COMBAT PATHS
WHY COMBAT PATHS?
When I was a kid, my father and his friends and their families would gather together occasionally to celebrate weekends and holidays. As the days and nights wore on, their conversations would usually drift to their experiences in the US Army during WW II. I sat with them and took it all in. Sometimes they wouldn’t bring up their times in the army so I would have to ask one of them a strategic question about a detail I’d heard in previous session. That’s all it took and my dad and his pals were off on remembering and talking about the war. No one spoke of the terrible and inevitable experiences they encountered as soldiers. The stories were always about goofing up and goofing off and good laughs were had by all. I was curious about why “battle stories” were never mentioned. (I discovered later through my research and discussions with numerous veterans, those who were the quietest lived the most horrible part of combat.)
My interest, however, was piqued and I grew up with a fascination about all aspects of WW II. I started reading all the material I could find, going to every war movie that came to the downtown theaters and watching every war movie that came on television. In the 1980’s, my curiosity grew to the level that I wanted to know where these men were from 1942 through 1945. I wanted to see the path of the 5th Infantry, 88th Infantry and the 1st Armored Divisions…I wanted to track all the US Army units, but soon realized such a project would be impossible.So, I limited my research to the ETO and MTO and began a list of dates and places for each army division participating in those theaters.
What began as an attempt to gain details from every book about WWII in the library, grew to every book ever written about the ETO and MTO. The limits imposed by publishers of WWII books, unfortunately, required the omission of many details.
By the 1990’s the internet had grown sufficiently to include web sites that provided access to official documents from the 1940’s. I was able to find after action reports, monthly reports, S-3 reports, etc. I have yet to find a central source that has all the information I need, but through the Combined Arms Research Center and the Eisenhower Museum there is enough information to keep me busy for years to come. I will continue the compilation of Combat Paths until I can’t.
Combat Paths is dedicated to all the young men of the US Army who lived, traveled, fought and sacrificed in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of War. They challenged and decisively defeated the almost mythical military power of the German Wehrmacht and its axis partners. The men of the US Army learned from their experiences in Africa and Sicily and, by early May 1945, they had chased their enemies to the heart of Nazi Germany empire. May the world never forget these magnificent individuals.
I want to thank all the veterans of the war who have provided assistance in compiling what we have thus far. And to my wife Sue, thanks for tolerating my obsession during the many hours of our marriage I have spent at the computer or with my nose buried in books during the past decades.
- James R. Clarke