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Seeking information about the 528th Field Artillery Battalion

Christine Damato

I'm researching my grandfather's WWII military service, and I'm trying to find information about the unit he was with.

He was a lineman in the 528th Field artillery battalion, Hq & Hq battery.  He arrived  in Liverpool Europe with the unit on

November 13 1944 and  left for the USA on Aug 6 1945 on the Pierre Soule troopship, from Le Havre.

Does anyone have any information on this unit or battery that you can share with me?

Thank you,

Christine

Parents
  • 0

    Hi, Christine. Sorry to be so .one getting back to you. My wife had surgery last week and I have not had time to get back to you. A couple of things:

    I was talking to my younger brother a couple of days ago about you and your grandfather. He has, among other things, a log book of our dad’s entitled “Men Present for Duty”. Your grandfathers name appears at least twice in it. He took a photo of the two pages (and zoomed in on one of the two) and texted them to me. I seem to be unable to attach them here so if you provide your e-mail address through your profile as I have, I can start sending things to you.

    e -mail address that you shared with me in you last post was deleted by the administrator so I have added my e-mail address to “Shared e-mail Address” in my Profile and then clicked on your page to “Follow”. We should be able to communicate directly once you have done the same.

    Just for some background, I was an Army paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division from 1961 to 1962 as an enlisted man. My younger brother was an a helicopter pilot, Vietnam veteran and retired after serving 22 years as a Lieutenant Colonel. We are very interested in our father’s service so it is wonderful to us that you and I have connected.

    i Have a footlocker full of dad’s papers and memorabilia and I will find time to look through it this weekend. I’m sure I’ll find more about your grandfather and will share it with you. In the meantime, here is a photo of my dad.

    Y ouri I look forward to hearing back from you.

  • 0 in reply to Robert Torrence

    Hi Robert, good to hear from you!  I added my email to my profile so hopefully we can email each other.

    I’m excited that we made contact and that you found something on my grandfather!  Have you ever searched old newspapers for stuff on you Dad!  Newspapers.com has some Ohio newspapers digitized

    and I found a few mentions of your Dad, and I think I found your birth announcement!  I clipped them and you should be able to go to the website and see them!

    here is a picture of my grandfather Peter.

    take care,

    Christine

  • 0 in reply to Christine Damato

    Thanks Christine! He seems to be mentioned throughout every 30 or so pages. As far as I could tell it was payroll records though I didn't get very far into the 1000 pages.

    Nate

  • 0 in reply to nhelmick

    Hi Nate, the records also mention when the men where promoted.  I found them very useful in creating a timeline for my grandfather, and I now know what battery he was with and when he was promoted from Private to Corporal!

    Christine

  • 0 in reply to Christine Damato

    Very cool! I'm happy you were able to find more info on your grandfather. I believe mine was only promoted once (which at least got him out of KP).

    Our trip to Wales was fascinating - Aberystwyth (where he spent most time when he had a pass) was beautiful! Unfortunately the contact I made in Llanybydder to get us near what we believe was his camp, flaked out on me after I confirmed the date with him. From what I saw on satellite however, there didn't seem to be much to see anyways. Oh well.

  • 0 in reply to nhelmick

    Hi Nate, above you mention several of your grandfather's letters stating that several men from his unit were moved to Camp Pickett VA?  My grandfather was also sent there around that time before being sent to Camp Hood TX.  Do those letters say what unit they were in at Camp Pickett? Was it still the 47th CA?

    thanks,

    Christine

  • 0 in reply to Christine Damato

    Just to let you guys interested in the 528th FABn unit that the morning reports are now available to view online at the National Archives website:

    catalog.archives.gov/.../463163406

  • 0 in reply to Christine Damato

    I have some info from that time but sadly there are big time gaps in the letters around then. Here's what I have: Jan 23, 1944 he wrote a letter from Camp Pendleton saying he still didn't know when/where they'd be moving.

    Next letter is from a Sunday morning in Feb, 1944, but sadly there's no postmark date and it's one of the few letters he didn't write the date on. This is the last letter I have from Camp Pendleton. So it would've been either February 6, 13, 20, or 27th. I suspect it wasn't the 27th. In that letter he writes, "we are moving tomorrow morning at 9am. We are going to Camp Pickett, Va about 143 miles from here. It is a big camp that can hold 163 thousand men. It is so big that they have several busses just for transportation inside of the camp. It is sort of a replacement training center. From what I understand we will be broken up there on Thursday but am not sure. Capt. Todd is going with us to Pickett so that is one thing good." From the return address, he is still in the Regimental HQ Battery of the 47th CA.

    Next letter is from Monday, Feb 28, 1944. He has a return address of Det. A, Coast Artillery Section, 5th Hq & Hq Det., Special Troops, XIII Corps, U.S. Army, Camp Pickett, Virginia. It is the only letter I have from Camp Pickett, and he doesn't have much info. He just wrote, "As yet we haven't received our orders Mom, they were supposed to come today too."

    Next letter is from Saturday, Mar 11, 1944. Return address is Service Battery, 528th F.A. Battalion, North Camp Hood, Texas. His note says they arrived in camp by train at "1:15 yesterday morning", so presumably 1:15am on Friday, Mar 10. He wrote, "they lined us up and assigned us to batteries right then and there.".

    That's all I have about their movements from Pendleton to Hood. Hope it helps!

  • 0 in reply to nhelmick

    Thanks, that return address should help me.  I found more morning reports from the 528th, Mar 1944.

    Your grandfather is there:

    https://catalog.archives.gov/id/465194385?objectPage=578

    Hope it helps you too!

    Christine

  • 0 in reply to Christine Damato

    A bit of a tangent but in reading an April 24, 1944 letter he writes about a family friend who "is on the same island that the 47th is on. It is Oahu in the Hawaiians...The 47th isn't called the 47th anymore they are the 32nd and 34th C.A."

    This doesn't affect either of us, but it was interesting to hear where the 47th Coast Artillery moved not long after they left for the 528th.

  • 0 in reply to Christine Damato

    I went to your link above and noticed two pages before (page 576) is the order that reassigns our grandfathers to the 528th after leaving Camp Pickett. I see that same address (Special Troops, XIII Corps) listed on that page. You probably already noticed that but it was an interesting find.

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