My Father's War in Real Time
My Father's War in Real Time
Background to the Project
I’m working on a book that covers the arc of my parents’ experience in World War II. A list of chapters and the prologue are here: https://patricia-morse.com/the-things-they-left-unsaid/
Since I know where Dad was at all times in the fighting because I have the Morning Reports for his platoon, I thought it would be interesting to follow the fighting, especially since so little is written about the 7th Army and the experience of combat engineers.
Units
I’m following the second platoon (commanded by Dad) of Company C (commanded by Bagley) of the 325th Combat Engineers. Company C was part of the 399th Infantry Regiment team in the 100th Infantry Division (the Century). They fought in the 7th Army. Dad’s unit was in continuous contact with the enemy from the end of October 1944 to VE Day in May 1945.
Cast of Characters
Since I’m hoping people will read along, I won’t introduce the main players all along, so here’s a list.
Gordon H. Morse, my father. During the war he was the second in command of Company C, 325th Combat Engineers, the officer of the mess, and, most of all, the officer in charge of his platoon. Dad was drafted in April 1941, rose through the ranks to be sergeant in the 28th Infantry Regiment (not then assigned to a division), when he went to OCS. The Army doesn’t recognize the first phase of his time in the Army, but it made him a better officer.
Lieutenant Bell, commander of the first platoon, and a product of West Point
Jim Bagley, Dad’s best friend in the war, was the Captain in charge of Company C. Like Dad he’d been a sergeant in the regular Army before going to OCS.
Carl Blanton, Corporal, first platoon, from Boiling Springs, North Carolina
T.C. Moore, Sergeant, drove for Lt. Bell.
Wallis, enlisted man from Georgia in the first platoon, who I met with Carl for conversation and at reunions.
Bob Heller was on the 2004 Battlefield tour. He had been a medic in Company C.
Bob Hamer was on the 2004 Battlefield tour. He was part of the 399th Combat team.
Some Sources
Ambrose, Stephen E. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne : From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
———. Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Beck, Alfred M., Abe Bortz, Charles W. Lynch, Lida Mayo, and Ralph F. Weld. The Corps of Engineers: The War against Germans. Honolulu, HI: University Press of the Pacific, 1988. 2002.
Bonn, Keith E. When the Odds Were Even: the Vosges Mountains Campaign, October 1944-January 1945. Novato, CA: Presidio, 2006.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uchicago/Doc?id=10235286.
Clarke, Jeffrey J., and Robert Ross Smith. Riviera to the Rhine: The European Theater of Operations. United States Army in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1993.
Colley, David. Decision at Strasbourg: Ike's Strategic Mistake to Halt the Sixth Army Group at the Rhine in 1944. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2008.
Fussell, Paul. Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1996.
———. The Great War and Modern Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
———. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Gimlette, John. Panther Soup: Travels through Europe in War and Peace. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2008.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. No Ordinary Time : Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Hancock, Frank E. An Improbable Machine Gunner. Madison, Alabama: Self-published, 1997.
"Historical Vignette 109 - Mel Brooks Was a Combat Engineer in World War Ii ". U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, http://www.usace.army.mil/about/history/historicalvignettes/sportsentertainment/109melbrooks.aspx.
Kennett, Lee. G.I.: The American Soldier in World War Ii. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987.
Khoury, John M. Love Company: L Company, 399th Infantry Regiment, of the 100th Infantry Division During World War Ii and Beyond. Maywood, New Jersey: Chi Chi Press, 2003.
Knight, Arthur C. Letters Home from a Wwii 100th Division Soldier. Missoula, Montana: Big Sky Press, 1999.
Mauldin, Bill. Up Front; Text and Pictures. Cleveland; New York,: The World publishing company, 1945.
Mauldin, William. The Brass Ring. New York, New York: Berkley Medallion Books, 1971. 1971, WW. Norton.
McManus, John C. The Deadly Brotherhood : The American Combat Soldier in World War Ii. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1998.
Murphy, Audie. To Hell and Back. 1st Owl Books ed. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1949, 2002.
Pergrin, David E., and with Eric Hammel. First across the Rhine: The 291st Engineer Combat Battalion in France, Belgium, and Germany. St. Paul, Minnesota: Zenith Press, 1989.
Radford, Albert E., and Laurie S. Radford. Unbroken Line: The 51st Engineer Combat Battalion from Normady to Munich. Woodside, California: Cross Mountain Publishing, 2002.
Robinson, Phil Alden, Richard Loncraine, Mikael Salomon, David Nutter, Tom Hanks, David Leland, David Frankel, and Tony To. "Band of Brothers." 705 minutes: HBO, BBC, 2001.
Rottman, Gordon L. . U.S. Combat Engineer 1941-1945. Botley, UK2010.
Stars and Stripes. "Story of the Century." Pamphlet. France: U.S. Army, 1945.
Steidl, Franz. Lost Battalions: Going for Broke in the Vosges, Autumn 1944. Presidio Press, 1997.
Tyson, George F., Jr., and Robert V. with Hamer, Sr. Company L Goes to War. Bedford, PA: Aegis Consulting Group, 2004.
U.S. Army, 399th Infantry Regiment. 399th in Action with the 100th Infantry Division. Stuttgart: U.S. Army, printed by Stuttgarter Vereinsbuchdruckerei, 1945.
U.S. Army. The Story of the Century. New York, NY: Century Association, 100th Infantry Division, 1946.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The War : An Intimate History, 1941-1945. 1st ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2007.
Whiting, Charles. America's Forgotten Army: The True Story of the U.S. Seventh Army in Wwii and an Unknown Battle That Changed History. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1999.