As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, my Dad never talked much about his time in the Army during WW2. My original goal was to post all of the letters that he wrote home to his sister Geraldine (Dodson) Godwin. While I accomplished that, I still did not learn much about his involvement in the war by reading the letters. He simply tried to write to his sister in ways that made it seem like everything was just great in Europe and that he was always "fine as usual."
So, now I am digging into military records, maps, morning reports, and so forth to create a timeline of activity, battles, and so forth, and then attempt to connect my Dad's Unit to what was going on at the time. I recently watched the video below, which provides an overview of action from the perspective of Patton and his Third Army, which Dad was a part of.
Even digging into various documents, I have often found it difficult to keep the action taking place in the correct order. For example, in my last post, I stated that Dad's first engagement in battle was in Metz, France. However, a few days later, I figured out that his Unit, the 139th Infantry Regiment, was headquartered in Toul, France, and the first engagement from that town was in the Battle for Nancy, France. The Battle for Metz took place after the Nancy Campaign.
