Post by connie on Aug 20, 2011 13:15:22 GMT -5
Also see
Division Band Personnel:
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=index&thread=420&page=1
For a search for a band member by a member of the 423rd, along with an interesting story see: 106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=looking&action=display&thread=39
The Band crossed the Atlantic on the Wakefield. At the outbreak of the Bulge the 106th Infantry Division Band was located in Vielsalm, Belgium.
The obituary of Elis Leighty, assistant band director give much military detail. Here's a bit of what was said there about the history of the 106th Infantry Division Band:
"Following the Remagen bridgehead capture, the allied forces were capturing lots of German troops, and so the 106th was shipped back into Germany to man the prisoner of war camps all up and down the Rhine river valley. The division band had two 15-piece dance bands (one from the former 208th and the other from the former 204th), and so one of those bands was shipped north toward Holland and the other south toward Switzerland to entertain the troops manning PW cages.
After the war in the ETO was finished, the 106th was slated to return to the U.S. to be deactivated. Since they had knocked about the states so long before going overseas, they didn't have enough points to get out of the service, and so the original 208th bunch were transferred to the 35th Infantry Division Band, which was slated to go through the states and on to the Pacific Theater. Before they got out of France, the war with Japan was over, and so when they got back to the states aboard the Queen Mary, most of them had enough points to get discharged."
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=other&action=display&thread=585
A post of information taken from the obituary of Ellis Leighty tells the pre-106th origins of the Division band as well as a bit of Bulge history and their disposition in post VE Day times: 106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=other&thread=585&page=1#2482
Apparently Ellis Leighty and Alan W. Walker wrote a book on the 106th Infantry Division Band back in the 1940's. books.google.com/books?id=6ZbLuwAACAAJ&sitesec=buy&source=gbs_atb
Division Band Personnel:
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=index&thread=420&page=1
For a search for a band member by a member of the 423rd, along with an interesting story see: 106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=looking&action=display&thread=39
The Band crossed the Atlantic on the Wakefield. At the outbreak of the Bulge the 106th Infantry Division Band was located in Vielsalm, Belgium.
The obituary of Elis Leighty, assistant band director give much military detail. Here's a bit of what was said there about the history of the 106th Infantry Division Band:
"Following the Remagen bridgehead capture, the allied forces were capturing lots of German troops, and so the 106th was shipped back into Germany to man the prisoner of war camps all up and down the Rhine river valley. The division band had two 15-piece dance bands (one from the former 208th and the other from the former 204th), and so one of those bands was shipped north toward Holland and the other south toward Switzerland to entertain the troops manning PW cages.
After the war in the ETO was finished, the 106th was slated to return to the U.S. to be deactivated. Since they had knocked about the states so long before going overseas, they didn't have enough points to get out of the service, and so the original 208th bunch were transferred to the 35th Infantry Division Band, which was slated to go through the states and on to the Pacific Theater. Before they got out of France, the war with Japan was over, and so when they got back to the states aboard the Queen Mary, most of them had enough points to get discharged."
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=other&action=display&thread=585
A post of information taken from the obituary of Ellis Leighty tells the pre-106th origins of the Division band as well as a bit of Bulge history and their disposition in post VE Day times: 106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=other&thread=585&page=1#2482
Apparently Ellis Leighty and Alan W. Walker wrote a book on the 106th Infantry Division Band back in the 1940's. books.google.com/books?id=6ZbLuwAACAAJ&sitesec=buy&source=gbs_atb