Any info on William Becker Trojan? Cinci boy

[leannaarts]

Hi, I'm writing about my Father's journey and if anyone has any info about my Dad, Bill Trojan. He was at Camp Crowder, Mo in Code School, Co. A, 28th Bn. He also was at Monmouth for further techie studies. He also was in the Pacific and liberated a camp there, as well as Dachau, so there are so many things I'd like to know.

He was transferred to the 106th and escaped imprisonment in the Ardennes, so I'm not sure who he joined up with and what exactly happened after that...

Thanks and if I can help anyone, I sure will.
Leanna

[connie]

Leanna,

I missed your post initially somehow in the midst of the flurry of Thanksgiving activity around here. My apologies.

Your father's story sounds like a fascinating one. A lot of his history would open up if we could figure out to which unit of the 106th he was assigned. Do you have access to any letters written home at that time?

Connie

[connie]

Leanna,

Revisiting this post. I again checked the Roster, a constant work in progress by Jim West of the Indiana Military Site. He has completed processing names found on a treasure trove of General Orders. But I'm sorry to note that your father's name was still not there.

In re-reading your post you noted that your dad escaped captivity during the bulge so you didn't know who he had joined up with at that point. It sounds as if you may be assuming that it was something other than the 106th. This is possible. If injured and sent to a remote hospital, reassignment after recuperation is possible. And many men from the 106th who had not accumulated the points needed to return home in the summer or fall of 1945, were also assigned to other divisions.

However, there is a strong possibility that he could have continued on with elements of the 106th throughout the remainder of the war, at least. While most of the men in the division's 422 and 423rd Infantry Regiment as well as most in the 590th Field Artillery Battalion were taken captive (along with many from random units who were in the wrong place at the wrong time), there were elements from the division who continued fighting. The 424th Infantry Regiment remained, as did much of the Service Battery of the 590th Field Artillery Battalion, some of the 589th Field Artillery Battalion, and the 591st and 592nd Field Artillery Battalion, among others. In January some of the thinner units among these were eliminated and the men from these units shifted into others. But the men were there fighting.

Have you checked for your Dad's records? Do you have any letters?

Connie