How To Use This Site

Note: At this time (October 2023), the website’s search feature is still being constructed and as of now, can only locate website page names, not the names of individuals or specific topics.

For Relatives:

If you are interested in locating information on a specific veteran of the 103rd Infantry Division, start by going to the Division Muster List located in The War: Document Collection. This resource contains the records of every 103rd Infantry Division veteran. First, locate the veteran that you are interested in researching by finding their name on this list. The Division Muster List typically contains the veteran’s Assigned Serial Number (ASN), unit, and company. Once you know which unit and company that your relative served with, you can go to The War: Units of the Division if you want more information about the veteran's specific unit. Any additional information about the unit will be listed there. You can also look through The War: Document Collection and see unit-specific information in the Unit Journals, Combat and After Action Reports, and Administrative Records. On this page, you can also see if this veteran is listed in any alphabetically arranged lists such as General Orders, Casualty Reports, and Morning Reports. Additionally, some veterans have personal accounts in The War: Personal Accounts and Oral Histories. Each account located on that page is organized in alphabetical order by veterans’ last name. You can explore Memoirs, Oral Histories, Diaries and Journals, Audio Files, and Interviews for personal recollections of veterans who survived the war as well as Memorials for deceased veterans.   If your relative was a member of the 103rd Infantry Division Association and you are curious about the records of the Association, you can visit Postwar: Men, Memorials, and the Veteran’s Association to see Yearly Meetings, Association Records, and Memorials and Monuments.  

*Note- If you have any documents or records that you would like to be included on this website in the future, please see more information about donating records to this collection on our “Donation” page.

For Genealogists:

If you are interested in locating information on a specific veteran of the 103rd Infantry Division, start by going to the Division Muster List located in The War: Document Collection. This resource contains the records of every 103rd Infantry Division veteran. First, locate the veteran that you are interested in researching by finding their name on this on this list. The Division Muster List typically contains the veteran’s Assigned Serial Number (ASN), unit, and company. If you are looking for more information on a specific veteran, this veteran may be listed in any alphabetically arranged lists such as General Orders, Casualty Reports, and Morning Reports. Additionally, some veterans do have personal accounts in The War: Personal Accounts and Oral Histories. You can look through Memoirs, Oral Histories, Diaries and Journals, Audio Files, and Interviews for personal recollections of veterans who survived the war, and you can look through Memorials for deceased veterans. Each category located on that page is organized in alphabetical order by veterans’ last name.

For Students:

If you are unfamiliar with the topic of World War II, we recommend that you first familiarize yourself by exploring the first two sections of this website, Prewar: Training and Deployment and The War: Narrative, Timeline, and Details. These sections contain historical text that explains topics such as the creation of the 103rd Infantry Division, their World War II training, and the division’s World War II combat experiences. Be sure to access the interactive StoryMaps that highlight the Division’s combat journey in Europe. Once you have looked through this information and know which topic that you are interested in researching, you can look through the two historical archive sections, The War: Document Collection and The War: Personal Accounts and Oral Histories. In these sections, you can look through official documents from the war or soldiers’ personal accounts about their wartime experiences. Documents that might include relevant information for research on general military history include the Division Muster List, General Orders, Morning Reports, Combat and After Action Reports, Casualty Reports, Administrative Records, Unit Journals, General Charles Haffner Papers (coming in the future), and the Advanced Infantry Officers Course Reports. If you are interested in how individual soldiers experienced World War II combat and remembered their combat after the war, personal accounts and oral histories will provide more information. These personal accounts include Memoirs, Oral Histories, Interviews, Diaries and Journals, and Audio Files.  

If you do not have a clear idea about what you might be interested in researching, some of our suggestions include exploring the Interview section (organized alphabetically) to study the experiences of soldiers enrolled in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), to see how these soldiers recall their experiences in the days surrounding Pearl Harbor, or to study their combat motivations.

If you have further questions about the 103rd Infantry Division, feel free to contact us by using the form at the bottom of each page. Do be aware, while we are happy to assist you, we cannot write or edit papers or projects for you.

For Academic Researchers:

If you are interested in researching the 103rd Infantry Division during World War II, start by sorting through the two historical archive sections, The War: Document Collection and The War: Personal Accounts and Oral Histories. In these sections, you can look through official documents from the war or soldiers’ personal accounts about their wartime experiences. Documents that might include relevant information for research on general military history include the Division Muster List, General Orders, Morning Reports, Combat and After Action Reports, Casualty Reports, Administrative Records, Unit Journals, General Charles Haffner Papers (coming in the future), and the Advanced Infantry Officers Course Reports. If you are interested in how individual soldiers experienced World War II combat and remembered their combat after the war, personal accounts and oral histories will provide more information. These personal accounts include Memoirs, Oral Histories, Interviews, Diaries and Journals, and Audio Files. In addition to accessing the digitized documents on this website, consider visiting the 103rd Infantry Division Collection in Special Collections of University Libraries on the Southern Miss campus. The archival collection contains numerous additional materials not yet digitized that will be useful for researchers. Information on visiting McCain Archives for research purposes is available below. For any questions about materials not on this website, contact Special Collections.  

Information for In-Person Researchers (McCain Archives at Southern Miss)

Researchers wishing to access the numerous (non-digitized) archival collections of the 103rd Infantry Division should start by investigating the Special Collections finding aid. Information on visiting and doing research at Special Collections in the McCain Library and Archives building is available on the archives’ “Visit Us” webpage. There you will find information on preparing for your visit, directions to the archives, the archives’ hours of operation, and other vital information. Researchers can also utilize the archive’s “Ask a Librarian” feature to get specific information about visiting or answers to questions about the collection.