Folks,

 

Just a little information I found recently...

 

I located two other units that shipped out with the 292nd on Oct 22, 1944 on the USAT Thomas H. Barry. They were the 90th Chemical Mortar Battalion and the 475th Military Police Escort Guard Company. Slowly, more details appear...

 

Gary

Gary, I got to thinking that Stanton's World War II Order Of Battle lists the departure dates of units. One could scan through the volume and find which units left on the same date as the 292nd. Of course it does not list the ships these units were aboard, but one might get an idea of many of the units apart of the same convoy. Stanton's is a massive reference book, I was curious this morning as to how much it actually weighs. I put it on the scale and it read 7.6 lbs, nearly as much as a M-1 Garand (9 lbs.)! Needless to say it would take some time to scan through it all in this manner, but I decided to start with just the engineer units. The following Engineer Combat Battalions departed the Port of New York bound for England on 22 OCT 1944:

31st 277th 283rd 288th 1695th

187th 280th 284th 289th

243rd 281st 285th 290th

258th 282nd 286th 292nd

From time to time I will check for other units and expand the list. One could still not compile a complete list even from Stanton's. Only combat formations are included in this work, service formations such as quartermaster etc., are not. Have a good one!

Randy

 

That's awesome Pete! I have a feeling Gary is gonna be...bizzy!

 

Randy

Bring it on, gents!

 

Gary, I got to thinking that Stanton's World War II Order Of Battle lists the departure dates of units. One could scan through the volume and find which units left on the same date as the 292nd. Of course it does not list the ships these units were aboard, but one might get an idea of many of the units apart of the same convoy. Stanton's is a massive reference book, I was curious this morning as to how much it actually weighs. I put it on the scale and it read 7.6 lbs, nearly as much as a M-1 Garand (9 lbs.)! Needless to say it would take some time to scan through it all in this manner, but I decided to start with just the engineer units. The following Engineer Combat Battalions departed the Port of New York bound for England on 22 OCT 1944:

 

31st 277th 283rd 288th 1695th

187th 280th 284th 289th

243rd 281st 285th 290th

258th 282nd 286th 292nd

 

From time to time I will check for other units and expand the list. One could still not compile a complete list even from Stanton's. Only combat formations are included in this work, service formations such as quartermaster etc., are not. Have a good one!

 

Randy

Good job, Randy! With this info we can search for unit histories that may tell us which ship they were on. Keep up the good work, my friend, and I'll look forward to the documents that you have in a few weeks.

Gary

I wonder if we can gather all the on-line photos of the 292nd, plus the personal photos of family members, and include them with the documents. Make a sort of unofficial history of the 292nd. Just a thought at this stage...

Pete

I wonder if we can gather all the on-line photos of the 292nd, plus the personal photos of family members, and include them with the documents. Make a sort of unofficial history of the 292nd. Just a thought at this stage...

Pete

I like the idea, Pete! We will need to be careful about any possible copyright issues, but this is definitely a common sense suggestion. Incidentally, eventually I am going to scan Randy's C Company photo (the one he got on Ebay) to provide to anyone who's interested and for our "unofficial" 292nd history.

Gary

I wonder if we can gather all the on-line photos of the 292nd, plus the personal photos of family members, and include them with the documents. Make a sort of unofficial history of the 292nd. Just a thought at this stage...

Pete

I think this is an absolutely awesome idea, Pete! There were a few photos in the documents I have already sent Gary, showing some of the bridge work they were involved in. And the personal photos you mentioned, there should be quite a number of those showing the 292nd in action. Capital idea, Pete!

Randy

 

I think this is an absolutely awesome idea, Pete! There were a few photos in the documents I have already sent Gary, showing some of the bridge work they were involved in. And the personal photos you mentioned, there should be quite a number of those showing the 292nd in action. Capital idea, Pete!

 

Randy

Obviously, I'd be willing to scan anyone's images at high res for our project and provide the high res scans to the donor. Maybe Sam Harrison would allow me some time with all of his photos to scan them? It's a dicey thing as anyone with photos cherishes them and so trusting them outside the family would be a huge decision. We can continue the discussions and see what folks that have photos think. Maybe the Longacre photos could be included depending on the copyright (see http://www.soldiersmuseum.com/pages/ww2/longacre/index.htm)? Add company photos and individual photos from others and we may have quite a collection!

Gary

Steve,

 

Found a few tidbits about your uncle that maybe you don't have which I have attached. Also, we are trying to ID as many of the men as possible in the company photo so if you could take a look at the copy I just posted and locate your uncle I will update the ID on the image. Also, is the image that I found that of your Uncle?

 

Thanks, my friend,

 

Gary

Gary,

Thanks for the information, I did not have all of that. That is a picture of my uncle, and in fact, that is the ONLY picture I had of him as well. I have yet to get access to my Dads stuff, to see if he has more pictures of Charlie, so I would have to base any opinion of my uncle place in the unit from that exact same picture you posted. I would go so far as to say, the picture you posted is of better quality than the one I have from my Mom.

Thanks again my friend, I really appreciate it!!!,

Steve

ps: I have reached out by email to Hampton House to get a copy of the unit picture over a week ago, but have not received a reply yet.

Gary,

Those Longacre photos are the ones I was thinking of. The 1149th Ops Reports tell us what each company was assigned to each day during the Roer Crossings, which bridge or road or whatever. Interesting reading.

Pete

Gary,

Thanks for the information, I did not have all of that. That is a picture of my uncle, and in fact, that is the ONLY picture I had of him as well. I have yet to get access to my Dads stuff, to see if he has more pictures of Charlie, so I would have to base any opinion of my uncle place in the unit from that exact same picture you posted. I would go so far as to say, the picture you posted is of better quality than the one I have from my Mom.

 

Thanks again my friend, I really appreciate it!!!,

Steve

ps: I have reached out by email to Hampton House to get a copy of the unit picture over a week ago, but have not received a reply yet.

Steve,

They were not answering my e-mail either. So I just called the phone number Lisa posted on the thread( 336-723-8869), and completed the transaction that way.

Randy

Gary,

Thanks for the information, I did not have all of that. That is a picture of my uncle, and in fact, that is the ONLY picture I had of him as well. I have yet to get access to my Dads stuff, to see if he has more pictures of Charlie, so I would have to base any opinion of my uncle place in the unit from that exact same picture you posted. I would go so far as to say, the picture you posted is of better quality than the one I have from my Mom.

 

Thanks again my friend, I really appreciate it!!!,

Steve

ps: I have reached out by email to Hampton House to get a copy of the unit picture over a week ago, but have not received a reply yet.

Steve,

Glad I could help. This picture was attached to the family tree of a Betty Crawford on Ancestry.com. So, if you know who this is then you may have an avenue of investigation with this family member to see if she has any additional information on your Uncle. As for Hampton House, they did a wonderful job in every aspect of getting a copy of the unit photo except one... I first tried to email for some information and never heard back. I suggest you call and you should then have no problem and will be able to get the ball rolling on getting a copy.

As I get a chance, I am going to use the photo that I posted to see if I can locate him in the photo and will give you a heads up if I see someone that I think may be him.

See ya, my friend,

Gary

Gary,

Those Longacre photos are the ones I was thinking of. The 1149th Ops Reports tell us what each company was assigned to each day during the Roer Crossings, which bridge or road or whatever. Interesting reading.

Pete

Pete,

I figured you'd know about the Longacre shots. Sam Harrison has well over one hundred shots from his father that he uploaded to Flickr. They are different that most of the Longacre shots in that they are mainly snapshots (the Longacre shots are more "professional"). They are different, but valuable in their own right to give you an idea of service through the eyes of the "normal joe". His shots can be viewed at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129969616@N08/

I actually found a photo that shows the "motor pool gang" which has my grandfather in it (which is very cool since we have no other photos of him during his time in Europe). He was assigned to A Company through his time at Camp Butner, but was transferred to H&S Company right before deployment. He was subsequently transferred back to A Company sometime in January 1945 "due to a shortage of mechanics" and stayed assigned to that company the rest of his time in the service.

Let me get back on track, the more images related the better just to give anyone interested more of an idea of the service of these men from many different points of view. The same goes for information... it is great to be getting a ton of info from the battalion, but also great to get the 1149th documents. Kinda getting info from the other end if you know what I mean.

Just a observation... isn't it great that so many folks are taking an interest in the unit and getting involved with honoring these great men?!!! This really is fantastic!!

Later, my friend,

Gary

Gary,

Thanks for the information, I did not have all of that. That is a picture of my uncle, and in fact, that is the ONLY picture I had of him as well. I have yet to get access to my Dads stuff, to see if he has more pictures of Charlie, so I would have to base any opinion of my uncle place in the unit from that exact same picture you posted. I would go so far as to say, the picture you posted is of better quality than the one I have from my Mom.

 

Thanks again my friend, I really appreciate it!!!,

Steve

ps: I have reached out by email to Hampton House to get a copy of the unit picture over a week ago, but have not received a reply yet.

Steve,

One further thing... here are the census records for your Dad and Uncles and their family for 1930 and 1940 (this year is split between two pages).

Enjoy, my friend,

Gary

Gary,

Thanks for the information, I did not have all of that. That is a picture of my uncle, and in fact, that is the ONLY picture I had of him as well. I have yet to get access to my Dads stuff, to see if he has more pictures of Charlie, so I would have to base any opinion of my uncle place in the unit from that exact same picture you posted. I would go so far as to say, the picture you posted is of better quality than the one I have from my Mom.

 

Thanks again my friend, I really appreciate it!!!,

Steve

ps: I have reached out by email to Hampton House to get a copy of the unit picture over a week ago, but have not received a reply yet.

OK,

This is the last one for tonight. Any chance this fella is your Uncle, Steve? Does anyone else have an opinion?

Later,

Gary

Pete,

 

I figured you'd know about the Longacre shots. Sam Harrison has well over one hundred shots from his father that he uploaded to Flickr. They are different that most of the Longacre shots in that they are mainly snapshots (the Longacre shots are more "professional"). They are different, but valuable in their own right to give you an idea of service through the eyes of the "normal joe". His shots can be viewed at:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129969616@N08/

 

I actually found a photo that shows the "motor pool gang" which has my grandfather in it (which is very cool since we have no other photos of him during his time in Europe). He was assigned to A Company through his time at Camp Butner, but was transferred to H&S Company right before deployment. He was subsequently transferred back to A Company sometime in January 1945 "due to a shortage of mechanics" and stayed assigned to that company the rest of his time in the service.

 

All of my pictures on Flickr are already hi-res scans and can be downloaded at their full size from the site. I actually scanned the front and the writing on the back of each picture and made it one *.tif file, with two images inside. Those Tiff files are pretty big. If anybody wants those "original" full quality scans with front and back, I can gladly send them to you. I think in total they're around 2GB or 3GB. Easily fit on a flash drive in the mail. I've got a video interview with my grandpa from 2013-2014 before he passed. I haven't been able to edit it yet, but I'm hoping to tackle that soon. Hopefully that can add to the history mystery too.

-SaM