Nick,
Your interest and persistence certainly have paid off! You are now in the position to help preserve some family history!
Looking at the documents, here's what I see:
106th Infantry Division HistoryDocument # 1: Request for Award/ Citation(Combat Infantry Badge)
This was submitted at the time of separation from the Army (march of 1946.)
This document refers back to your on your Great Uncle's time with the 106th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge. There is a typo here. Two digits of his Regiment are reversed. The Infantry Regiments of the 106th Infantry Division are the 422nd, 423rd, and 424th. From the digits appearing on the document, the most obvious candidate is the
423rd Infantry Regiment- 2nd battalion of the 106th Infantry Division.
Further confirmation that the 423rd Infantry Regiment is the most likely choice of units within the 106th infantry can be found in Document # 4, page 1 of the Enlisted Record and Report of Separation. Midway down the page you see 3 boxes on the right half of the page that deal with dates of departure, destination, and arrival.
Here you see that he departed on 17 October for the ETO (European Theater of Operations). This was the date that the Queen Elizabeth departed the US carrying the members of the 423rd Infantry Regiment (and one other battalion from the division)
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=dates&action=display&thread=141The return address on any letters home that your Aunt might have could nail down the 423rd Infantry Regiment for sure. But I think you can pretty much take to the bank the fact that this was his assignment when he left the USA and at the onset of the Battle of the Bulge.
Document 2 (Separation Qualification Record) gives more detail of his work within the 106th infantry Division (and elsewhere.) This document shows him entering the service in March of 1943 and after 4 months of Basic training as a private moving up to status of Tech 5 where he was listed as a Truck Driver Light for 18 months -- which would at least take him into January of 1945. I think this is a fair indication that he worked as a
truck driver during his time with the 106th infantry, holding the rank of Tech 5.
Back to document 1:
This application explains why he is applying for the Combat Infantry Badge. Your uncle had seen action. His platoon leader noted that he would put him in for the Combat Infantry Badge. Then your Great Uncle was sent to the hospital. Then the opportunity for this paperwork to be submitted by his platoon leader was lost. This request states that "in his absence the division was wiped out."
This statement is not 100% accurate, but close enough when it comes to a reason that the paperwork for this award had not been submitted by his platoon Sergeant (or had been lost or destroyed.)
The German Counter offensive known to us as the Battle of the Bulge began on December 16. But the division was on line along curved front on the German Schnee Eifle several days before this. The document indicates that the approximate date of the award was the 15 of December. Within a few days, most of the men in two out of the division's 3 infantry regiments were surrounded and were running low on (or out of) food, water, and ammunition. Dense fog had prevented air drops for re-supply. The 422nd and 423rd Infantry Regiment were surrendered.
Had your Great Uncle not been in the hospital at the time (somewhere west of his unit) and had he survived, he would most likely have become a POW.
A History GapHow long your Great Uncle was hospitalized is not noted in the paperwork you have. It is clear that his wounds did not take him back to the USA.
In the normal course of things your Great Uncle would have returned to his unit when he was deemed ready for action again. But this was not possible. The division still existed, but not his regiment. Since he had been in one of the division's infantry regiments, it would seem likely that when he was ready for action he would have returned to the division and been assigned to its only remaining infantry regiment, the 424th Infantry Regiment for the remainder of the war in Europe or at least until April when the missing units of the division were reconstituted with a few former members and many new ones.
Beyond the 106thYour Great Uncle's papers clearly indicate that at the time of his separation from the Army (30 March 1946), he was a
Tech 4 with the 701st Engineer Petroleum Distribution Company.
Document #4 ( Enlisted Record and Report of Separation) indicates that he sailed from somewhere in the ETO bound for the USA on 11 March 1946.
Here is where notes on the point system come in. The 106th Infantry Division ceased to exist in the fall of 1945. Members of the division eligible for discharge returned to the states by the fall of 1945. But many men fit for active service and without the points needed for discharge were often transferred to other outfits sometime during the late summer/ early fall of 1945.
This seems to have been the case with your Great Uncle. He left the USA with the 106th and later returned for discharge from another outfit.
The only question here in my mind is one of the date of transfer to this new outfit. It would seem logical that it happened sometime post VE Day. But your second document indicates that his last 12 months in service were spent as a Tech 4 as a pump station operator. Was some of this 12 months spent in the 106th or was it all with the new unit? If the latter, the transfer happened sometime around Feb. of 1945.
Connie
PS. I'll post what we know on the Site Soldier Index and notify Jim West so this can also be posted in the Roster on the Indiana Military site. Any corrections or tweaking that happens with further discoveries can be made later. I think we have enough to support a rank and assignment.
