Army Service Forces Patch215th Signal Depot Company, First ArmyAdvance Section Communications Zone Patch

LEFT: Army Service Forces shoulder patch RIGHT Advance Section, Communications Zone (COMZ), European Theater of Operations

Click on photo for larger format

Truck
          with captured Nazi flag
Members of the 215th with a captured Nazi flag next to their GMC CCKW 2½-ton 6×6 cargo truck

Duties and Responsibilities of a Signal Deport Company: From "Signal Operations in the Corps and Army" War Depart Field Manual FM 11-22, January, 1945

Documents: To search these PDF documents, download and open in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

Campaigns:
Normandy with Assault Landing Credit, Northern France, Ardenes-Alsace (Battle of the Bulge), Rhineland, Central Europe, Occupation of Germany.

Awards:

Meritorious Unit Commendation: Entire Unit:  6 Jun~ Aug 44.

French Croix de Guerre with Palm: Detachment No. 2 and Storage and Issue Section Detachment. No. 3 which were part of Assault Force and were engaged in the assault on the beaches of Normandy on 6 Jun 44.


Detachments

Detachment 2, Trelowarren Cornwall on 18 July 1944

Detachment B, Barry Glamorgan on 03 March 1944

Detachment B, Barry Glamorgan on 08 April 1944

Storage and Issue Section, VII Corps, First Army



History/Chronology

1943

October 8, 1943: Departed the New York Port of Embarkation aboard the SS Argentina.

Source: 
Unit history of the 359th Fighter Group. Researcher: Richard Horrell

October 18, 1943:
Disembarked at Liverpool, England. Source: Official history of the 215th

1945

On March 30, 1945: The 3rd Armored Division liberated the Nordhausen sub-camp of the Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camp.

April 14, 1945:
Signal Depot No. 2 of the 215th moved to Nordhausen.

Staff Sergeant William H. Johnson reports that he assisted in the burial of the dead victims.

When members of the 215th completed their signal depot duties, they assisted other units.

What Staff Sgt. Johnson was probably referring to is that he assisted other units such as Civil Affairs as an armed guard supervising the German civilians from a nearby town who were ordered to dig mass graves for the Nordhausen victims of disease, starvation, overwork, beatings, and execution.

Burying the dead
            at Nordhausen

Click on photo for larger format

An unidentified soldier from an
unidentified unit supervising German civilians
burying the dead from the Nordhausen sub-camp.
his is not Staff Sgt. Johnson and not a soldier from the 215th.
This i
llustrates to what Staff Sgt. Johnson referred.


Public Domain photo

July 28 Company Orders PDF
 
November 8
SS Argentina leave Le Havre, France

November 16
SS Argentina arrives at the Port of New York

Bilgewater Bugle:
Newsletter from aboard the SS Argentina

Postcard of the SS Brazil, sister ship of the SS Argentina. SS BrazilClick on image for larger format

November 8: Certificate of Embarkation
PDF

Personnel

Staff Sergeant William H. Johnson

Edwin J. Kammueller

Lt. Sullivan


Roster compiled by Kathleen A. Johnson

<< Signal Units in the Normandy Campaign

<< Unofficial Informal Archive of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in WWII
All material not in the public domain Copyright 2013 - 2021 Leonard H. Cizewski, Kathleen A. Johnson, James Kammueller, and Bill Sullivan

Last Major Update: June 16, 2023
Minor Revision or Correction: June 19, 2023

Posted: November 19, 2109
Last Reviewed:


hosted by ibiblio
Acknowledgements:

Page constructed with the assistance of:

Kathleen A. Johnson, daughter of the late Lt. Wiliam Sullivan Bill Sullivan,
James Kammueller,  son of the late Edwin J. Kammueller

Farrell Fox of the The Chevy K-43 and K-44 identified the truck in the photo at the top

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | COPYRIGHT