141st Infantry I company

[caseloadr]

I am looking up a member of I company of 141st Regiment Pvt Cliff Ruppert . He was KIA on Oct 31 1944, I have a copy of his last letter home dated Oct 18 1944. I just found out which company he was in . I have check on the dates in the 36th, but really don't see much on I co. I just want to find out where his unt was on 10/31/44 .

[Jack's Son]

This is a link to a 141st web search on Google, see if it answers any questions.

 

http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/3...sion/141con.htm

 

Good Luck....

[caseloadr]

I have looked up this site before but not a whole lot on I company . Would love to find after action reports or something like that. I had thought that he had been with 1st Bn . I thinking I co. is 3rd Bn, but not really sure . Thanks for responding.

[patches]

I have looked up this site before but not a whole lot on I company . Would love to find after action reports or something like that. I had thought that he had been with 1st Bn . I thinking I co. is 3rd Bn, but not really sure . Thanks for responding.

 

I company or ITEM would be in the 3rd battalion's of infantry regiment's. At the end of October the entire 36th Division was embroiled in the fierce fighting in the Vosges, among these units, the 3rd Battalion 141st Infantry. After action reports, the ones that are in archives as I understand can be found only at Battalion level or Regimental level, I don't believe they exist on the Company level, to be sure Companies keep log books, I guess in the manner the Germans had their Kriegstagebuch (War diary ) for all of their units. I believe that American units on the company level made out their reports to send to Battalion and from there Battalion taking all the reports from the indivdual companies, compiling them into a single report and sending that up to Regiment. Any copies if there where any in the companies may have been destroyed at wars end, or any time between going back to the states or being inactivated whether overseas or in the states, with the Battalion and Regimental After action reports being turned into the appropreate section of the War Department for study and archiving.

[caseloadr]

I figured that would be the case with such records, its one of those thing a person would lke to put a time line from the last letter home till being killed in a unnamed fight. Thats a task may never happen . Proably just a pipe dream .

[patches]

I figured that would be the case with such records, its one of those thing a person would lke to put a time line from the last letter home till being killed in a unnamed fight. Thats a task may never happen . Proably just a pipe dream .

Well on these date's, the 141st Infantry Regiment with the other Combat units to include attachments where in the Bruyêres/ Forêt De Dominiale De Champ area of the Vosges. It would be here that he wrote that letter and was killed.

[KVSkelton]

I have looked up this site before but not a whole lot on I company . Would love to find after action reports or something like that. I had thought that he had been with 1st Bn . I thinking I co. is 3rd Bn, but not really sure . Thanks for responding.

 

Hi caselodr,

 

I was in a similar situation to yours at one time. My Great Uncle died on 3JAN45 fighting with Co. E of the 141st. I, too, have his last letter home which was written on Christmas Day 1944. I wrote to the Deputy Director of the website Jack's Son mentioned and she was very helpful. She sent me scanned copies of the Regimental AARs for the day my Great Uncle was killed. E Co. was mentioned several times. I was able to trace the fighting that eventually took his life in those after action reports. His entire platoon was either killed or captured in that struggle.

 

I would suggest not only browsing the Texas Military Museum site, but making contact with those who run the museum. Give them all the information you have and see what they can come up with. They were very helpful to me (this was about 18 months ago, btw) and I can't see why they wouldn't be to you too! Best of luck!

 

Kevin

[gilhoolie]

You could try the S-2/S-3 Journal for the 3rd Bn, 141st Inf. It would have the most detail of what was going on with I Company on October 31, 1944. Such journals are a daily log of incoming and outgoing messages at the battalion headquarters. The may also be a narrative report of the action that day included with the battalion's, or regiment's, monthly history. These are located at NARA in College Park, RG 407, Entry 427.

[Squad leader]

Hello,

 

On October 31, 1944, the 3rd bat. of the 141st was in "le bois des Huttes", East of "le col de La Croisette" - vic Biffontaine, and had to clear the area of "la Maison Forestiere". By 14.35, Co I was on the trail leading from "la Maison Forestiere" to the crossroad called "La Baignoire aux Oiseaux". By 15.32, Co's I and L in that vic, met germans. 20 casualties. - The plan of the 3rd bn was to fire mortar on enemy positions and attack. After the attack, the 3rd bat. was shelled around 21.35.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Dan.

[TrevorR]

I have looked up this site before but not a whole lot on I company . Would love to find after action reports or something like that. I had thought that he had been with 1st Bn . I thinking I co. is 3rd Bn, but not really sure . Thanks for responding.

 

I searech for After Action Reports for every KIA Purple Heart I have. Most time I find them on the Division's website or the Regiments site. I have found a few else where. Just do a google search of "141st Regiment After Action Reports" or "141st Regiment 10/31/1944" That is was I do most of time and find them. I just found one from my 135th Regiment guy, and found out he was only one of four from the regiment killed that day.

[caseloadr]

Squad leader thanks for the information , That is the most I have learned about the I company so far. My uncle joined the 141st while it was still in Italy , in the spring of 44. He commented about the Italain mud compared to the mud in France which he stated didn't stick to his boots like the Italian mud did. He is buried in Epinal . the family didn't have his body brought back . Thanks to all the replys guys they helped to started looking in differant places .

[Longhorn92]

My grandfather was with C/141 during this timeframe. I have visited the Vosges twice.

 

Here are a few pics, just in case you wanted a visual of the area:

 

In the Vosges, villages below. This is west of Biffontaine.

[Longhorn92]

On a hill overlooking a village in Fimenil, Lorraine, Vosges Mountains.

[Longhorn92]

Deep in the Vosges west of Biffontaine, near Bruyeres.