2nd Armored Division helmet with laundry number to research

[Jean-Loup]

I posted this in the research section, but it seems few people read that part of the forum, so I will try again here.

 

I was given this helmet in 2004 by a woman who had picked it up as a child on September 1st 1944 in a wood of Contoire Hamel, Northern France, where the first US soldiers to reach the area had spent the night. She kept it her whole life, and gave it to me when she saw an article about my WWII research in the local paper. It turns out Contoire Hamel was liberated by the 2nd Armored Division. It can therefore be deduced that this helmet must have belonged to a 2nd Armored Division soldier, which seems to be nicely confirmed by the triangle scraped out of the paint, where the soldier had probably glued an armored division insignia at the time. As can be seen, the helmet has laundry number C-0757 painted on the inside (not painted over during a period repaint), making for a potentialy very interesting research project.

In 2004 or so it wasnt possible to properly research laundry numbers on the NARA website, and this helmet sort of fell into the shaddows for me. Only recently have I come to realise what an interesting and precious helmet it is, linked to one of the more famous armored units of WWII, involved in heavy fighting in Normandy. Laundry numbers can now nicely be researched on wwii-enlistment.com and a lot of info has been put online in recent years, so I have decided to try and solve this case, no matter how hard. Thanks to corona, dont we all have a little more time on our hands?

There were about 70 men with laudry number C-0757 who served in WWII according to wwii-enlistment.com, and by checking their info on various websites, I have been able to eliminate many (serve in the pacific, enlisted too late, etc), with only about 35 potential candidates to ownership of this helmet remaining after the elimination process. I am now looking for rosters of the various units of the 2nd Armored to cross check the rosters with my list of candidates and find a possible match.

A person has already very kindly sent me the rosters for the 67th Armored Regiment, and informed me that no rosters seem to exist for the 66th Armored Regiment. I have actualy found a possible match for the owner of my helmet on the 67th Armored list, but the name is comon, and there is a rank discrepancy, so I dont know if it is the right person I have found. I have sent letters out to the descendents of the soldier to find out and possibly confirm my discovery. In the meantime I want to continue the research though, so:

Does anyone have a roster of the 41st Armoured Infantry Regiment, or their unit history? If so, I would be very interested in the pages showing names starting with C.
Also, does anyone perhaps have a roster of the postwar 2nd Armored Division Association, or rosters of the smaller Engineer units, medical units, etc, that were part of the 2nd Armored?
If anyone has any books on the various units, I would also be interested in the pages about August 30th to Sept 2nd 1944.

Any help will be very welcome

Jean-Loup
 

[644td]

I wish I could help but all I can say is that a nice lid.

 

marty

[glenm]

You might be looking in the wrong Division  - that helmet strikes me as being a 3rd Armored helmet, not 2nd Armored. 3rd Armored were the ones who had the paper decals on the side of their helmet like this - and the removing of the paint to stick the paper "patch" on is common on their helmets, like this one of mine: 

[Jean-Loup]

Hi mate. 

The only solid info I have is where the helmet was found. I was lucky enaugh to receive it straight from the person who had picked it up and remembered everything clearly.

As you can see below, Contoire Hamel is not at all on the path of the 3rd Armored, but it was on the path of the 2nd Armored.

How solid is the association between paper badges on the helmet and the 3rd Division? Has no such 2nd Divison helmet ever been seen in photos or collections? 

This really isnt my field at all so I have no idea.

is 2ndarmoredeurope.co,uk your website? I tried sending an email to the webmaster last week I blieve in any case asking for rosters. Do you have any of the reference books, or know if the 41st Armored Infantry History book includes a roster?

 

 JL

[glenm]

You're quite right that it's on 2nd Armored's route. There is one other option that I've seen - there were also unmarked paper "patches" made for some non-divisional units (like the Tank Battalions which were attached to Infantry Divisions). Anyway, we've never seen any such equivalent in 2nd Armored in all the time looking, nor have any known helmets been found to match.

 

Re rosters, please drop me a message on here, Jean-Loup - yes, I'm part of 2nd Armored in Europe. Not noticed the email come through (but I'm not the one monitoring the email anyway). 

 

You wrote a brilliant book by the way, happy to have that on your bookshelves!

[Jean-Loup]

The 702nd Tankd Destroyer Battalion was attached to the 2nd Armored Division at the time, perhaps the helmet belonged to a soldier from the 702nd TD?

Thanks for your kinds comments on my book :)

 

 JL

[Powerhouse]

I'm agree with glenm for the helmet. I have never seen a helmet of the division with a triangle on the side. The only patches were painted on the front, and were made at the end of the war.

A helmet of the 702nd would more wore a TD patch than an armored one.

Regarding the 2nd armored, the CCA was in this area. The CCA was divided in two columns. One of them (the right column) was in the vicinity of Boussicourt not far from Contoire Hamel

This column was composed of elements of the 66th AR, 41st AIR, 17th AEB, 14th AFAB, 48th AMB and 702nd TD.

The 67th AR was part, at this moment, of the CCB. The route of the CCB was situated further east.

All of this is detailled in the AAR of the 66th AR.

There is no known roster for the 66th AR.

The book "History of the 41st Infantry Regiment in World War II" is very rare.

[Jean-Loup]

I read the 66th AR after action report that I found online, but the exact route followed really is not clearly mentionned as far as I saw. Do you have a page you can post here that says specific villages they went through?

 

What do you suggest as a possible scenario for the helmet arriving in Contoire, if no 2nd AR helmets are known to have this type of insignia?

Even if there is no roster for the 66th AR, is there perhaps a partial roster, for exemple of wounded or the unit, or of 66th AR veterans who became members of the 2nd AR association after the war?

 

 Thanks

 

 JL

[Powerhouse]

Hello Jean-Loup,

The AAR of the 66th is difficult to read for this date. But the geographic coordinates 274355 (page 82 and 83 of the PDF) is situated in vicinity of Boussicourt.

 

 

Regarding, Contoire Hamel, for the moment, I haven't find any mention in the books and documents I have. But here is something about this in this french forum :

 http://www.picardie-1939-1945.org/phpBB2new/viewtopic.php?t=1607

I will continu to search.

Regarding the helmet, it could be also at a member of an armored unit attached to the divison at this moment....

Regarding of the roster of the 66th AR, I will be interested to have one even partial.

 

[Jean-Loup]

Thanks. Indeed, the unit history is full of map coordinates, but I have no reference maps as I usualy do research about southern France, not the north.

 

I am still waiting to hear back from the family of a soldier of the 67th who has an identical name to one of the possible laundry number matches.

 

 JL

[Jean-Loup]

As an update to this thread. On the roster of the 66th Armored Regiment I found a George E Cunningham, and there was also a George E Cunningham who had a laundry number matching the helmet. However there were numerous George E Cunningham's who served in WWII, so I dont know if they are one and the same person.

 

I managed to contact laundry number George Cunningham's granddaughter and told her about the helmet. She responded very positively and said her grandfather had served in France. I told her that I wasnt sure if this was her grandfather's helmet, and that to know, I needed to know what unit he had served in. She never responded after this....  After some months I tracked down a bunch of other family members and sent them letters, none of which responded. This irritated me so much that I decided not to research the matter further.

 

It certainly seems that the two George E Cunningham's are compatible though.

 

[Jean-Loup]

This is the lady who gave me the helmet in 2004, almost 60 years to the day after having picked it up in Contoire Hammel.

[BryanJ]

Another amazing story!  

[Powerhouse]

Hello Jean-Loup,

You were able to obtain a roster of the 66th AR?

George Cunnigham is listed on the roster of 67th AR?

[Jean-Loup]

5 hours ago, Powerhouse said:

Hello Jean-Loup,

You were able to obtain a roster of the 66th AR?

George Cunnigham is listed on the roster of 67th AR?

Indeed, sorry, my mistake.

I obtained a roster of the 67th AR, not the 66th AR, and Cunningham is listed on the 67th roster.

Also, laundry number George Cunningham is listed as a PFC on his grave, whereas 67th AR George E Cunningham is listed as being a Sgt. Not looking very good for them to be a match.

Perhaps it is because they are not the same person that the family never responded to me?

 

I guess I should pursue this the hard way and try to contact all 35 potential matches.... But my experience with the first family ticked me off.

 

JL

 

[Jean-Loup]

Hi guys. I have made a video version of this thread. Hopefully the publicity may help solve the case....

 

[Nickman983]

3 hours ago, Jean-Loup said:

Hi guys. I have made a video version of this thread. Hopefully the publicity may help solve the case....

 

 

Have you eliminated Harry W. Chenoweth (32060757) from your search as a potential match? I tried doing some searching and it seems there *might* be some good potential with him.

 

Enlisted in 1941, there's a newspaper article from 1942 mentioning he was with an MP with the 1229th at Ft. Dix

 

However, in 1943 there's another article that has a snippet that mentions he is at Camp Polk in a reconnaissance battalion of an armored division, though doesn't specify which. This article was from August of 1943 so the timeline might line up for him joining the 2nd in England after the invasion of Sicily.

 

According to his grave he was awarded the purple heart. He was injured by artillery in Jan of 1945 and discharged from the hospital and duty in August.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237813037/harry-w-chenoweth

 

https://www.fold3.com/record/703041621/chenoweth-harry-w-us-wwii-hospital-admission-card-files-1942-1954

 

He was a long time mayor of Nutley NJ so there are tons of newspaper articles about him but I couldn't find any that referenced exactly what he did during WWII. The closest was a bit from the article written on him that mentions him participating in the Battle of the Bulge. If you could find his purple heart citation that might give an indication if he's your guy. I also tried looking at the after action reports of the 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. I was able to find a source online that claimed to be from June '44 to May '45 but it only went to September '44 so I wasn't able to look at their list of injuries around the date of his injury.

[Jean-Loup]

I see that Chenoweth is not on my "boiled down" final list, so I must have elminated him at some point, though I dont remember how. It is possible I found the same articles as you, and confused him with his brother, and so eliminated him on the base of him being in the RCAF.

I guess I will have to look into his case again. I have put his name back on the list of possible candidates.

 

 JL

[Nickman983]

1 hour ago, Jean-Loup said:

I see that Chenoweth is not on my "boiled down" final list, so I must have elminated him at some point, though I dont remember how. It is possible I found the same articles as you, and confused him with his brother, and so eliminated him on the base of him being in the RCAF.

I guess I will have to look into his case again. I have put his name back on the list of possible candidates.

 

 JL

 

My apologizes, looks like I missed this article from 1952 when I was looking yesterday. Looks like Chenoweth was in the 88th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 8th armored division. This could be why he wasn't on your short list.

 

[Jean-Loup]

Ok, good. Back off the list 😄

[Jean-Loup]

This is "laundry number" George E Cunningham by the way. I dont see anything on his uniform that can identify his branch of service, but perhaps an expert will notice a detail I did not?

 

[Jean-Loup]

Regarding the triangle on the side of this helmet, two of you guys who are specialized in the 2nd Armored said they are not known to have had this types of insignia on their helmets (I meant to specify this in the video, but forgot).

The location and date that the helmet was found, that almost perfectly matches the spearhead of the 66th AR's advance make it pretty clear this helmet is most likely linked to the advance of that unit. The triangle shap is very suggestive of an armored unit insignia.

In the meantime I have noted that the triangle on my helmet is larger than what is seen on 3rd Armored Division helmets.

 

What other scenarios would exist for the badge on my helmet, appart from it being a 2nd Armored Division triangle?

 

 JL

[Jean-Loup]

Now that I have made the video, the family got back in touch with me and also managed to find some documents.

I think that it is now highly improbable that George Cuuningham could be the person who lost the helmet.

 

 

[Powerhouse]

Is this information found in discharge papers?

If so, he could have been member of the 195th AAA AW Bn attached to the 2nd armored and moved to the 635th for discharge.

[Jean-Loup]

The point is that these documents show that Cunningham was in all likelihood in an anti aircraft unit (trained in AAA, discharged from an AAA unit), and so is not the Cunningham listed on the 67th Armored Regiment roster. With this link being eliminated, the probability that he was attached to the 2nd Armored at some point is just as weak as for any of the other 35 possible matches.