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34th Division, US Army
8th Nov 1942 In Action
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Want to know more about 34th Division, US Army? There are:0 items tagged 34th Division, US Army available in our Library
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2nd. Lt. William Williams Keen Butcher 28th Infantry Division First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry At the outbreak of WWII William Butcher was sent to Europe as a second lieutenant in the 34th Infantry Division. He was overseas for 4 years and participated in the North African and Italian campaigns. His Division was committed in action for 517 straight days, the most straight days of service by an American Division in all wars.
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Pvt. Miles Richard Nix 3 Battalion, Co I 168th Infantry Regiment. My father joined the Army in 1941. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor the US declared war on Japan and immediately after Germany declared war on the US.
America entered the war with the invasion of North Africa and Daddy was one of the soldiers in the first invasion. He group landed at Algiers, Algeria. He was later captured at Faid Pass in February 1943 by the Germans under the command of the "Dessert Fox", Erwin Rommel.
They were marched to Tunis where they were held in a fenced in compound, burning under the African sun during the day and digging holes in the sand at night to keep warm during the cold nights. They were sent to Stalag VIIA, which was a staging area for the POW's and then sent out to his permanent camp at Stalag IIIB.
He was required to go out on work details and worked building an electric plant. The men in the camp had some very rough conditions. They had little food. They got a cup of Ersatz coffee for breakfast, waterey soup for lunch, and one loaf of Black Sawdust Bread for supper which had to be divided between 6 men. It was a while before the Red Cross parcels began arriving to the camp. The parcels were kept outside the compound and overseen by the Germans. When they received them, they had often been gone through and some food and other things had been taken.
Occasionally Hitler's SS would visit the camp and they were very fearsome. Even the German guards were afraid of them. He was a POW for 26 months. When the Germans heard the guns of the Allied Army moving closer and closer, they quickly marched the POW's away from front lines with little preparation for the march. They had little food or water and snow was on the ground. They would stay in barns and whatever shelter they could. Daddy once stayed in a chicken coup.
At some point while on this march, Daddy and some others escaped and held up in a barn hoping to get to the American troops. When they awoke it was to the sound of tanks. They feared they had been recaptured, but it was the Russians who found them and helped them to return to American control. Freed POW's were given priority on air transport coming back home. He was sent to a hospital in Georgia for a while and then sent to Miami, Florida to recoup. It was a very trying time in his life.
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PFC Paul John Jordan C Coy.,109th Med.Bn. 34th Inf. Div.,168 Regt. My uncle, Paul John Jordan, was born in Maibe, WV on April 27th 1919. As a young man in the 1930s, Paul worked in the Water Department in the C.C.C. Paul was the first of six Jordan brothers to join the armed forces. He enlisted on July 14th 1941, several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, at Baltimore, MD. He was trained as a medic and then assigned to the 34th Infantry Division. He was placed in C Company, 109th Medical Battalion of the 168th Infantry Regiment. He was listed as 5'11" and 147 lbs.
Paul's 34th Infantry Division was sent straight from Newport News,VA to Oran, North Africa to begin "Operation Torch". In early February of 1943, the 34th Infantry Division's 3rd Battalion, 168th Infantry Regiment was positioned 10 miles east of Sidi Bou Zid on three hills: D.J. Lessouda (northernmost), D.J.Hadid (southernmost) and D.J.Ksaira, which was the easternmost position of the American Forces. C Company, 109th Medical Battalion was atop this hill. At 0430 on February 14th 1943, the German 10th and 21st Panzer Division tanks moved out to attack Sidi Bou Zid.
A raging sandstorm had been blowing for 12 hours and the American Forces couldn't see or hear anything. The storm was blowing from east to west - right into the faces of the Americans atop these three hills. The German tanks first surrounded, then later bypassed these positions. The German infantry, riding the tanks and scout cars, then unleashed a relentless fire upon these three hills for two days. Relief columns sent from Sidi Bou Zid were repeatedly attacked by the German Luftwaffe, and the Americans lost 44 tanks at this time. On the nights of February 15th and 16th, several Americans escaped this ring, but 600 from Lessouda, and 800 from Ksaira surrendered to the Germans.
"Paul Jordan was listed as missing in action on February 17th 1943. He was transported to Sicily on February 3rd 1943, to mainland Italy on March 10th 1943, to Austria on March 14th 1943 and, finally, to Germany, on March 16th 1943. He spent time in Stalags 3A, 7A, 2B, 3B and 5B."
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PFC. William Benjamin O'Neal Coy.I, 168th Infantry Regt. 34th Infantry Division William O'Neal, Jr. was my great-uncle. He was taken prisoner in Italy while on a recon patrol with 6 other soldiers. He stated that the Germans immediately took away their American uniforms and gave them British clothing. He said he worked on a potato farm nearby and would often trade cigarettes for food with German civilians. He was there approximately 15 months, and as the American forces began closing in they started moving them on foot for many miles until they were finally put on a train. He said he had to eat dandelions for energy during the march. After getting on the train, it was shot up by Allied aircraft. He said that after arriving at the last camp, the guards became "nice". Finally after a short while, they woke up to find the guards had left during the night.
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