My Grandfather had an old picture of this unit that we found after he passed. On the bottom of the picture are the names of the soldiers in the unit. Unfortunately, there's no date or mention of what unit this is. His discharge lists, "H & S Co. 257th Engr Combat Bn" as the last unit he was in. According to him, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, then was transferred to the infantry, then transferred to the combat engineers. I'm assuming it was taken after basic training, but cannot confirm.
Maybe someone will recognize one of the names in here and have more context!
Beneath you can read the reason why I'm searching for information about John J. Kudla. This letter is already sent to Jennifer Kudla because she has the same lastname and is living in Cuyahoga county, were John J. lived. She did not give a reaction yet.
The reason I'm placing a topic is because on the internet I have found that his unit was 112th Engineer Combat Battalion. Maybe someone on this site can tell me more about John J. Kudla. It would be great to have a face and a short story of John J. when we pay our respect next year. I thank you in advance for taking the time for reading my letter!
In memory of John J. Kudla.
As of 2004 every year in june, and sometimes in august, I go to Normandy to pay my respect to those who have liberated Europe from the nazis.
I visit every yearthe British cemetery in Bayeux and the American cemetery in Colleville sur Mer. On the British cemetery I always visit the grave of J.W. Collins to thank him for his sacrifice for our freedom and to lay flowers on his Grave. On the internet I could find some information of James Washington Collins. I know where he is coming from, who his parents were and where and when he got injured and died on the 7th of june 1944.
All those years I also visit the American cemetery in Colleville sur Mer. For years I, most of the times it’s we because almost every year friends of mine come with me to Normandy, we laid flowers by an unknown soldier to pay our respect to all 9385 American soldiers who are buried in Colleville sur Mer.
Because of the fact that most visitors only visit the first 15 to 20 rows of the cemetery we have decided to do something different. To our opinion all soldiers have earned our respect and attention so we decided last year to pay our respect and lay flowers on the grave of a soldier in the very last row. We did choose 2 graves.
These two graves are of Daniel J. Knapp and John J. Kudla. John J. is the reason why I am writing you. John J. died on july 11th 1944 and the reason why we chose his grave to pay our respect was that the son of a friend of my, who were both with me last year, is born on the 11th of july.
We have searched on the internet but could only find a little information about John J.. We would like to know who John J. was, how he looked like etc. His hometown was Cuyahoga County, Ohio. You have the same lastname and come from or are living in Cuyahoga County. We hope that you are related to John J. if not we apologize for the disturbance. We hope that you can tell us something about John J.
And I have to apologize for my poor English! I hope that this letter makes sense to you!
My father-in-law was a member of the 363D Engineer Special Services Regiment during WWII. I am finding it very difficult to find any kind of unit insignia / patch for his regiment and may indeed not know exactly what to look for. Based on his discharge papers, I have identified his badges and medals and the red and white patch with the "castle" on it. But in some of my researching, I have seen a patch with an elephant on it and the words "ALLONS NOUS" and a notation calling the group "San Francisco's Own," although I can find nothing to do with San Francisco and his service. Would also love to find out what, in particular, his particular regiment was involved with in the Persian Gulf.
