2nd infantry regt. 5th infantry division. July 1944

I am searching for ANY information on a family member who served in the 2nd infantry regt 5th infantry division as a medic. I have exhausted all my research avenues and quite honestly I am quite mentally exhausted from reading document after document. Here is all the information that I have:

Herbert William (HW) Butterfield.
I have seen his rank on paperwork as a PVT or T/5.
He landed on Utah beach in July of 1944.
He was in or near Cormolain, France when he was "assigned" to stay back with wounded members of his company and take care of them. Herbert was last heard from on July 27th. My family was informed that he was taken prisoner. His body was returned to Utah in 1949 and his death certificate says that he was killed in France. I have seen documents where he is labeled as FOD.

I realize that he was probably killed soon after being "taken", but I would at least like to find the company he was attached to. Perhaps find out a bit more of what actually happened. Were there other medics with him, how many soldiers were with him, etc. Even a simple lead would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Lori (B58th)

 

Without knowing what documents you have located and read, it's difficult to know what to suggest.

I presume you have already found him in the NARA's Electronic Enlistment and POW databases. If so, then you also have his Army Serial Number.

Have you requested his Individual Deceased Personnel File? It may answer some of your questions.

The application for his headstone indicates he was a PVT. Those can be inaccurate, so that does not necessarily call into question the T/5 rank.

FOD is usually indicated when the individual is declared dead in the absence of his remains (i.e. MIA, Lost at Sea).

On alternative would be to hire a researcher to try and track him through the rosters/Morning Reports.

 

You may already have/or have read the 2nd IR history but if not: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010552258;view=1up;seq=33

Pages 26-30 cover action from July 26-28. Your relatives name is listed in the roster on page 95.

 

Oh man. I must have been tired the other night to not post where I found my info. I have gone through every NARA document that I could find, contacted the mortuary where his body was sent (they amazingly had some great filing because he sent me a slew of stuff dating back to 1949), talked to my dad (who refuses to talk about it), googled, have copies of all the POW and death notices that were in the city paper in 1944-1949, and now I am ready to submit a request for an IDPF. I saw on NARA that he died as a POW, but according to their classification he wasn't "EXECUTED, DIED IN SHIP'S SINKING OR RESULT OF SHIP SINKING. SHOT WHILE ATTEMPTING ESCAPE". He was a medic and ordered to stay with injured members of his company. They don't have any sort or POW camp information. He is listed as FOD on some paperwork, but his body was sent back to Utah in 1949 to the surprise of my family. They were contacted by the mortuary and told that his remains were there/on their way. The same goes for James R Butterfield who had been shot down in his B17 over Germany. He also wasn't returned until 1949.

 

Thanks for the link, Natman! In all my searching, I have never located this. It explains quite a bit actually and narrows down where Herbert was when he was taken prisoner. I saw that he was taken prisoner the same day as a 1st lieutinent from one of the companies of the group he was with.