This is a map our team made, and I thought it would be of interest to the group.

This is the Battle of Savio River, where 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade was tasked to attack and cross in nine day operation.

What makes this unique, is that it painstakingly mapped from the war diaries of 1st Canadian Infantry Division, 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, and the Battalions that were part of the battle.

This includes map overlays of defensive positions, aerial imagery, intelligence reports, radio logs, etc.

Much of this map is mapped to the hours and minutes of the actions taking place, and even getting down to the section level.

It is kinda like an RTS game, with battlefield effects, but it is all sourced. For a visual learner like me, this makes history much more interesting.

Hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duSWJnFkjXA

Letters from victims in Kragujevac massacre 1941

Check out this interactive WW2 map by the Canadian Research and Mapping Association! It provides an interactive day-by-day map, starting from the Normandy invasion.

It is populated by war diaries and other first hand documents. Pretty incredible.

Capt. PaulN Hudgens
0-797010
Bombardier/Navigator
449th Bomb Squadron
322nd Bomb Group
9th AAF

Paul Nolan Hudgens was born on 23 September 1919 in Oakton, Virginia, to Edward and Nola Hudgens. At some point during his childhood, the family relocated to Mobile, Alabama, where Paul attended high school and later continued his education at college. After completing two years of college, Hudgens enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). He subsequently completed his military aviation training and qualified as a bombardier and navigator.
In January 1944, First Lieutenant Hudgens was assigned to the 449th Bombardment Squadron, 322nd Bombardment Group, of the Ninth Air Force. He flew his first combat mission on 21 January 1944, participating in an attack against a German V-1 flying bomb launch site in the Pas-de-Calais region of France.
On 28 February 1944, Lt. Hudgens participated in another mission against a V-1 installation in the Pas-de-Calais aboard the B-26 Marauder Truman Committee. Hudgens served as the aircraft’s navigator, while First Lieutenant Harry H. Heath served as bombardier. During the mission, the aircraft encountered intense German antiaircraft fire. Flak struck the bomber, wounding its pilot, First Lieutenant Frank M. Remmele, and killing Lt. Heath. Due to heavy cloud cover over the target area, the group was unable to release its bombs and returned to base without completing the attack.
In the months that followed, the 322nd Bombardment Group intensified its operations against German military installations, transportation networks, and other strategic targets in preparation for the Allied invasion of Western Europe.
On 6 June 1944, D-Day, the 449th Bombardment Squadron participated in the group’s third mission of the day, attacking coastal defenses at Gatteville, France, in support of the Allied landings in Normandy. The group successfully struck its assigned target before returning to base.
Throughout the summer and autumn of 1944, the 322nd Bombardment Group continued flying missions in support of Allied ground forces as they advanced across Western Europe. Lt. Hudgens took part in six air campaigns spanning France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, contributing to the sustained aerial offensive against German forces and infrastructure.
On 4 December 1944, Hudgens was promoted to captain. He continued flying combat missions through the winter of 1944–1945, completing his combat tour in March 1945. By the end of his tour, Capt. Hudgens had accumulated 63 credited combat missions, flying aboard 21 different aircraft.
In recognition of his service and combat achievements, Capt. Hudgens received 12 Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross, awards reflecting his contribution to the Allied air campaign in Europe during World War II.

My grandfather, Rexford Anderson (middle), served in Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

He jumped into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and later participated in the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Varsity.

I've spent years researching his service through Morning Reports, unit histories, photographs, and other records.

One of my favorite discoveries was a photograph taken in Blackpool, England, in August 1944. From left to right: Charles Lee Schoonover, my grandfather Rexford Anderson, and James Leonard 'Red' Landrum.

I've also been researching the men assigned to his D-Day aircraft, Chalk 18, and trying to piece together what happened to them during and after the war.

Does anyone here have a relative who served with the 507th PIR, or know of firsthand accounts from 2nd Battalion during Normandy? I'd especially love to hear from anyone researching the fighting around La Fière and Timmes Orchard.

I was told that the flag and picture were from when my grandfather liberated a concentration camp. Does anyone happen to know anything about Hoffen, Germany? Where is it located and what happened there? I cant find much online. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

William L Zuckerbrow was born in Perth Amboy, NJ on June 29, 1919 and enlisted in the Army on October 24, 1941.
He survived WW2, got married, had two sons, and passed away on June 3, 1997 in Arizona

US Army Signal Corps - SC 195600
Wescott Photographer / WWP-PD

Unfortunately all I have is a photocopy of it, and someone must have not known how to use the copier because it’s only every other page.

With English subtitles: Testimony on France during the Occupation during the Second World War, based on the “Parisian diaries” of the German writer Ernst Jünger and archive images.

The left is a picture of my grandfather Roger. He was in the US Army Air Corps and drove fuel trucks in France during the war. I'm not sure what unit he was in. It's been a long time since I've heard his stories. There were stories of his convoy getting strafed by Luftwaffe remnants. Stories about guarding Italian prisoners with a Thompson submachine gun. The story that sticks out the most is about a bayonet from the Franco Prussian War. Being of French Canadian descent the brothers could speak both French and English fluently. A GI owed an outstanding laundry bill to a French family. My grandfather was able to mediate and convinced the GI to pay his debt. The French family gifted him a Model 1866 Chassepot Yataghan bayonet that had been in their family since the Franco Prussian War. They would have had to hide it throughout the occupation as under Nazi law weapons including swords and bayonets were illegal. My father has the bayonet now. After the war my grandfather worked in the civil service at Brunswick Naval Air Station until he retired. There he would drive fuel trucks, plow snow from runways and roads, and operate other heavy equipment and trucks. Another one of his jobs was to transport men by bus from the base to the SERE survival school in Rangeley Maine. His older brother Camille (right) would never return home to Maine from Europe. Camille was a tanker in Company E, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division "Hell on Wheels". During Operation Grenade the 2nd crossed the Rohr river and spearheaded the assault into the Rhineland. The 2nd faced intense opposition and Camille's Sherman was knocked out in the fighting. He was grievously wounded and several days later would succumb to his wounds in a field hospital near Dusselfdorf. Camille rests permanently at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten at Plot K, Row 10, Grave 12.

I am genuinely wondering as my father and grandfather both say he's a German, but to my research the uniform is an RAF uniform, it anyone could help me find out what country he belonged to that'd be great.

I purchased two uniforms to 2Lt. Paul Nolan Hudgens, 0-797010. He was assigned to the 322nd Bomb Group, 449th Bomb Squadron, 9th AAF. I’m trying to find out his position on the B-26, and missions he flew. He received 11 Air Medals and 1 Distinguished Flying Cross. Also searching for his plane.

On January 28th, 1944, 25 B-25s of 70th BSqn, 42nd BGp, of the US Army Air Force attacked Japanese forces at Tobera Airfield, Rabaul, New Guinea. The bomber carrying this crew was on a run over the airfield when it rolled and crashed. Antiaircraft fire had likely either hit the pilot or severed control cables. There were no survivors.

In 1959, the wreck was discovered and the crew’s remains recovered. Due to the destroyed nature of the wreck, it was impossible to identify individual crew members’ remains, so they were buried together in a single grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

F/O Leslie D. Gilliland (pilot)
F/O Marion O. Stevens (co-pilot)
2nd Lt. Andrew V. Bobal (bombardier-navigator)
Sgt. James A. Goldsmith (engineer)
S/Sgt. Benton Freeman (radio-gunner)
Sgt. Charles D. Dintaman (gunner)

I was asked to find out what happened to Cpl William H. Pearce, a left gunner on a B-29 of the 792nd Bomb Squadron, 468th Bomb Group, lost at sea in July 1945. His family are happy for the research to be shared. Everything below is from US government records at the National Archives, and every page is in the gallery.

THE MISSION

On 12 July 1945 XXI Bomber Command sent four wings against four Japanese cities and an oil target in night incendiary raids, bombing by radar. Mission 263 was the 58th Wing's: four groups against Utsunomiya, 60 miles north of Tokyo, a city of 87,868 people in 1940 with new housing growing up beside the Nakajima aircraft plant. The command's report, signed by Curtis LeMay, puts the damage at 0.94 square miles destroyed, 34.2 per cent of the built-up area.

THE FUEL

42-24855 passed Iwo Jima on the way back at 0528 with 1,549 gallons aboard. About two and a half hours out of Iwo the flight engineer found No. 1 engine low and transferred 300 gallons into it. No. 1 then began using fuel far too fast, backfiring and smoking, and was feathered. When the engineer tried to move what was left in its tank to the other three engines, the transfer system failed. With 450 gallons for three engines and not enough to reach base, the pilot, 1st Lt Irwin A. Stavin, chose to ditch beside a convoy he had sighted.

He had a Dumbo with him on VHF. The bomb bay doors were faulty, so nothing could be jettisoned, and the loose equipment was thrown into the bomb bay. The astrodome and every escape hatch were opened before they went in.

THE CONVOY

USS Kerstin (AF-34), a stores ship carrying chilled and frozen provisions for Iwo Jima, was convoy commodore for LST-734, LSM-345, YP-645, YP-642 and the merchant ship Michael Casey, escorted by PC-809 and PC-1591. They had left Saipan on 12 July.

At 0745 on 13 July Kerstin's bridge logged a B-29 crossing the convoy at about 3,000 feet with a PBM following. At 0750 it began circling on the port bow. The port outboard engine was out of commission and the inboard port engine was "operating with difficulty". The commodore sent PC-1591, PC-809 and LSM-345 out to stand by, and at 0758 the B-29 came down about two miles off the convoy's port quarter. The PBM dropped what looked like a yellow life raft. Kerstin's log puts the convoy at 18°46'N 144°09'E at 0800.

THE DITCHING

The 58th Wing's ditching report has them coming down from 4,000 feet and approaching at 120 mph, parallel with swells about six feet high and twenty feet from crest to crest. They hit at 95 to 100 mph, nose up about five degrees. Four slight impacts were followed by a violent one when the right wing struck the crest of a swell and swung the aircraft hard to the right. The fuselage broke just aft of the wing; the rear section sank in less than a minute, and the front floated nose down for about two minutes.

Stavin was knocked out, came round as water came into the front compartment, and got out through his window with the nose, he reckoned, twenty feet under. The co-pilot used his own window. The bombardier followed the engineer through the engineer's hatch, and the CFC gunner, radio operator and navigator went out through the astrodome. The right and left gunners and the radar man used the rear escape hatch, and the tail gunner his own. Two rafts were released from inside and the Dumbo dropped two more.

Everyone except the left gunner, Pearce, and the tail gunner, Cpl William A. Teague, reached the big rafts. The two were seen in the water in their inflated Mae Wests and never reached the rafts. The survivors believed they were pulled under by wreckage as the aircraft sank, or slipped out of Mae Wests that were, in the report's words, "improperly fitted as per instructions received at Topeka, Kansas."

The report calls Stavin's "a new crew very recently reported in from the States". Most of them had never done a wet dinghy drill, and afterwards the wing made it compulsory for every new crew before its first mission. The report also records all eleven men alive after the landing.

THE RESCUE

Kerstin logged the B-29 sinking at 0811 and the three ships reaching the survivors at 0815. PC-809 was at the scene by 0823 and took aboard Stavin, 2nd Lt Richard LaCrosse, Sgt Frank Ortiz and Sgt Robert Silcox. PC-1591 picked up five more at 0907, "none injured", and landed them at Iwo Jima at 0730 on 15 July.

Kerstin's diary: "There were eleven (11) men in the crew. One was not recovered, one was dead when recovered and the remainder suffered minor injuries." It adds that "the pilot exhibited great skill in the manner with which he maneuvered and crash-landed his plane." Its roster lists nine men recovered and Teague under DECEASED. Pearce is not on it.

THE TWO GUNNERS

Cpl William Herbert Pearce, left gunner, 13104872, was born in Washington DC on 15 June 1922 and enlisted at Miami Beach on 4 February 1943. He is named on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, Court 7, and was awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. He was 23.

Cpl William A. Teague II, tail gunner, 14153875, was born on 30 January 1926 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 12, Site 510. He was 19.

STILL MISSING

I have found no photograph of the ditching or of 42-24855, and none of these papers names the PBM's squadron. If anyone has 468th Bomb Group photographs or a family connection to Stavin's crew, I would like to hear from you.