WWII Northern Ireland

[Brian]

Hello, My name is Karen and i am doing research into units who were stationed here in Northern Ireland. Specifically African American soldiers (colored units) as they were called then. Any help would be appreciated.

[roque_riojas]

THE 34th Inf. Divn.,(RED BULL), arrived in North Ireland ON Jan. 26, 1942.

the 34th trained there for the invasion of North Africa on Nov. 7,1942.

Volunteers from the 34thI.D. provided 80% of the men for a newly formed

1st. Ranger Battalion and many of them participitaded with the British

Commandos in the famous raid on Dieppe,France. The only African American

divn. I knew of was the 92nd. and they were in Italy for a short time.

Hope this can be of little help. Roque Riojas 1st. Bn. 135th Inf. Regt. 34th I.D.

j3rdinf.,JOE any help from your end? How you doing ddogface!!!!!

[Walt's Daughter]

Thank you Rocky for supplying some info.

 

Hi Karen:

 

Saw your post in the guestbook and have been meaning to respond, but so darn busy. So here I am tonight.

 

Thanks for joining, it's great having another member. I hope we can help you out. I'm sure you've seen the links regarding black GI's on my main site, but if not (and for the benefit of others too), I will post them here. Here's are few...

 

Let's see how much we can find out and please if anyone has anything at all, please share it with Karen.

 

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan1997/n0...97_9701154.html

 

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/integ...ate/chron3b.htm

 

http://www.jamesmcbride.com/info_about.htm

[Walt's Daughter]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...storyId=1916097

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...5_tuskegee.html

 

http://www.founders.howard.edu/moorland-sp...ingarn/Wwii.htm

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/untol...an/people.shtml

 

http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.u...k/sheptonm.html

[Custermen]

The only African American divn. I knew of was the 92nd.

 

There were several smaller black units, such as the tank battalion that served with Patton. There was a black signal corps that was used early in the landings at Salerno, I believe. Then there were many blacks in the logistics support units. I'm not sure of the history of these units. Will require some digging.

 

Steve

[Walt's Daughter]

Karen I know several of the links I supplied were general to England, etc. Will try and narrow it down to Ireland for you.

[Custermen]

Just happened to be surfing eBay----Duh!

And here are some units that have their DI pins listed for sale.

 

94th Engineer Regt (Colored)

95th Engineer Regt (GS) (Colored)

97th Engineer Regt (GS) (Colored)

I don't know anything about these units; i.e. if they were sent overseas or if they were in Ireland.

 

BTW, eBay had DI pins of many other Engineer units. Here is some of the interesting ones.

88th Heavy Pontoon Engineer Bn

85th Heavy Pontoon Engineer Bn

84th Engineer Camouflage Bn

80th Engineer Water Supply Bn

108th Engineer Bn

 

Steve

[Custermen]

I found some more independent colored units that I found on the internet>

 

333rd Field Artillery Group, consisting of 333rd Field Artillery Battalion

and 969th Field Artillery Battalion: These were "colored" battalions,

attached to VIII Corps, supporting the 106th Infantry Division when the

German offensive in the Ardennes began.

11 members of the 333rd were captured and then murdered by the Germans

at Wereth, Belgium.

On 20 December, they moved to the defense of Bastogne, where the 969th

became the first "colored" unit to win the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation.

 

771st Field Artillery Battalion: at Sibret, a "colored" battalion.

 

I hope this info is accurate.

STeve

[roque_riojas]

Custerman's April 5--Afr. Amer. signal corps at Salerno. With all due

respect, but we never saw any when we (34th) landed there. Maybe they

wre on duty at night, don't know. But we were in Salerno a very short time

acc. we were on the move to the town of Benevento. Interesting to hear about

them after 60 some odd years. Roque

[Custermen]

Yeah. I thought it was odd, too. I saw some photos of black signal corpsmen somewhere. I'll have to go find it, again.

Of course, I don't know when the photos were taken. Maybe 6 weeks after the landing or 6 months. But if it was later, then why set up a signal station there in the flat lands surrounded by mountains?? I'm sure these guys were not with the front-line troops but rather with a HQ unit.

When did the 34th Division land there? I know the 45th Division was a floating reserve and came in on the 2nd day, I believe.

Steve