A question regarding the 10th Mountain Division's Special Troops during WWII

[Matthew1945]

What was their role? I've tried to figure out what precisely the Special Troops, HQ, and Signal Company did in terms of duty, but to no avail. Also, if someone knows, did the 10th Mountain have any units that did photo reconnaissance and interpretation for them? I know some units like the 101st had photo interpreter teams assigned to them, but what about 10th Mountain?

 

Any answers would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Allan H.]

"Special Troops" can usually be interpreted as support troops in most types of units from WWII. These soldiers fell into a special category as they were not infantry, artillery, or engineers. Special troops would include Adjutant General corps (clerks and typists), ammunition specialists, fuel handlers, finance, supply troops, and the like. You would normally find the division chaplain, topographic specialists, intelligence sections (interpreters, interrogators, analysts), etc. rolled up into these "Special Troops" units. These soldiers could easily be detached from their sections which were usually co-located with division headquarters and sent to the regiments and battalions that needed their skills at certain intervals.

 

As for your questions regarding photo recon and interpretation, the answer would be yes, the 10th would have had those assets available. Now, that service could have been supplied by topographic assets found at the division or corps level, or could have been relegated to the intelligence section. It would depend upon the skill sets of the soldiers in the intelligence section.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Allan

[Matthew1945]

"Special Troops" can usually be interpreted as support troops in most types of units from WWII. These soldiers fell into a special category as they were not infantry, artillery, or engineers. Special troops would include Adjutant General corps (clerks and typists), ammunition specialists, fuel handlers, finance, supply troops, and the like. You would normally find the division chaplain, topographic specialists, intelligence sections (interpreters, interrogators, analysts), etc. rolled up into these "Special Troops" units. These soldiers could easily be detached from their sections which were usually co-located with division headquarters and sent to the regiments and battalions that needed their skills at certain intervals.

 

As for your questions regarding photo recon and interpretation, the answer would be yes, the 10th would have had those assets available. Now, that service could have been supplied by topographic assets found at the division or corps level, or could have been relegated to the intelligence section. It would depend upon the skill sets of the soldiers in the intelligence section.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Allan

Thank you for such a detailed response! Trying to find out about Photo Interpreters in general, and those specifically in or assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, has been close to impossible to do. If there any books you'd know of that you can recommend, or websites, that contain further information on either of those two subjects, that would also be great. Nevertheless, thanks again for the response.

[Allan H.]

Matt,

 

I'm always happy to help and hope that I can provide a little more information for you. The reality is that the soldiers doing photo recon work were also doing other duties as well. Typically, you might have a small group of four or five guys doing intelligence work who would be called upon to do aerial photo analysis. These guys would also be responsible for comparing photos to known maps and would put the info into written form. Your Photo recon guys probably included a draftsman, a topographic specialist (usually an engineer with TOPO training) and a couple of guys with pretty good eyesight who would use magnifying glasses etc. to try to figure out what they were looking at. When these guys weren't working on photos, they would be going over weather reports, looking at maps to try to figure out plans of advance, estimating enemy strength, and taking patrol debriefs and try to figure out what the enemy was doing.

 

Anyone who has ever served in a Division or higher HQ will tell you that the vast majority of the work is pretty mundane. You spend every day doing similar work that nobody appreciates or pays much attention to. As it is pretty boring stuff, most people never have the desire to write about the work, much less to read about it. I'm afraid I can' really provide you with a source for the info you are looking for. As a former combat service support officer, I was always interested in how things were done, which is how I learned a lot of what I have posted. I am extrapolating what would have been done in the 10th Mountain from what I have learned of other divisions operating in Italy and other parts of the ETO.

 

Allan

[TenthA86]

I know that the Army Air Force had a forward observer and photo interp team assigned to 10th Mountain in Italy - call sign "Rover Joe". Have been told by Cpt with HQ Company that "Rover Joe" was 4 O's and 4 EM that did BDAs etc. He also indicated that many of the maps with German positions marked came up from IV Corps already marked.

 

From a WO assigned to HQ, he says they marked maps, tracked everyone's positions, ordered & distributed rations and ammo, rotated units into and out of line, and all of the boring bits that keep a Division fed, supplied and pointed the right direction. He said the only excitement was when General Hayes wanted to look at the front line - artillery fire was "always interesting". That's how Darby got hit - pointing out where he wanted to go next.

[Matthew1945]

I know that the Army Air Force had a forward observer and photo interp team assigned to 10th Mountain in Italy - call sign "Rover Joe". Have been told by Cpt with HQ Company that "Rover Joe" was 4 O's and 4 EM that did BDAs etc. He also indicated that many of the maps with German positions marked came up from IV Corps already marked.

 

From a WO assigned to HQ, he says they marked maps, tracked everyone's positions, ordered & distributed rations and ammo, rotated units into and out of line, and all of the boring bits that keep a Division fed, supplied and pointed the right direction. He said the only excitement was when General Hayes wanted to look at the front line - artillery fire was "always interesting". That's how Darby got hit - pointing out where he wanted to go next.

 

 

That's awesome. Thanks for the info!

[Brian Keith]

Excellent thread! Great "in the weeds" answers by Allen H. (Thanks! love info like this) and good contribution by TenthA86. This is why this forum is great!

BKW