Warbird Information Exchange

I was hoping you fellas might have some suggestions on researching my Grandfather's service history. He was a WWII USAAF veteran and he passed away in Dec. 2010. All we could ever get him to tell us was that he was stationed in Ipswich, England and he mentioned that he did something with radios on aircraft that were probably B-25's. Any ideas where to get started? Thanks!
Johnny

You might also try Ancestry.com. You can probably get his enlistment record which really won't tell you where he served but can give you his service number. My Dad and Uncle had thier complete records lost in the 1973 fire but I have found thier enlistment records. You can also look up newspaper accounts and learn about his stateside assignments at least by the name of the nearest town. Just last night I found several such records of a family friend shot down in the Meditteranean. Though it all depends on which newspapers Ancestry has access to.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

To expand a little, newspaper accounts will depend on whether the local newspapers carried accounts of local servicemen. Most small town papers did. I don't know about big city papers.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

There is some background information you can look for on your own without paying anybody. First, go here and find his enlistment record:

http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-sea ... S14&bc=,sl

This is free, and you will get his enlistment record plus his serial number.

Second thing to do is to go to whatever locality he was discharged to. If he came home to the county where he was born or lived in when he left for service, he would have filed his discharge papers with that locality. This is usually the county courthouse. This was the procedure for people returning from service-they had to do it in order to receive GI Bill benefits. Some have this information in original form, and some have this in scanned form. If they still have it, you may be able to review it. His DD 2-1, or record of service, will have his last unit of assignment, his occupational specialty, any records or decorations he received, plus campaigns he participated in. The last unit of assignment is usually not the unit he served in, especially in Europe. At the late stage of the war, they were using certain units as "holding units" from which to discharge people from, so this is usually not the outfit he was with during the duration of the war. But sometimes, you get lucky and he was discharged from the unit he served in.

The first thing to pay attention to in this record is his campaign participation. Campaign participation varied from unit to unit. You might be able to peg what unit he served with based solely on this information. But probably not.

The other thing to do is to see what units were stationed at Ipswich. If he only worked on B-25's, you can probably figure out what outfits used them and flew out of Ipswich. The only caution here is that if he repaired radios, he may have been in an Army Air Base Unit, or AABU, which was responsible for maintenance of more than one squadron.

Lastly, if you zero-in on a few units which he may have been part of, you can look for people who own the unit histories of those units, and ask them to check for his name on the unit roster. These aren't definitive, but when they were printed, they used squadron records and generally had names of unit members who were in the outfit for the duration of the war. If you find his name on the unit history book, he probably served most of his time in that unit.

Good luck, and if you need any help, PM me.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Sometimes these folks will have kept their flt logbooks and/or diairies. You might see if he kept something like that stashed away somewhere. In our research, logbooks provide a wealth of info. We're currently searching for and scanning the logbooks of our early USCG aviators. We have some going back to early the 1920's. We'd like to locate the logbooks for CG Aviator #1, Elmer Stone.

Good luck! Lots of good advice.

Not that I can help much, but one odd thing that may be worth noting is that while there were B-25 Mitchells based in the UK, I understand they weren't American operated ones - the RAF and other 'free' air forces - I'm thinking the Dutch, IIRC - operated them from the UK and into Europe as the war progressed - but NOT the USAAF. (There may have been one or two comms examples - I'm no expert on the field.)

So he may have worked in the USAAF on B-25s, but they would be RAF ones. That seems unlikely to me (the RAF ones would have British radios, I'd assume) and the probability is he worked on other types (The USAAF operated B-26 and A-26 bombers in the UK, for instance) but he could have had such an unusual role.

I'd strongly suggest registering on the Key Forum website which is much more British orientated, and there are members there who may be able to help you with local info - many there quite rightly remember the 'friendly invasion' and go out of their way to help relatives such as yourself.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/forumd ... prune=&f=4

Another tip is to put some details in the thread header in future, as it will ring bells with the casual forum reader who may just skip a generic title such as you've used here.

Keep us posted as to how you get on!

Incidentally, today I was actually helping a descendant of a bomber gunner who was killed in the war with this kind of question, and as well as what's been said here, I pointed out to her - and I'd say again - it is a fascinating area of research and it can take you in lots of directions and literally open up new worlds of knowledge, sometimes travel and new friends. That was something she'd already got to grips with, and was very keen about.

Hope that helps,

Again, good luck.

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

You may try the book "Finding Your Father's War". I'd go through Amazon (and you can help WIX as I understand it by starting your search at the top of this page). It's been a while since I read it and it had a bit of a limited AAF section, but it's cheap and may come in handy.

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Your-Fathers-War-Understanding/dp/B002KE5W2K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315927584&sr=1-1

So far I found his enlistment record and some surprises already.
It lists his place of enlistment as Miami Beach, FL. He was from Pittsburgh and as far as I knew, only left Pittsburgh DURING his enlistment!
Secondly, this: Source of Army Personnel - Enlisted Reserve or Medical Administrative Corps (MAC) Officer. What does this mean?
His "component of the Army" is listed as reserves as well. Did that status change after the end of the war or regular enlistment?
Also surprising is that he's listed as Skilled furnacemen, smelters, and pourers. Never knew he was anything other than something relating to accounting as far as occupation.

Anybody have any more suggestions since I now have an Army Serial Number? I plan on following up on the other replies after I talk to my Grandmother later today (I hope).

Finally regarding the B-25's.....that wasn't a definite! I remember taking him to air shows where he'd identify P-51's, but he'd identify others incorrectly. It was a long time between the time he last saw them and the air shows!
One more detail I just recalled which may help or may also be inaccurate as a product of time. The only other thing I ever got out of him was a partial, no details, story of him incorrectly installing or repairing a RADAR and almost burning the plane to the ground.
So if it was radar and not a radio, and definitely Ipswich (I remember that because his dentures would almost fall out when he said it) that may narrow things down!
Thanks for the replies so far!
Johnny

Spoke to my Grandmother a few minutes ago. I told her what I was up to and asked if she knew anything. She laughed and said she was in 8th grade at the time! He never told her anything about it either.
But she does have his discharge paperwork......(was it a DD-214 back then too?) so that may help! I'll be trying everyone's suggestions too!
Thanks, and not doing too bad for my first day of research!
Johnny

His Discharge Certificate should help fill in some blanks. My dad was in the Marines during WWII. His certificate tells quite a bit about his looks, engagments in the Pacific, what islands he was hopping to, his Purple Heart, his last unit, how much money he received for travel back to his home of record. His date of birth was off by a year. He snuck in when he was 16. His mom and dad passed when he was young and his uncle signed for him to get him into the Marines.

Just got alot more info! My Mom was able to email me a .PDF version of my Grandfather's discharge papers. Now I can really start into everyone else's suggestions.
My next question, I've never attempted anything like this. How much information should I post here. Are there any security or privacy issues I should be concerned with before posting information on my Grandfather's service? How much is appropriate to share and what shouldn't be?
Thanks,
Johnny

Cheers for that.

I've been quietly mulling this query over for the last few days...

RAF Ipswich did exist, now Ipswich Airport, but was purely an RAF station during WWII, no USAAF involvement that I can find.

The B-25 thing initially threw me, so I included 9AF B-26 stations in my preliminary check.
However, there were no 9AF airfields in the immediate area of Ipswich.

There were a number of 8AF stations within 10 miles, all distances are from the nominal centre of Ipswich:

Martlesham Heath, 5 miles: Fighter base
Debach, 7 miles: B-24, later B-17, bomber base
Raydon, 7.5 miles: Fighter base
Wattisham, 9 miles: Fighter base
Hitcham (adjoining Wattisham), 9 miles: 4th Strategic Air Depot, fighter maintenence depot

The information on the discharge papers may hold a number of clues.
The MOS number will narrow down potential job positions, and therefore possible unit postings.

For example, it's relatively rare to have someone working on radar equipment on a fighter station, but there were larger radar sections assigned to a bomber base.

Similarly, award entitlements can rule out some units simply due to their timescales.

All the best,
Paul

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Paul Bellamy

401BG Association Historian & Honorary Life Member
401BG Historical Society (UK) Member
1st Air Division HQ Historical Society (UK) Founder Member
Director of Archives & Collections, Airfield Research Group Archive, Alconbury
RAF Alconbury Base Historian

Well here's some of what I can find on his paperwork:

Organization is listed as 464th AAF Base Unit.
MOS is 867 Radar Mech.
Battles/Campaigns are Ardennes, Rhineland, Central Europe.
Citations are American Theater Ribbon, Euro-African-Middle Eastern Ribbon w/3 Bronze stars, Good conduct medal, WWII Victory Medal
Looks like he arrived overseas Dec. 8th, 1944 and came home Aug. 11th, 1945.
Training (If I have how they typed it figured correctly) is as follows:
Radar mech. at Boca Raton, FL.
Radio Operator and Mechanic at Scott Field, IL.
College Training Air Crew at Madison, WI.

Hope I'm not putting up any info that would violate his or my Grandmother's privacy in any way.

Thanks again guys.
Johnny

Thanks for the extra info Johnny, very useful.

MOS 867 is Radar Mechanic, Bombardment.
That means the 493rd Bomb Group station at Debach (pronounced Deb-ich) is now the most likely place to look.

The 493rd were self-sufficient in PFF bombing radar, including maintenence support, by December 1944, which ties in nicely with your Grandfather's posting to the UK.
The last units attached to the 493rd left Debach in August 1945, again matching your Grandfather's timeline.

All the best,
PB

_________________
Paul Bellamy

401BG Association Historian & Honorary Life Member
401BG Historical Society (UK) Member
1st Air Division HQ Historical Society (UK) Founder Member
Director of Archives & Collections, Airfield Research Group Archive, Alconbury
RAF Alconbury Base Historian

That's very interesting following the clues to see where they go.