    #9
    Dot likes this.
  10. Kiltedpilot

    Kiltedpilot New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2014
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    2
    Thank you Slipdigit. It looks like Munchausen is the place to start, I had assumed it was Clervaux.
    Is it possible to find more details of what took place with the Cannon Company once the offensive began via some daily field reports or something like that? I will attempt to follow his steps from Munchausen.
    Again, thank you so very much.
    Jamie
     
    Kiltedpilot, Jun 24, 2014
    #10
  11. SKYLINEDRIVE

    SKYLINEDRIVE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2011
    Messages:
    1,434
    Likes Received:
    379
    Location:
    www.ceba.lu
    Well it seems as if I came too late ...... :eyebrows:

    A good book to read about the 110th Infantry during the Bulge is: "To save Bastogne" by Robert F. Phillips
     
    SKYLINEDRIVE, Jun 25, 2014
    #11
  12. Owen

    Owen O

    Joined:
    May 14, 2006
    Messages:
    2,765
    Likes Received:
    760
    just a suggestion but shouldnt the thread title be edited?

    Retracing the 110th Infantry Regiment's history
     
    Owen, Jun 25, 2014
    #12
  13. pistol

    pistol Member

    Joined:
    May 24, 2011
    Messages:
    234
    Likes Received:
    48
    pistol, Jun 25, 2014
    #13
  14. Earthican

    Earthican Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2011
    Messages:
    743
    Likes Received:
    158
    Those names seemed like such a good lead that I followed-up (or fouled up)...

    The book note on page 266 seems to be referring to the 112th Infantry, but I did manage to find the passage for Captain Irving Warden, CO Cannon Company 110th Infantry. Very similar account of playing dead.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=d5aDKXzGd_MC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=cannon+Munshausen+warden&source=bl&ots=iHDMeuDtK_&sig=NpsrLlJk44FU673Y8AUpbbrNu5k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tOCqU63vIdL8oAS1_4GoDA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=cannon%20Munshausen%20warden&f=false


    Also mentioned in Toland's "Battle"

    http://books.google.com/books?id=jhB89sP7SWwC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=%22cannon+company%22++1944+Munshausen&source=bl&ots=Vpn0kGF4on&sig=WHhJLfqBEJIloUa2dip89ABFrdU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0t6qU7yrJISbyASctoKwDQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22cannon%20company%22%20%201944%20Munshausen&f=false
     
    Earthican, Jun 25, 2014
    #14
  15. Kiltedpilot

    Kiltedpilot New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2014
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    2
    Perhaps you are right Owen. However, I don't know how to. In any case, I want to continue to sincerely thank everyone for your kind posts in helping us to piece together a history that was never shared. I will attempt to hire a historical tour guide to take us through Munshausen and the progression he would have taken west during the battle.
    Cheers
    Jamie
     
    Kiltedpilot, Jun 25, 2014
    #15
  16. Kiltedpilot

    Kiltedpilot New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2014
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    2
    As a side note, we have a picture of him at what looks like a graduation photo with a group holding a standard that reads Abel Battery. Would this Abel Battery have carried on into combat within Cannon Company, or was it only for training purposes? I think he received additional training in Scotland before entering Normandy in late July.
     
    Kiltedpilot, Jun 26, 2014
    #16
  17. SKYLINEDRIVE

    SKYLINEDRIVE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2011
    Messages:
    1,434
    Likes Received:
    379
    Location:
    www.ceba.lu
    This will be difficult, after they were submerged by the advancing forces it all gets very sketchy! Unfortunately I am extremly busy right nowso I don't see when I could do some research into it. Your father might have retreated through Wiltz and later on through Vaulx-les-Rosiéres, Sibret to Neufchâteu with the remnants of the 28th ID, or he might have ended up in Bastogne fighting with Task Force SNAFU!

    Do not hire a tour guide, we can do it for free and it will be at least as good as with a tour guide. We have our offices in Munshausen and we know the region as well as our pockets! If you want to, you can send me a PM I can send you references that will vouch for us in the US!

    http://www.ceba.lu/

    https://www.facebook.com/CEBALuxembourg

    If you want to hire a researcher in the US to look after the AAR and Unit Journals of the Cannon Company of the 110th, I would be happy to pay half of his fees if we share the info!!!


    Cheers

    Tom
     
    SKYLINEDRIVE, Jun 26, 2014
    #17
  18. SKYLINEDRIVE

    SKYLINEDRIVE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2011
    Messages:
    1,434
    Likes Received:
    379
    Location:
    www.ceba.lu
    That should have been in Field Artilery School, most probably in Fort Sill! Can you get us a scan of the picture?
     
    SKYLINEDRIVE, Jun 26, 2014
    #18
  19. Earthican

    Earthican Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2011
    Messages:
    743
    Likes Received:
    158
    Now we get into "the rest of the story..."

    While the Cannon Company was part of the infantry regiment and intended to operate as direct fire cannon, in addition to indirect fire, in practice they found that too dangerous and better performed by attached tanks. Consequently the Cannon Company was mostly used as indirect artillery and often attached to the supporting Field Artillery battalion. For the 110th Infantry Regiment that was the 109th Field Artillery Battalion.

    Even so the cannoneers were Infantry and trained by the Infantry Replacement Training Centers (IRTC) and The Infantry School, Fort Benning GA. However I suspect all their gun drills and firing techniques were in accordance with The Field Artillery School, Fort Sill OK.

    In another regiment's Cannon Company I have seen the use of the term 'battery' and found they had re-organized from three 2-gun platoons into two 3-gun batteries -- A and B or Able and Baker.


    The 28th ID spent some time in the UK and was trained for amphibious assault in England. They were considered for use on D-Day but later held for possible future operations which never came.
    http://www.assaulttrainingcenter.com/index.html

    We would need to know when your grandfather entered the US Army to guess where he was trained and when he joined the 28th ID. Letters sent home with a return address are very helpful.

    Hope that helps
     
    Earthican, Jun 26, 2014
    #19
  20. SKYLINEDRIVE

    SKYLINEDRIVE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2011
    Messages:
    1,434
    Likes Received:
    379
    Location:
    www.ceba.lu
    On December 16th, the 110th also had one Battery of the 687th FA Bn, located in Consthum, at it's disposition (if memory serves me well it was Battery C). Battery C of the 109th FA Bn was at Bockholtz, Battery A at Hupperdange, I think Battery B was at Reuler, but I should check that again to be 100% sure.
     
    SKYLINEDRIVE, Jun 26, 2014
    #20
Page 1 of 3

Share This Page