Military historians - Need help deciphering abbreviations

[merithyn]

HAH!!

http://www.103didww2assn.org/MR%20Abbreviations.pdf

ALL the abbreviations explained!!

Also, it appears that the 103rd went to Marseilles in October 1944, so all of those things happened while he was in France.

[CountDeMoney]

  What doesn't the internet do?

[merithyn]

Wow. Interested in a play-by-play of my uncle's battalion in France? Here you go.

http://www.103didww2assn.org/MR%20410-C%20by%20Date.pdf

The fun starts October 20, 1944.

[Razgovory]

It is odd that they would accept someone with a heart condition.  My Grandfather was not allowed to serve because of heart scarring from childhood scarlet fever.  He died of a heart attack in the late 1970's at 57.  Exhaustion can mean a lot of things, usually combat fatigue.  People tend go a little batty when put under artillery bombardment.  Taking someone off the line, giving them warm food and clean bed would normally get them back into shape.  That's what it sounds like happened to your great uncle.

[merithyn]

It is odd that they would accept someone with a heart condition.  My Grandfather was not allowed to serve because of heart scarring from childhood scarlet fever.  He died of a heart attack in the late 1970's at 57.  Exhaustion can mean a lot of things, usually combat fatigue.  People tend go a little batty when put under artillery bombardment.  Taking someone off the line, giving them warm food and clean bed would normally get them back into shape.  That's what it sounds like happened to your great uncle.

Reading through the day-by-day reports, it does sound like that. A number of his platoon spent time recovering from exhaustion.

The bad heart was family lore. He was older when he enlisted, and my uncles remember people saying that the Army wouldn't take him because of it. But clearly he either hid it well, or it wasn't as bad as the family thought it was. He seems to have done a fair bit of work while in France, so I'm guessing it's the latter.

[Caliga]

If I have an ancestor who fought in the Civil War I can actually find out where he was and what engagements he was in in practically every week of the war. 

How? 

[Caliga]

btw neat thread Meri.

[KRonn]

Very interesting to be able to trace what your uncle went through Meri. A while ago I read some of the military history of my father's unit, 90infantry division, under Patton. I didn't read anything specific about him but he said he went in as a replacement in an artillery unit somewhere in France. The division's combat units, like all divisions in heavy combat, had high casualty rates sometimes of 100%, maybe more, which got me to realize just how many losses a unit in heavy combat would typically incur over time.

[sbr]

Exhaustion could also mean things like "shell shock" and similar non-physical problems.

I know it's wiki, but this isn't exactly contraversial stuff that needs peer reviewed sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction#American

.... By 1943 the US Army was using the term "exhaustion" as the initial diagnosis of psychiatric cases, and the general principles of military psychiatry were being used. General Patton's slapping incident was in part the spur to institute forward treatment for the Italian invasion of September 1943. The importance of unit cohesion and membership of a group as a protective factor emerged.

[merithyn]

Ah, okay. I wonder if they would have put suicide down as "non-combat death".

[Razgovory]

I'm glad we could be of help.  It is odd that it doesn't record his death.  Maybe that paper work was with the hospital.  Maybe they used a new system when the war in Europe ended (your great uncle was wounded less then a month before fighting stopped in Europe).  Since it doesn't record him returning to his unit, I imagine he died in the hospital of something.  Could be anything.  They weren't as good with things like blood poisoning or infections back then.  Could be an accident as well.

Oh and good on Seedy for figuring out the medical jargon.  I couldn't figure that one out at all.

[grumbler]

Ah, okay. I wonder if they would have put suicide down as "non-combat death".

Can you find the equivalent records for the 93rd Evacuation Hospital?  It is odd that the battalion records stop with him at the clearing station, but I would presume he was sent on to the hospital (the clearing station wouldn't hold him, I don't think).  The clearing station earlier was the "328 Med" so you might look there as well (no specific clearing station is mentioned in the final entry but I'd think it would be the same one).