More info...

WD GO 33 45 refers to a General Order that issued a campaign ribbon and medal in 1945. A General Order is issued from Army headquarters. In this case: WD GO 33 45 was General Order #33 issued by the War Department in 1945 that established the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Campaign Medal.

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I also sent him a list from NARA which listed three men. None of those was his father....

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Hi Marion,

I checked the three Walter Ferrari's and they are not him. I found out what a rigger 189 was doing according to a few people at the WW2 event in Chantilly over the weekend.

Here is the discharge paper. Any help here would be great.

I also sent a formal request to the Archives.

Please see attached

Thank you sincerely

Ed

Looking over Lewis Tumia`s discharge, the clues give us some possibilities but nothing definite on the unit he was with when wounded in Aug `44.

Box 31. "Combat Infantryman" This means he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge.

Box 32. does not show a " w/ arrowhead" so he most likely did not participate in the Normandy invasion, but arrived in France after 8 June 44.

Box 33. Purple Heart, GO 34 HQ 220 GH 44. His Purple Heart citation was issued by the 220th General Hospital in 1944. There is a date conflict here because the 220th GH did not arrive in the European Theater until Feb 1945. So the possibility is that he was sent back to US for recovery of his wounds or he was in various hospitals in France or England through Feb 45.

Box 36. Dates of Departure: 12 May 44 , Arrival 24 May 44. Checking the Troopship crossings for the dates, the closest match is The SS Colombie sailing from Boston 13 May 44, arriving Glasgow Scotland 25 May 44 carrying replacements from the 106th Infantry Division.

In early `44 there were several fully trained Divisions of all types in the US that were not scheduled to be sent to Europe until the buildup months after the Normandy invasion. The Army planners took the fully trained men out of these divisions and placed them in the replacement pools, sent them to the various Theaters of Operation and reassigned them to whichever division needed replacements.

So we still do not know what unit he was in when wounded, there is a good possibility he was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division when drafted and trained with them in the US until sent over as a replacement.

Marion, are there any more documents Cori sent you that may have clues? The Separation Qualification Record maybe?

Wow! That is some great info!

I don't think his Separation Qualification Record will scan very well, but the info on it states her served

3 months as a Pvt Basic Training, Inf (521

15 months Pfc Rifleman (745

8 months Pfc Machine Gunner (604

3 months Pfc Plumber (164

Date of Entry into active service 27 Feb 1943

Thanks for all your input and insight! This is all very interesting.

Ah, there's your answer Larry, directly from Cori.

I have been looking and Googling - this is all very confusing and I wish they gave more info on these documents to prove where people had been. I am wondering what the "with arrowhead" signified? Just the Normandy Invasion.

I spoke with my dad and he recalls stories of his Dad being in a fight on the first day of Battle of the Bulge and was wounded early. he was sent back and the rest of his unit went forward and were ambushed and nobody survived. Then later at some other battle they were running through a field and a guy he was running with was fatally wounded and as my grandfather went running received mortar shrapnel in his back, but was able to escape with his company. That is all he remembers being told. My Grandmother said she visited my Grandfather at a camp in St. Louis Missouri - would have been Spring 1944 - when my Dad was conceived =)

Looking over Lewis Tumia`s discharge, the clues give us some possibilities but nothing definite on the unit he was with when wounded in Aug `44.

Box 31. "Combat Infantryman" This means he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge.

Box 32. does not show a " w/ arrowhead" so he most likely did not participate in the Normandy invasion, but arrived in France after 8 June 44.

Box 33. Purple Heart, GO 34 HQ 220 GH 44. His Purple Heart citation was issued by the 220th General Hospital in 1944. There is a date conflict here because the 220th GH did not arrive in the European Theater until Feb 1945. So the possibility is that he was sent back to US for recovery of his wounds or he was in various hospitals in France or England through Feb 45.

Box 36. Dates of Departure: 12 May 44 , Arrival 24 May 44. Checking the Troopship crossings for the dates, the closest match is The SS Colombie sailing from Boston 13 May 44, arriving Glasgow Scotland 25 May 44 carrying replacements from the 106th Infantry Division.

In early `44 there were several fully trained Divisions of all types in the US that were not scheduled to be sent to Europe until the buildup months after the Normandy invasion. The Army planners took the fully trained men out of these divisions and placed them in the replacement pools, sent them to the various Theaters of Operation and reassigned them to whichever division needed replacements.

So we still do not know what unit he was in when wounded, there is a good possibility he was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division when drafted and trained with them in the US until sent over as a replacement.

 

Marion, are there any more documents Cori sent you that may have clues? The Separation Qualification Record maybe?

That simply indicated a beachhead landing...

New to this wonderful site! My father recently passed at 90 but before he died he asked that I "learn" about his engineer unit and try to find family members of his two best buddies. It was odd because all my life (and I am 60) he refused to discuss anything about his army days. Near death, he said he was in the 293rd Engineer Battalion General Services and he told me where to find some pictures of him and his buddies during the war and training. He had never let on that he had these pictures. Problem is that with his picures were also many of his separation papers. These papers clearly show that he was in Co C. 351st Engineer bn GS. But the pictures he directed me to clearly show 293rd Engineer bn trucks and named barracks type buildings in the background (specifically 2nd Plt, Co B. 293rd). His name is Angelo Manzie and his buddies were George McNeill and George Claussen, In his memory I want to learn all I can about his unit...

I found some photos I had not known existed. I will post them in the 293rd forum. I hope they mean somethng to someone.

Hmm, will have to ascertain, but it is not unlikely that he could have been in both. Let me look into this. Oh, BTW, welcome to the forum!

Is it possible you can send me or upload a copy of this separation papers?

I can scan and send you the papers. Do I do it on here, or another email address?

You can send it to my email address, or if you'd like, simply upload it here. That is up to you.

Here you go. Front and back in 2 pages.

It is also a good possibility, this was the unit he shipped home with. This wasn't unusual, especially if he stayed in occupied Europe for a while.

I wish that the separation papers showed this. It would save people a lot of headache if this were the case. I get this question a lot.

perhaps some of the pictures I posted will help narrow down the actual unit based on location and other peripherals in the pics.