Personal Accounts

By Unit

The following materials are personal accounts from members of the 103rd Infantry Division and their time in the military training, deploying to Europe, and fighting their way across the continent during World War II. This collection is comprised of accounts that were recorded or documented in a variety of mediums from written memoirs to oral histories to a few surviving diaries and journals that soldiers kept illegally while on the front lines. There are also remembrances of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and were killed in action while fighting across Europe during the division’s months in combat written by the veterans who fought alongside those who gave their lives.

These personal accounts have been organized by the unit in which the individual veteran served while with the 103rd. The collections start at the regimental or specialty unit level and then work their way down to the company level of command for the infantry units, and the individual specialty unit for the non-infantry troops. By organizing the materials in this way, visitors and researchers should gain a more intimate understanding of the war in Europe and specific stories or experiences that were only experienced by men of a certain unit. The categorization by unit will also hopefully benefit family members wishing to know more about their relatives’ personal experiences during the war from the men who they served with.

  • 382nd Field Artillery Battalion

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  • 383rd Field Artillery Battalion

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Photo Credit: Unknown photographer, SC 195623-S- Infantrymen relieved from combat for rest, await removal to a rest camp near Near La Neuveville, France. 25 October, 1944. (79th Infantry Division). U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

409th Infantry Regiment photo: T/4 Irving Leibowitz, SC 337382- Here, an enemy machine gun opens up from the far side of the valley. Both men watch intently, trying to spot it. (409th Infantry Regiment). German/Austrian border. 1 May, 1945 U.S. Army Corps Archive via Flickr.

410th Infantry Regiment photo: T/4 Clifford O. Bell, SC 270822- Infantrymen of the 79th Division file into columns down street of newly-captured town of Soufflenheim, France. 13 December, 1944. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

411th Infantry Regiment photo: T/5 Joseph A. Bowen, SC 270629- 7th U.S. Army infantrymen of the 7th Inf. Regt. (3rd Infantry Division) prepare to rush a house in which Nazi snipers are hidden. Guiderkirch, France. 15 March, 1945 U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

382nd Field Artillery Battalion photo: Hartman, SC 396926- Members of Battery B, 328th F.A. Bn., 85th Div., firing their 105mm howitzer. Ramagnola area, Italy. 15 February, 1945. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

383rd Field Artillery Battalion photo: Graning, SC 396925- Reading his first mail since moving into frontline position is Sgt. John W. Carter of Gastonia, N.C., Battery C, 616th F.A. Vn., 10th Mtn. Cutigliano area, Italy. 31 January, 1945. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

384th Field Artillery Battalion photo: Poinsett, SC 364313- A 155mm howitzer of the 751st Field Artillery Battalion being loaded for a fire mission. Near Rotgen, Germany. 11 January, 1945. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

928th Field Artillery Battalion photo: Unknown photographer, SC 196055- A U.S. artilleryman loads a 105mm howitzer with a shell packed with D ration chocolate bars that is to be fired to soldiers of an infantry battalion cut off by the Germans in the Belmont sector, France. 29 October, 1944. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

328th Medical Battalion photo: T/4 Clifford Bell, SC 201691- Medics carry a wounded infantrymen into aid station of 103rd Division of 7th U.S. Army near Obermodern, France. Man was wounded by anti-personnel mine while on patrol. 27 February, 1945. (103rd Infantry Division) U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

103rd Signal Company photo: Cpl. Weintraub, SC 334912- W.P.G. Lt. James Scoggins sits outside the cellar of the battalion switchboard on a wire spool in the front line town of Rimling, France, talking over communications problems and other duties of combat infantrymen with Lr. Robert Altier. 13 March, 1945. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

103rd Headquarters photo: Horton, SC 195669- A U.S. Army infantry division sets up its headquarters in the boiler room of an old French mine near Trieux, France. 21 October, 1944. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

103rd Reconnaissance Company photo: Mastrosimone, SC 329773- Members of the 80th Reconnaissance Unit (80th Infantry Division) fall in line for doughnuts and coffee furnished from an American Red Cross Clubmobile in the vicinity of the Moselle River, France. 8 September, 1944. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.

103rd Military Police platoon photo: R. W. Crampton. SC 199105- German prisoners taken in the Ardennes sector by 3rd Armored Division are checked before being moved to cages. 14 January, 1945. U.S. Army Signal Corps Archive via Flickr.