Insights on Grandfathers notes

[quigondon1]

imageshack.us/a/img18/926/vuy4.jpg

Can anyone give me any insights on this. It is found in a note pad that my Grandfather carried in training camp maybe Belgium. All the notes in the pad pertain to mortar and other training. Then in the back important dates....when he left states, arrival in Banbury, La Harve, Steinebruck, day Bulge started, day he left Europe and discarge. Then in the middle of a bunch of blank pages he wrote this.

It reads:
3rd plt
3rd "mortar plt"
6th squad
"M" company
3rd Bn
16 Regt
Ammo Dump(?)
at road junction
enemy closing from
opposite river
mortar plt. beyond latrine
in ravine

Then written across page from top to bottom is "Calif"

He began training in California at Camp Roberts so maybe it was a training exercise, not sure. There was a 16th Infantry that trained at Camp Roberts but part of the 16th was in the Bulge. The description certainly could fit many locations in Belgium though.
It reads like someones unit order but I am pretty certain he was in 1st Bn of the 424th. Insights anyone?

[floydragsdale]

Hello:

I think your Grandpa Milton's words mean this:

M Company of the 3rd Battalion. (Heavy Weapons Company)

3rd Mortor Pit = position of the 3rd Mortor.

Ammo dump = the place where ammunition is stored at or near a certain road junction.

Mortor pit is located in the ravine beyond the latrine (slit trench used where Soldiers relieved themselves of number 1, or number 2.

It's getting late, so that's all for now.

Floyd
424th Regiment
Co. G

[connie]

Hi,

I wonder... location in the middle of a notebook that has ETO notes makes you think that this should be in the ETO, too. California notation makes you wonder... code or real location? Did he perhaps make notes in the middle of a notebook during a training exercise stateside and then take the virtually empty notebook with him to the ETO? As you've probably already surmised, in this scenario, when the notes were discovered again later, he could have written "California" across the page to help eliminate confusion... The "16th" Regiment bit makes me lean toward the stateside scenario as this is not a regiment name that goes with the 106th Infantry Division. Nor was California a stateside location for the 106th. If he trained with another outfit prior to his 106th assignment this could be a possibility. The mention of "enemy" could fit with the type of war games that were part of some training. (I know that the 106th fought mock battles with other divisions during their maneuvers in Tennessee.)

Interesting puzzles...

Appreciate your sharing this one. Maybe someone else will have some thoughts or maybe you'll find another puzzle piece that fits with this one...

Connie

[quigondon1]

I agree Connie. I figure it probably training camp because only training camp material and important dates were in this note book. But I have noticed that in many of his photos he seems to always have a note book in his pocket. I am visiting with his youngest sister this week. She has discharge paperwork from another uncle. Maybe I will find out more information. Goodnight for now.

[connie]

Good luck. Hope you find more interesting paperwork... and more notebooks, perhaps. The notebooks sound like my dad. He had one with him always through the years. It was a little too big to carry in a pocket. I suspect it was tucked into a musette bag along with his mess plate and his writing kit.

[connie]

Ever get more input on this one?

Connie

[quigondon1]

Yes mam. Sorry I have been on a shutdown.....working everyday until everything is back up and running basically. Evevything in this note pad that he carried is associated with training camp and training manuvers. I think this must have been while he was at Camp Roberts on a training exercise. Originally he was trained in a heavy weapons company. I have quite a few photos of him at or during basic training at Camp Roberts. Only one month before the 106th was sent overseas he was volunteered for the medical detachment 1st Bn Hdq Co 424th.
I have zero information or photos about him at Atterbury. But I know he was there. His basic training ended in April 1944. If anyone knows a way for me to find information about specific individuals at Atterbury during this time let me know.
So long for now....Don

[floydragsdale]

Hello Don:

The ranks of the 106th Division personnel were virtually gutted shortly after D Day (6/6/1944). The infantrymen of the Infantry Divisions in France war significantly reduced by mid-summer of 1944.

The Army needed replacements to fill the ranks of those divisions. The 106th Soldiers had gone through Basic Training and Maneuvers; all the requirements a Soldier needed for overseas duty, Consequently, the 106th Division was stripped almost bare of the majority of its’ troops in the months of July and August

The 106th retained a cadre of Soldiers who were sufficiently trained to manage a horde of replacements. Your Grandfather and myself were two of the thousands of Soldiers who re-filled the platoons and companies of the 106th.

Based on those facts, I believe your Grandfather was shipped into the Division sometime from early July to early September 1944.

Then in a few short weeks, the 106th Division was on its’ way to England. When we were placed on the front lines in early December 1944, I did not even know the names of all the men (ca 40) in our platoon and hardly anybody else in the rest of G Company.

In the first few days of the Bulge Campaign, G Company had many casualties. I was not able to grieve for them because they were still complete strangers to me.

War is hell and very gruesome, in many ways.

Floyd

[quigondon1]

Thanks so much again Mr. Ragsdale. That would make perfect sense. I have a lot of his training camp photos from the replacement training camp, Camp Roberts but to my knowledge none of Camp Atterbury. It may be he was transferred there not long before ya'll shipped out. Apparently they were short on medics because about one month before shipping overseas he and some others were volunteered for medic duty. So besides the one month he spent in Banbury, England he only had about a months training as a medic at Atterbury.
Don