One of the things I love about doing historical research is the excitement of receiving new documents. Every time I have received or found new documents I felt like I am going on a treasure hunt! And just like a real treasure hunt, sometimes you find things that are not all that exciting. But then […]
Part of the results of my research are bundled into the timeline documents I have created for the companies of the 46th Armored Medical Battalion (AMB). They can be a great source when you want to understand the stories of the men that served in the medical service of the 4th AD. Here I would like to provide you with a guide on how to read them.
Guide to the timeline documents. Read More »
One of the major parts of my research was the creation of the Personnel Database. You can see the the master database I have created in the 4th AD Medical Personnel Roster. This shows you all the information I have collected on all the personnel of the Medical Department personnel of the 4th Armored Division during the entire period of World War Two.
The second part of this project was to filter the men who served in the 4th Armored Division in the ETO (European Theater of Operations), from July 17th 1944 to VE-day.
The final step was to combine this filtered list with the TO&E of all the medical units in the division.
You can see the results of these lists under the Personnel Page here: 4th AD Personnel Units Combat. Or you can see them separated by unit under the Units pages. Here is a guide that help you to read these documents.
Guide to the Personnel Database documents. Read More »
One of the most important sources for my research are the Company Morning Reports (M/R) of the different units. You can find the M/R that I have collected under the Units Pages. With this guide I would like to provide you with the information you need to read and understand them.
Guide to reading Company Morning Reports. Read More »
In different documents, especially in Company Morning Reports, we often find different numbers connected to the men. First there is there is off course an Army Serial Number identifying a person.
But there is often a second number attached to a name. These numbers, called SSN (Specification Serial Number) are the numerical codes assigned to an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty).
Simply put, these numbered codes describe the job an individual performed in the Army.
Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) Read More »
On paper the system of evacuation worked well. It did however not accommodate to the incredible speed of advance sometimes made by units like the 4th AD. The biggest problem was the lack of transport equipment of the third echelon hospital units.
Fixing the weakest link in the chain Read More »
Here I’d like to tell you about the organization of the medical service within the division. It is the story of the men of the Medical Department that serviced in the 4th AD that my research and this website are dedicated to. Understanding the structure of the medical service within an armored division can help us a lot when we read about the stories of these men.
The Medical Service in the 4th Armored Division. Read More »
As this research focusses on the medical service within the 4th Armored Division (4th AD), let us talk a bit about the organization of the 4th AD. We can understand the story of the medics better when we understand the “bigger picture” of the division they worked in.
4th Armored Division Organization. Read More »