im trying to find history of my grandfathers service in wwii, how do i find his story?

Question

ive heard his story personaly but would like to find more info

Answer 1

Shane,

I am currently doing the same thing with my Grandfather. All these years he thought he was the last of his unit .

I just found out a whole lot about his unit. including an upcoming Reunion of his unit here in a few months. I found stories of towns and villages that he helped liberate and monuments and dedications to his unit by those people.
He was in tears when I told him all that I had found. This August I will be going with him to the First Reunion of his unit that he has ever been to. Sadly it is the last reunion to be organized by the veterans themselves. Other reunions there may be but they will be organized by descendants or current modern members of the unit.
My Grandfather was B Company, 85th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. Ski Patrol.

You can search online for veterans organizations, Unit reunions. Get copies of his service records from DoD.
There is a lot you can do.
First thing is to compile EVERYTHING you know and can remember about him. Places that he was at. Towns, Geographic Features, Named Battles, Units,
If you have access to old letters and other corrospondence they can be INVALUABLE.

Even a web search of some small village you remember him mentioning can result in loads of information put together by someone from that town about the unit who came through back in WW II.

If you wish to contact me Directly you are more than welcome and I will see what I can find out as well. I am pretty good and researching things out on the net.
I also love to discover history and especially the WW II exploits of "The Greatest Generation that ever Lived"

Answer 2

You have a great start! Find vets from his branch of service and even his unit or surviving family members and hear their part of the story. If you want historical info, go to a recruiter from same branch of service and ask about it. I think most recruiters know a good deal of history about their branch of service. If not, try the VFW or American Legion. If nothing else, they can point you in the right direction if they don't have info themselves. Happy hunting! Oh, another sorce would be bookstores like Barnes & Nobles and Borders. They both have history sections with a great deal of info on the wars!

Answer 3

The best place to start is the online archives at NARA-AA. If you know his full name and date of birth you can then obtain an e-copy of his enlistment records.

The next bit can be tricky and ultimately disappointing. Armed with his enlistment record you can then request his army records following the steps on the AAD's website.

The disappointing bit is that there was a huge fire in the NARA archives in 1975 and a large amount of WW2 records burned.

Also, you must be a direct relative to request records so you need your father/mother/aunt/uncle to request them on your behalf.

If his records did burn, if your grandfather ever received benefits from the Veterans Administration hospital you can contact that hospital to attempt get a copy of what records they have on file.

If you know what unit he served in also do a google for that unit as there are numerous groups on the net dedicated to these units and their vets. Who knows, you may get lucky and find someone that knew your grandfather!

Answer 4

do a web search for his unit. Many of the division sized units have association web pages for survivors and their relatives. I recently helped a friend look for information on his father's unit in Metz France from WWII. your search string should look like this ( I will use his as an example)

95th infantry division, 377th regiment, 1st battalion, c company

Answer 5

You can take his story and break it down. Like take where he served and look that up. If he was in the Navy and was on a certain ship..you can look that up. Just take the details that can be broken down by research, and it can help you.

I did this with my great-uncle whom was in the navy in WWII. He showed me all his photos.

Answer 6

I would also check the National Archives. You can get copies of service records for a small fee.

Answer 7

Could be as simple as you posting what units he served with,
and the dates and hs MOS (job) and rank.

Most WWII ships have websites, most large Army & USMC as well, and then we have "unit histories" for most all units.

So let us know.

Answer 8

You might try contacting your local Veteran's Administration to see what info they have.

http://www.va.gov/

If you have any unit info (army battalions, divisions, etc, Navy ships, etc), that would be most helpful.

Answer 9

Google it. That's wat I'd do.