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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Herbert Blanchard Leadbeater the WWII years

 

Herbert Blanchard Leadbeater

THE WAR YEARS

Birth 28 Jul 1917 in Jefferson, Maine

He graduated from college: Massachusetts College of Pharmacy – Class of 1941— commencement exercises. Wednesday, June fourth at 11.  George Robert White Hall in College Building.  Longwood Avenue Boston

Pharmacy Licensee Information
Full Name:
Herbert B Leadbeater
License Information
License Number:
PH10158
Profession:
PHARMACY
License Type:
Pharmacist
Issue Date:
6/10/1941
Date of Last Renewal:
12/31/1984
Expired
Expiration Date:
12/31/1984
Reciprocity State:
District of Columbia
Today's Date:
1/25/2013






He attended OCS ---I thought it was Fort Knox or Camp Campbell in Kentucky but doesn’t seem to have been any OCS located there.  Must have been the Fort Benning, Georgia location (the other alternative is in Oklahoma) although I can’t remember hearing any mention of that but Mom & Pop weren’t married until he graduated OCS so she wasn’t with him. When he went into OCS he was in Medical Corp in Calvary  Don’t have back up due to fire in 1972.
Did not graduate with OCS group. He had pneumonia and was three weeks late.
They went to Camp Campbell and then to Fort Knox.  There was armored training in both places but not 3rd Armored but Robert says he was in Medical Unit in Calvary when he went for OCS. Don’t have back up due to fire in 1972.
He left Kentucky heading to New York to be transported to England in late 1943or early 1944? Because he was in New York when I was born 29 Feb 1944. 
In England, he had a repeat of pneumonia which put him behind again.
1ST Purple Heart about 3 weeks into Normandy.  Chest Wound.  Don’t have back up due to fire in 1972.
Pops movements correspond with the 3rd Armored Division (SPEARHEAD) time line just before end of June 1944 until Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.

Chronology of the Third Armored Division in World War II
April 15, 1941
Activation at Camp Beauregard, LA
June 14, 1941
Transfer to Camp Polk
July 1942
Majave Desert, California
October 1942
Camp Pickett, Virginia
January 1943
Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania
September 5, 1943
Board ships for Europe
September 15, 1943
Arrive in Liverpool and Bristol
June 24, 1944
Omaha Beach, Normandy
June 29, 1944
Villiers-Fossard
August 5-8, 1944
Battle of Mortain
September 3, 1944
Capture of Mons
September 8, 1944
Leige taken
September 21, 1944
Reached Stolberg
December 19, 1944
Battle of the Bulge/Ardennes
January 16, 1945
Battle of the Bulge ends
March 5-7, 1945
Cologne
March 21, 1945
Rhine Crossing at Honnef
March 30, 1945
Death of General Rose
March 31, 1945
Paderborn
April 11, 1945
Nordhausen
April 21-23, 1945
Dessau
May 8, 1945
VE Day
September
First units return to New York

The 3rd Armored arrived in northern France three weeks after D-Day in late June, 1944, and saw its first combat a week later as part of the VII Corps and First Army. Heavy fighting in Normandy continued into August, when the Allied forced finally broke through the German lines. On August 18 the 3rd Armored helped close the Falaise Gap, which trapped thousands of German troops. It then went on to cross the Seine River sough of Paris on August 25, and continued rapidly across France until it reached Belgium in early September, with the capture of Liege on September 8. Four days later it became the first U.S. Army unit to cross into Germany through the West Wall. The division caaptured Stolberg on September 22, but for the next three months could progress no further against heavy German resistance and fortifications.
The German offensive in the Ardennes, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, temporarily halted the division's attempt to push eastward. On the 19th of December the 3rd Armored attacked to the south to reduce the German salient, which was eliminated by the middle of January, 1945

Military back up destroyed by fire in 1972.  See below
Robert got his death certificate and sent it off with the SR180 form to get military records.  See the response below.

10:47pm Jan 31
A response from some people at the 3rd Armored...not encouraging about Dad's records...

Laurie Mullen Your dad's records were probably burned up in the fire in 72. My dad's were burned up in that fire. The fire also destroyed unit roll lists and morning reports from I think 44, 45, and 46. I think we're both out of luck on the WWII service stuff.
Yesterday at 8:37am · Like


Foot shot off in Battle of the Bulge (Belgium).  Telegram  


Received 2nd Purple Heart from the Battle of the Bulge.

Transferred to hospital -- Paris?. Where leg amputated.


Evacuation to US to San Antonio which was where amputees were (and I believe still are) being sent.



Telegram Mom to Pop




In Rogers TX




When released from San Antonio to go to Walter Reed (WRAMC) Washington DC -- eventually arrived there – went home first.

Lived in DC  -- just north of Fort Stevens (a bump on a hill from probably Revolutionary War) in Shepard’s Park DC  (Fort Stevens, now partially restored, was built to defend the approaches to Washington from the 7th Street Pike (now Georgia Avenue) which was then the main thoroughfare from the north into Washington. Originally called Fort Massachusetts by the soldiers from that state who constructed the fort, it was later named after Brig. Gen. Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who was killed at the Battle of Chantilly (Fair Oaks), Virginia, September 1, 1862.)


















Moved to Falkland Apartments in Silver Spring.



Moved to 1117 Seminary Road, Silver Spring.  House number change to 1957 but house remained the same.