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          Communications Zone European Theater of Operations, Patch3111th Signal Service BattalionSIgnal Corps Crossed
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Communications Zone
European Theater of Operations

Campaigns: Normandy Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe. Occupation of Germany 20 May to July 1945

Chronology


1944

February 1: Activated at Eastern Signal Corps School, Camp Charles Wood, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

March 31: Departed U.S.from New York City aboard the Queen Elizabeth

April 4: Arrived at Garrick Scotland, United Kingdom

Entrained at Grennoch,at  for Camp Fargo on the Salisbury Plains.

Stations in England included Dartmoor (Pneumonia Hill), Yelverton, Plymouth, Rabbit Gulch, Warminster, Camp Boreham, and the Southhampton Marshalling Yards

May 9: Companies A, B, C, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment at Bulford, Wiltshire, United Kingdom.

June 8: Advance units landed on Normandy beaches.

June 14: Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment at Warminster, Wiltshire, United Kingdom.


June 27: "Cherbourg fell on 27 June. An advance detachment of two officers and ten enlisted men of the 297th Signal Installation Company moved in at once to start repairs on the badly damaged Cherbourg exchange of the French Postes Télégraphes et Téléphones (PTT) . Laboring sixteen hours a day, the men succeeded in finishing temporary repairs by 10 July, when they turned the job over to the 3111th Signal Service Battalion to complete the work and establish a permanent installation. Within a day or two, a makeshift message center and a properly secured crypto room were operating. Cherbourg rapidly became an important communications center."

Search Results

Web results

July 6: Main body deployed to France at Utah Beach.

Places where units of the 3111th served in the Normandy peninsula: Catz (Carentan), Cherbourg, Carentan, Valognes, Omaha Beach, St Mere Eglise, La Haye-du-Puits, Canisy, St. Lo and Avranches. 

July 24: Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment at Bulford, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

August 17 Le Mans from where some units left for Nogent-le-Rotrou

August 20: Etamps with other members spread out from nearby Briere to Chartres, Alencon, Rambouillet, Versailles, and Paris. 

September 3: Reims, with some units subsequently at Soissons and Chalons sur Marne. 

September 15: Units in Liège, Belgium.

October 11: Namur, Belgium. From there somewhat later teams went out to Charleville, Lille, Longwy, Metz and Nancy in France; Maastricht in the Netherlands; and Foy, Huy, Veviers,and Visé in Belgium.

1945

10 January Aachen, Germany. 

Undated: Bonn and Diez.

April 20 Fulda, Germany from which units were deployed to Frankfurt, Nurnberg, Kassel, Cologne, Breman and Potsdam (near Berlin). 

Between March, 1944 and October, 1945: Anti-Nazi flyer acquired by  Carl Ebert, Company B.

Occupation of Germany

May 20 Occupation of Germany.

June16  Advance elements returned to Paris and Versailles.

July, 1945. Majority of the battalion to Paris.

September: Relieved of most technical operations.

Late in October 1945: Moved to pyramidal tents at Villacoublay (outside of Paris)  and prepared for the return to the U.S.

December 15: Departed for the U.S.

December 20: Arrived in the U.S.


December 28: Inactivated at Camp Shanks.New York

Documents
September 16, 1944: Good Conduct and American Defense Medals Awards
PDF
February 10, 1944:  Good Conduct Medals Awards
PDF
May 20, 1944 Good Conduct Medal Awards
PDF
August 11, 1944: American Defense Medal Awards
PDF
December 17, 1945 Inactivation
PDF
Undated History of the 3111th by battalion commander Lt. Col. John W. Arnold PDF

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Personnel

Blessing, Technician Fourth Grade James J., Co. A & HQ Det.

Brady, Technician Fifth Grade Francis R., Co. A

Ebert, Carl, Co. B

Naedele, Private First Class Walter, Co. A


More Sources

Chronology from a variety of sources especially a history by Lt Col John W Arnold, commander of the 3111th courtesy of Patrick Dugan,
grandson of the late Technician Fifth Grade James J., Blessing, Co. A

Locations in the UK from May to July, 1944 from: Back to Normandy

June 27 report on service in Cherbourg from The Signal Corps: The Outcome -Chapter 4: The Signal Corps in the ETO to V-E Day
<< Normandy Campaign: Signal Corps Units

Unofficial Archive of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Northwest Europe in WWII
All material not in the public domain © 2020 - 2023 Leonard H. Cizewski

Minor Revision or Corrections: February 24, 2023
Last Major Update:January 12, 2021
Last Reviewed:
Posted: March 15, 2020

hosted by ibiblio
Page constructed with the assistance of Patrick Dugan,
grandson of the late Technician Fifth Grade James J., Blessing, Co. A

Airtable constructed with the assistance of Art Saffran

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | COPYRIGHT