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Hello,

 

My name is Max Merry and I have been looking for years for any information on the 223rd combat engineers that was in the Aleutians during WWII. My grandfather from Gaylord, MI was in this unit and I haven't been able to find a single thing on it. I know I have the correct unit because I have his discharge papers and that is where I got the unit number from. It says Co. C 223rd Combat Eng. Could you tell me if this was even in the 6th Corp or lead me in the correct direction please. The 223rd now is listed as a National Guard unit in Mississippi I think it was. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks again,

Max

I am looking up info right now and will post it here in a few....

http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.Military.wwii.general/3183.1/mb.ashx

I am scanning in the DUI right now and will post it here.

I realized this is for the Battalion, and so would not apply here. Sorry for my misunderstanding. Easy to do when I'm researching so many things at once. My apologies!

M1

I find absolutely no mention of this unit in WWII. Can Max send us copies of the discharge documents he has?

I`m suspecting what we have here is a short-lived unit converted from an anti-aircraft unit.

trying to figure out how to upload it

Hello Swabby, thanks for joining our forum. The document image is very readable as it is. If you could, could you post the rest of the lower document, the Reprt of Separation? there may be more clues we can use.

As for the unit, i would venture to say it is possibly the 223rd Engineer Construction Co. In my experience i`ve never run across a combat company being formed.

Thanks for the welcome. Sorry but that is all that I have right now. Isn't that the report of seperation at the very bottom of the document or is there more to it?

The only other thing that I have is a letter sent from my grandfathers commanding officer to hus mother back in Michigan and the letterhead of the stationary says 223RD Engineer Combat Company, APO 726 c/o Postmaster, Seattle, Washington dated 9 Jan 1945. That makes me believe that it is a combat engineer company.

Max

Hello Swabby, thanks for joining our forum. The document image is very readable as it is. If you could, could you post the rest of the lower document, the Reprt of Separation? there may be more clues we can use.

As for the unit, i would venture to say it is possibly the 223rd Engineer Construction Co. In my experience i`ve never run across a combat company being formed.

I hate to dispute that but you can see the breakdown within this document for Combat Co, Separate. This could apply then...

Types of Engineering Units

Now that I have more info, then we know that the DUI I posted above was for the 223rd BN, so that would not apply to the unit you are referring to. Being a company it's unlikely they would have a crest.

I think it's time we contact the Offices of History for some real nitty-gritty. Let's see what I can find out for you. Putting on my detective's hat.

From the Office of History in Alexandria...

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Caveats: NONE

 

Marion,

 

No unit history for this company in our holdings, I regret to say. As you

know, the Order of Battle volume has no entries for units smaller than a

battalion. The only information found was in Karl C. Dod's The Corps of

Engineers: The War Against Japan. According to this source (one of the

"Green Books"), after the recapture of Kiska and after the 7th Division left

the island "The 223d and 521st Combat Companies, recently arrived on the

island, remained to construct base facilities." (pp. 332-333) Later on p.

333: "Work on airfields and bases in the Aleutians continued. On Kiska, the

engineers labored on the docks, the runway, gasoline storage, and quarters

for the troops."

 

I can't think of anything to suggest other than to try the National Archives

at College Park.

 

All the best,

 

Mike