[I’m working on a variety of posts of my usually (!) lengthy nature, for “this”, and my other two blogs. In the meantime, here’s a brief post in answer to a comment I recently received from reader Kathleen, which I though might be of wider interest….]
Kathleen’s message:
Hello = I am looking for more information on the military records for Jack M. Weiner, who was profiled in your story. [About First Lieutenant Charles Blum] Do you know where I can find details of all of his postings while he was in the military?
Thanks very much,
Kathleen
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So, I reviewed the biographical profile of T/5 Jack Weiner from the above-mentioned post. Then – ! – I discovered I made a mistake in that post (now corrected). I noted that Jack Weiner served in the “177th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron”, when in reality, he served in the 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron.
Weiner, Jack M. (Yakov Moshe bar Avraham), T/5, 20324118, Purple Heart (Casualty in Germany)
United States Army, 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, A Troop
Mr. and Mrs. Abraham “Abe” M. [1/15/84-10/31/73] and Esther (Goldberg) [9/10/88-7/4/67] Weiner (parents), 5323 Arlington St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Mrs. Betty W. Sholder, Daniel, Mrs. Mary Handelsman, Mrs. Rose Poplow, Mrs. Sarah Alon (siblings)
Born Bronx, New York, 1/19/22; Enlisted January, 1941
Mount Sharon Cemetery, Springfield, Pa. – Section L; Buried 1/16/49
The Jewish Exponent 4/20/45, 1/10/49
Philadelphia Inquirer 1/15/49
American Jews in World War Two – 558
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The image below shows T/5 Weiner’s matzeva at Mount Sharon Cemetery, in Springfield, Pennsylvania. He’s one of 64 military casualties of the Second World War (50 Army, 9 Army Air Force, and 5 Navy and Marine Corps) buried at that Delaware County cemetery.
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Here’s T/5 Weiner’s obituary as it appeared in two Philadelphia area newspapers:
First, the Philadelphia Inquirer on 1/15/49, via FultonHistory…
…and The Jewish Exponent on January 10 of the same year:
It can be assumed that information about the locations of all of Jack Weiner’s specific military postings was almost certainly once in the possession of his family, but given the passage of nearly eight decades, it’s problematic if this material survived or can be located. All that is known is that – according to the Philadelphia Inquirer – he graduated from Overbrook High School in February of 1941, went overseas in February of 1942, and served in North Africa and Italy.
The document “117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mecz) in World War II – January 6, 1941 – May 18, 1945 & Occupation”, indirectly sheds a few hints about Jack’s military service. The book reveals that 117th was actually formed from the 102nd Cavalry Regiment of the New Jersey National Guard, which itself was originally part of the 21st Cavalry Division. The 102nd was ordered into Federal Service on January 6, 1941, and retained that designation until November 30, 1943, when it was reorganized and designated the 117th Cavalry Squadron Reconnaissance (Mecz). The book recounts the early history of the 102nd as follows:
The first week of December 1941 was a fateful one. Maneuvers were over. The Regiment would be completing its year of Federal Service on January 5th. December 7th fixed that!! Training was accelerated, new equipment was issued, leaves were cancelled, troops were brought up to 100% combat strength and all preparations were intensified.
In mid January, the Regiment received orders to prepare for embarkation for overseas duty. It was to board the French Luxury Liner “Normandy” on February 26th. It had been tied up in N.Y. since 1939 when war broke out in Europe.
On the morning of February 18th, the “Normandy” burned and sank at her pier in New York. Sabotage was suspected.
Meanwhile, the extensive and dramatic employment of mechanized units by the Germans in the war in Europe and our own experience during maneuvers had clearly indicated the diminished effectiveness of horse cavalry in the new mode of warfare. So it was that on April 6, 1942; just 15 months to the day following its entry into Federal Service, that the 102nd Cavalry Regiment lost its horses and was reorganized into a fully mechanized Regiment.
The Regiment returned to its concentrated training regimen until early July when it again received orders to prepare for staging to Fort Dix in early September from whence it was to ship out for overseas duty.
September 25th 1942 the Troops boarded the H.M.S. Dempo, a Dutch passenger liner under British Army control, and sailed October 1st for England in a 96 ship convoy, plus escort, which left the Dempo behind when it developed engine problems two hours out to sea. Repaired by its Dutch Engineers within a few hours, the ship resumed the trip on its own. It landed in Liverpool on October 7th after an essentially uneventful crossing.
Most of the Regiment was billeted in Fairford, a beautiful little village in the Cotswold area of England. Our quarters were on the 1000 acre Palmer Estate nearly adjacent to the Village Square. The officers were housed in the Manor House, the enlisted men in Quonset Huts.
Training schedules were quickly implemented to maintain the high state of proficiency attained in the States.
The Tank/Artillery Troop drew its first Tanks; M5A1s weighing 25 tons and armed with a 37mm gun and two .30 caliber machine guns. Few of the Troopers had ever seen a tank. Fewer still ever sat in one. The artillery platoon of the Tank Troop was equipped with four 75mm French Howitzers mounted on half-tracks. They were capable of only a sixty-degree traverse.
The training then initiated for Officers at the Royal Armored Tactical School was all based upon actual combat experience gained in combat with the Africa Corp. The School was at Brasenow College, Oxford University. The Instructors were all combat experienced Officers of the British Eighth Army.
In December 1942, the 2nd Squadron of the 102nd under the Command of Lt. Col. Hodge was detached from the Regiment and assigned to the Security Command of A.F.H.Q. (Allied Force Headquarters).
Now stationed at Shrivingham Barracks, the Squadron commenced to draw its vehicles, weapons and other equipment. Scout cars, halftracks, bantams, radio equipment etc. were drawn throughout November and December and delivered to Glasgow for loading aboard ship.
The Squadron, by then alerted to sail from Glasgow, Scotland on December 24th, for a destination only later learned to be Algiers, did so aboard the H.M.S. Straithaird and landed at Algiers on the morning of January 3rd 1943. A little less than two months after the first Allied Forces had come ashore on November 8th, 1942.
After several days in the El Biar section of Algiers where we viewed the nightly bombing of the city by the Luftwaffe, the Squadron was billeted, on January 10th, in the small town of Douera, about 18 miles south of Algiers.
However…! Given the timing of Jack’s arrival overseas (whatever / where-ever the Philadelphia Inquirer meant by “overseas”) in February of 1942, combat service in North Africa and Italy, and the 102nd (later 117th’s) arrival in England eight months later … in September of that year … it seems certain that he was not a member of the original cadre that formed the 102nd / 117th, and was only assigned to the Reconnaissance Squadron later on in the war. In turn, his service in the North African and Italian campaigns suggests – well, it’s a possibility – that he was a member of the 1st, 3rd, 9th, or 34th Infantry Divisions, or the 1st Armored Division, all of which participated in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in November of 1942.
So, in answer to the larger question of Jack’s military postings, I don’t know of any publicly accessible, single, comprehensive, reliable source of information which would list or delineate each and every assignment – whether combat, or, non-combat – of a randomly given serviceman.
In terms of casualties, military records (such as Army Air Force Missing Air Crew Reports, or, records covering the loss of Navy and Marine Corps aviators, or, officers and men on naval vessels) by definition and nature pertain to a serviceman’s military unit at the specific point in time when he was wounded, missing, or killed in action.
That being said, for American WW II servicemen who were killed in action, or who lost their lives on operational (not necessarily combat) activity, one source of the information might (might…) be a serviceman’s IDPF: His Individual Deceased Personnel File. There are many (many) websites describing the nature and content of these documents (just search DuckDuckGo – you’ll see what I mean; you can find examples of IDPFS in the William L. Beigel Collection at the American Air Museum in Britain) so I won’t delve into a lengthy description of these records in “this” reply.
However, suffice to say that due to the depth and detail of the information in IDPFs, coupled with the fact that they not uncommonly include documents and correspondence – utterly, inevitably, and naturally frank; often of a very sad nature – compiled in postwar investigations (typically including information used to confirm the identity of a fallen soldier, and, correspondence from his parents, siblings, or wife) one can sometimes – some times, but hardly all the time – find information by which a soldier’s assignments and postings can be identified and chronologically “pieced” together. Again though, IDPFs most often and predictably indicate the unit to which a serviceman was assigned at the point in time when he was killed: His last military unit. They’re not intended to recapitulate a serviceman’s entire military career.
In any event, the postal address for requesting IDPFs is presently:
National Archives & Records Administration
National Archives – St. Louis
ATTN: RL_SL
P.O. Box 38757 (or) 1 Archives Drive, Room 340
St. Louis, Mo. 63138-0757
Otherwise, it might be possible to at least partially reconstruct a WW II soldier’s military service by means of newspaper articles, in terms of the geographic locations and bases at which he was stationed over time. However, unless you know the date and publication of these items beforehand, such research is (allegorically!) akin to searching for a near-infinitesimal grain of sand on a near-infinite beach, where you know neither the appearance of that particular grand of sand nor the location of the “beach”, beforehand. In addition, this presumes that you have access to the newspaper of interest in either 35mm microfilm or digital formats beforehand! (This being the year 2021, gadzooks, what’s microfilm?!)
So, if I’ve created some questions, I hope I’ve provided some answers and directions.
References
Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947
The Operational History of the 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mecz.) World War II