Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: hubsonfire on March 19, 2008, 04:52:12 PM
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Came across a simple memorial book containing a faded black and white photograph of a young man in an Army uniform in some of my grandmother's belongings. It turns out this is a picture of one of my great uncles, the one whom we knew little about (my maternal grandmother has never spoken of him, and until today we knew only that he was deceased, and had served in the military). There are a few brief notes relating to him and some of his siblings, mentions of deaths, marriage and birth dates, etc. There is also a note that my great uncle had joined the Army in December of '42, and that he, Pvt Dewey Franklin Butterworth, died on July 10, 1943 in Gela, Sicily. There's a mention of Camp Shenango, Greenville PA, and that is it.
It appears that he was part of the invasion of Sicily, and presumably KIA, but I have no further information than what is above, and no real idea where to look. Where should I look in an attempt to find any detailed information regarding my great uncle? I would like to at least figure out which unit he served with, and any other information regarding his death would be of interest to me.
A quick search suggests that he would have been 7th Army, and that this was likely his first taste of combat. If anyone can shed some light on this, or at least point me to some useful information, it would be greatly appreciated.
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I'm thinking 1st infantry division was part of that. I've got some info on that. I'll look it up later.
First book I'm gonna look at is Army at Dawn, I think that is where I read about 1st ID in Sicily.
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Ditto to what Mom said. Try the 1st Infantry Division's web site. They can help with things like that.
If all else fails, contact Dan (Guppy), he has lots of experience tracing service people's history.
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Cool, I'll try that shortly. Found another bundle of stuff, this from some distant relative (literally and figuratively- Beijing!) who was tracing his relatives. In that were two articles, one a handwritten letter, and the other a photocopy of an Ashland Wisconsin newspaper from '43. One of my great-uncle's cousins, one PFC Arthur Lee Butterworth was also in the first wave of the invasion, and was killed in action there just a month later. Sicily was a dangerous place for my family.
Arthur initially was in North Africa somewhere, so they may very well have been in the 1st. Thanks guys.
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(http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/Bat%20Signal-exc.jpg)
Looks like a job for +Tiff/Corky/Guppy35, otherwise known as Dan :)
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This map (if accurate), shows 1st ID and 82nd Abn Div as the units arriving at Gela. I did see another map which further divided the fork into 1st ID at Gela, and 82nd south of Gela, but now I can't find that.
(http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd34/momof3terrors/Huskey_sicily.jpg)
Also, this won't provide any further information for you, but he's listed here on this website:
http://genealogytrails.com/ill/vermcas.htm
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Thanks, I did some poking around the NARA site, found both casualty lists, although I couldn't find much else. He didn't even have a full year in, so I doubt there will be a great deal, but we'd at least like to come up with a little more info than we had.
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http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/72-16/72-16.htm
Invasion of Sicily.
Camp Shenango was a World War II camp located in Pennsylvania which served as a holding point for trained soldiers awaiting deployment.
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Thanks, Milo.
Found this interesting...
Patton made a second bid to trap the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division on 11 August, when he sent Colonel Bernard on another amphibious end run, this time at Brolo. Once again Bernard's men achieved complete surprise, but they soon came under heavy pressure as the German units trapped by the landing tried to batter their way out. Bernard's group proved too small to keep the Germans bottled up, and by the time Truscott linked up with the landing force, the bulk of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division had escaped.
Time was now running out for the Allies. On 11 August, the day Patton launched the Brolo operation, General Hube began the full-scale evacuation of Sicily. Despite heroic feats by U.S. Army engineers in clearing minefields and repairing blown bridges, the Seventh Army was never quite able to catch the withdrawing Axis forces
Especially upon reading this from the newspaper clipping regarding the death of A L Butterworth
He went overseas April 1, and landed in North Africa April 11. He saw action in the last part of the North African campaign. He landed in Sicily on the first day of the invasion. He was killed in action on August 11.
Slowly narrowing things down, I hope.
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You cannot get any better books for reading and history both than Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy of the American Army in Europe in WWII.
Volume 1 was Africa: http://www.amazon.com/Army-Dawn-1942-1943-Liberation-Trilogy/dp/B0009WE0W8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206029203&sr=1-2 (http://www.amazon.com/Army-Dawn-1942-1943-Liberation-Trilogy/dp/B0009WE0W8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206029203&sr=1-2)
Volume 2 was Sicily and Italy: http://www.amazon.com/Day-Battle-1943-1944-Liberation-Trilogy/dp/0805062890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206029094&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Day-Battle-1943-1944-Liberation-Trilogy/dp/0805062890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206029094&sr=1-1)
And Volume 3 is forthcoming.
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I put in a call for Dan to check this thread.
On August 1, 1942, the first Division was reorganized and redesignated as the 1st Infantry Division.
The 1st Infantry Division entered combat in World War II as part of "Operation Torch", the invasion of North Africa, the first American campaign against the Axis powers. On Nov. 8,1942, following training in the United Kingdom, men of the First Division landed on the coast of Algeria near Oran. The initial lessons of combat were harsh and many men were casualties in the campaign that followed and which stretched from Algiers into Tunisia. On May 9, 1943, the commander of the German "Afrika Korps" surrendered his force of 40,000 and North African operations for the Big Red One ended. The Division then moved on to take Sicily in "Operation Husky." It stormed ashore at Gela, July 10, 1943, and quickly overpowered the Italian defenses. Soon after, the Division came face-to-face with 100 tanks of the Herman Goering Tank Division. With the help of naval gunfire, its own artillery and Canadian allies, the First Infantry Division fought its way over the island's hills, driving the enemy back. The Fighting First advanced on to capture Troina and opened the Allied road to the straits of Messina. On D-Day, June 6,1944, the Big Red One stormed ashore at Omaha Beach. Soon after H-Hour, the Division's 16th Infantry Regiment was fighting for its life on a strip of beach near Coleville-sur-Mer that had been marked the "Easy Red" on battle maps. As the assault progressed, the beach became so congested with destroyed equipment, the dead and the wounded, that there was little room to land reinforcements. Col. George Taylor, commander of the 16th Infantry Regt., told his men, "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach! The dead and those who are going to die! Now, let's get the hell out of here!" Slowly, spurred by the individual heroism of many individuals, the move inland got underway.
A German blockhouse above the beach became a command post named "Danger Forward."
After the beachhead was secured, the Division moved through the Normandy Hedgerows. The Division liberated Liege, Belgium, and pushed to the German border, crossing through the fortified Siegfried line. The 1st Inf. Div. attacked the first major German city, Aachen, and after many days of bitter house-to house fighting, the German commander surrendered the city on Oct. 21, 1944.
The Division continued its push into Germany, crossing the Rhine River. On Dec. 16, 24 enemy divisions, 10 of which were armored, launched a massive counterattack in the Ardennes sector, resulting in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The Big Red One held the critical shoulder of the "Bulge" at Bullingen, destroying hundreds of German tanks in the process. On Jan. 15, 1945, the First Infantry attacked and penetrated the Siegfried line for the second time and occupied the Remagen bridgehead. On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Division marched 150 miles to the east of Siegen. On April 8, the Division crossed the Weser River into Czechoslovakia. The war was over May 8, 1945.
At the end of World War II, the Division had suffered 21,023 casualties and 43,743 men had served in its ranks. Its soldiers had won a total of 20,752 medals and awards, including 16 Congressional Medals of Honor. Over 100,000 prisoners had been taken.
Following the war, the First Division remained in Germany as occupation troops, until 1955, when the Division moved to Fort Riley, Kan.
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At work, but a start.
PVT Dewey F. Butterworth
ID: 36716642
Branch of Service: U.S. Army
Hometown: Vermilion County, IL
Status: KIA
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Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
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Go play in traffic, ultra melon.
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Dewey Butterworth was in the 4th Ranger Battallion that landed at Gela, Sicily July 10, 1944. Heavy casualties as they were landed in a mine field on the beach.