It’s not genealogy when a Baby Boomer tries to retrace the footsteps of his father in World War II. For the most part we knew who our fathers were, but their stories too often remain a mystery because they were reluctant to inform us or we were too immature or ignorant to inquire. Time ran out and all that is left are a few clues and snippets usually in the form of photos, vague stories, old uniforms, knickknacks, and if you’re lucky, maybe an Enlisted Record and Report of Separation, WD AGO Form 53-55. America used to be full of WWII stuff. Grandpa’s attic was strewn with webbing, uniforms, and coins taken from distant lands. Army-Navy surplus stores were popular destinations for millions of boys brought up on stories of Sergeant Rock and Easy Company that took out German tanks with fixed bayonets.
I confess to being one of those individuals who are bored by Scrabble, Checkers, and even Wheel of Fortune. Cross Word Puzzles are the worst, but mysteries of an historical nature are my cup of tea especially when they are personal. That’s why I’ve collected so much material like books, papers, maps, and photographs. Over many years I have made interesting strides in fitting the pieces of the puzzle together after trying to master the bigger picture of the theatre of operations, in other words, my Dad’s particular location in North Africa and Italy – areas and events left in the backwater of history by the Normandy invasion.
Dad was transferred from the 1st Quartermaster Company of the 1st Infantry Division because of the creation of the Transportation Corps. They needed men who trained with the new GMC trucks that replaced horses and formed the backbone of modern convoys. It was all part of a larger reorganization called Services of Supply that also included Engineers, Chemical Warfare, Ordnance, Medical, Quartermaster, the Signal Corps, and Air Force Supplies. SOS operated in the North African Theater of Operations NATOUSA based in Oran, Algeria. Subordinate to it was the Mediterranean Base Section (MBS) which was phased out by the Peninsular Base Section (PBS) in Italy.
Combat units were only a small percentage of the men that participated in WWII. The majority got lost in the shuffle because their duties were not glamorous. It’s hard for researchers to trace their movements to, for instance, Sicily in July, 1943 with the 7th Army or 2nd Corps. The point is that you go with the evidence in hand like discharge papers. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a photo that made it past the censor with partially distinguishable bumper markings – a valuable clue I discovered much later. One such picture shows one of Dad’s convoy trucks with a black driver and guard in Oran. (He became a platoon staff sergeant in charge of 16 trucks.) The markings tell in order, left-to-right, unit organization down to the individual truck. What drives me crazy is that the parent unit marking is obscured. Is it MBS or PBS? Is 2SU the 2nd Service Unit of the headquarters of the Transportation Section based in Oran? Is it something else? This tiny lead is the most important clue I have that could explain his lost two years in Africa before he was reassigned to guard SS POWs at Leghorn in May, 1945. My best weapons are patience and the Internet. I’m not about to go to the National Archives without having my act together.
