Where did my grandfather fight during WWII?

I know that he was in the Army.  He was  a Technician Fifth Grade 38 215 662 for the Battery A 400th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion.  His Enlisted Record and Report of Separation - Honorable Discharge shows that he served in the Siciian; Rome-Arno; Naples-Foggia; Rhineland GO 33 WD 45.  He received a EAME Campaign  Medal with 4 Bronze Stars and I Bronze Arrowhead; Good conduct medal; Victory Ribbon; 4 Overseas Service Bars.

I want to know more detail about the battles he was involved in, etc.

Parents
  • Dale,

    Your grandfather’s unit, the 400th AntiAircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion (Semimobile) was equipped with 32 40mm Automatic Gun M1 on Carriage M2A1 similar to this image:


    The 400th, along with two other battalions, one equipped with searchlights and another armed with 90mm cannon, formed at first Coast Artillery Regiments (Antiaircraft) (Semimobile), then, later in the war, AntiAircraft Artillery Groups.

    The regiments and groups had the mission to provide low to medium altitude air defense to specific areas.  These areas contained lines of communications targets and Army Air Forces airfields.  So the 400th was not normally close to the fighting fronts where the infantry and armored divisions performed their missions.  Those combat units had their own antiaircraft artillery automatic gun battalions (mobile), whose weapons were mounted on armored halftracks that could keep up with a war of movement.  The 400th instead guarded key infrastructure targets such as ports, airfields, supply and fuel depots, bridges and the like.

    Your grandfather’s war consisted of moving the guns to the target area to be protected, emplacing the weapons, erecting and calibrating the battery’s fire control instruments, laying in communications wire for command and control, and then standing watch with the guns awaiting the next German air attack.  At some point when air attack was no longer a risk, the battery would reverse the process and redeploy to a new location.  When the gun was in action, the gun crew had a squad leader, gunner, assistant gunner, one loader on the gun mount itself, and two or three of other loaders who took the four-round clips from the ammunition cans and passed the clips to the on mount loader.  You can get an idea how the setup works (or doesn’t) by watching the second half of Steven Spielberg’s 1979 classic comedy 1941 where Dan Ackroyd provides unique instructions on the 40mm Automatic Gun M1.

    I hope you find this information useful.

    A. J.

  • Thank you for this information.  It certainly gives me a better understanding of what my grandfather did and where he was during the war.

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