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Dad's War: Finding and Telling Your Father's World War II Story, by Wesley Johnston
Dad's War
 Finding and Telling Your Father's World War II Story
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Last updated: August 22, 2005 - What's New?
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Wes' Dad's Photo
Walter G. Johnston, Jr.
Welcome to the Dad's War home page, created by Wesley Johnston. This site is dedicated to my Dad, Walter G. Johnston, Jr. who was in the Anti-Tank Platoon of Company "B" 38th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 7th Armored Division in World War II, including training in Holland; combat in the defense of St. Vith, Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge; and combat in Germany in the battle to the Rhine and the encirclement and reduction of the Ruhr Pocket.

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First Steps to Finding Your Dad's Story -- Start Here
I have received many requests asking basically the same thing: "How do I find my Dad's story?" Obviously, it is more than a few simple steps (especially for those American GIs -- the majority from both World Wars -- whose personnel files were destroyed in the 1973 fire). But here are the key steps to doing it.

NOTE: This "First Steps" section is aimed at military members in the war. This web page also has information about civilians. So if your father or mother or ... was not in the military or was a member of a special group in or out of the military, jump to here.

Time is the critical factor. Start now to find one of your Dad's buddies before it is too late.

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston - November 11, 1997
Copyright © 1997 by Lynn Johnston; used with her permission.
Click here for the history of the "Buddy Poppy" and the meaning of November 11.
  1. Step 1: Positively identify his unit(s), to as low a level as possible.

    • If he came home, the best source is his discharge paper. If you do not find it among his papers, then call the VA (phone: (800) 827-1000) if he ever applied for VA benefits.

    • If he died in the war
      • United States
        • If his body is overseas or was never recovered, obtain grave or memorial location and some other information by using the World War II Honor Roll (note that this site sometimes is incredibly slow or actually times out; try it again some other day if that happens) of the American Battle Monuments Commission or by calling ((703) 696-6897) or writing them at:
          American Battle Monuments Commission
          Courthouse Plaza II
          2300 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 500
          Arlington, VA 22201

        • If he died overseas in the Army, Navy or other service, regardless of where he is buried, request his Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF) from the U. S. Army Human Resources Command. Here is the address to which you should submit your request through Freedom of Information (FOIA) channels:

          U. S. Army Human Resources Command
          ATTN: AHRC-PAO (FOIA)
          200 Stovall Street
          Alexandria, Virginia 22332-0400

          You can call them at (703) 325-9256, if you have questions, but not to make requests for IDPFs. They require a letter in order to send the IDPF. Your letter to them should include your signed statement of your willingness to pay the Freedom of Information Act fees for the work involved. If you are requesting your relative's IDPF, they will probably not actually charge you. But they cannot do any work to locate the records without this statement from you.

          For determining the history of men who died overseas, the IDPF is an extremely valuable record -- the most important record that exists in most cases. The amount of information in the files can vary dramatically. The IDPF will almost always establish his unit and give the information on his burial. In many cases, it will also give valuable information about where and when he died, possibly even including reports of the action in which he died. For men whose remains were never recovered or identified, extremely valuable records of the testimonies of his buddies are usually included, giving extraordinary information about the action, what happened to him, and when they last saw him. Though the information in one IDPF can vary considerably from the information in another and a few of them can contain disappointingly little information, most of them are very useful. There simply is no more valuable record to obtain than the IDPF for most men who died overseas. In some cases, they will not be able to find the record on the first try, and they will suggest that you write back in 6 months. So write again in 6 months, but this time add to the letter that this is your second request, since they were unable to locate the record 6 months earlier.

          CAUTION: When you read these files, you are looking at the stark reality of the horror of war and death. The files usually do contain mortuary and medical records, and these may be painful for you to read. This will definitely impact you psychologically, whether you are aware of it or not. It might even reach the point where you feel the need for professional spiritual or psychological help in dealing with it. This is perfectly normal. Be prepared for it.

      • British Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom)

      • Germany

  2. Step 2: Find his outfit's Alumni Association

    • United States: Remember that the airmen were in the Army or Navy: there was no Air Force as a separate service branch until after the war. For Army, most Associations are at the Division level. So you need to find out what Division his discharge unit (usually Battalion or Regiment) was in. The best source for doing this is Shelby M. Stanton's book "Order of Battle: U. S. Army World War II" from Presidio Press. Try your local library.

      1. U. S. - All Branches - START WITH THIS ONE FOR U. S. UNITS.
        This Ben Myers' up-to-date list, posted by Military Network. It has U. S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard -- all branches of service.
        Navigation Tip: Once you are at the site, click Association Lists on the menu at the left.

      2. Or if the first one does not work, try this one or this one.

      3. If you cannot find the unit in the lists above, or if you want more information, try the web pages below.

    • Other Countries
      • Aviation Links: This has links to many web pages of aviation units for all nations. It is very comprhensive. You will have to sift through it to find the World War II units, but you will find a great deal there for many of them.
      • British WW2 Veterans Reunion and tracing your Military Ancestors Page
      • Commonwealth Order of Battle: 1939-1945: This site does NOT have links to veterans' organizations, but it does have the way in which units fit within other units. This is important to know, so that you are looking for all of the possible associations that might exist. Includes: United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Union of South Africa, Ireland.

  3. Step 3: Use the telephone! The mail is too slow: none of us are getting younger, and more of the vets are having difficulty writing each year. Time is the critical factor here.

    For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston - November 11, 2000
    Copyright © 2000 by Lynn Johnston; used with her permission.

  4. Step 4: Buy my workshop book if you are going to get into this seriously. Depending on your needs, you should also buy these two books:
    • "Touchstones: A Guide to Records, Rights and Resources for Families of American World War II Casualties" by Ann Bennett Mix ($19.95 through the American WWII Orphans Network or send e-mail to AWON@nas.com). If your father died in the war, this is the book (and the organization) for you.
    • "How to Locate Anyone Who Is or Has Been in the Military" by Lt. Col. Richard S. Johnson from MIE Publishing (Phone: (800) 937-2133). If you are trying to locate one of your Dad's buddies who is not in their unit's veterans' association, this is an important book for you.
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My Own Web Pages
These are pages that I have created related to finding and telling my own Dad's story, including the workshops that grew out of that work. These are other pages that I have created. Return to top of Dad's War Home Page
The rest of the information on this page consists of the following lists of valuable links to other web pages that can help you find and tell your Dad's story. But don't overlook the very important first steps above.
Telling Someone's World War II Story
There are four groups of information here. All are web pages, except for the single group of books.
  1. People telling their Dad's (or brother's or uncle's or grandmother's, etc.) story on web pages
  2. People telling their Dad's (or brother's or uncle's, etc.) story in books
  3. World War II Veterans telling their own story
  4. Collections of veterans' and home front stories
For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston - November 11, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by Lynn Johnston; used with her permission.
  1. People telling their Dad's (or brother's or uncle's or grandmother's, etc.) World War II story on web pages

  2. People telling their Dad's (or brother's or uncle's, etc.) story in books
    • Air
      • Michael Goodwin's Shobun: A forgotten war crime in the Pacific Stackpole Books, 1995.
      • Thomas Childers' Wings of Morning: The story of the last American bomber shot down over Germany in World War II Addison-Wesley, 1995.
      • W. Raymond Wood's Or Go Down in Flame: A navigator's death over Schweinfurt Greenhill Books, 1993.
      • Jeff Badger's War Buddies from World War II: Jeff is in the process of writing a book on his search for the story of his grandfather Leo Kavanaugh (978th Engineer Maintenance Company, XIX Corps, Ninth US Army)
    • Land
      • Aaron Elson's Tanks for the Memories: An oral history of the 712th Tank Battalion from World War II Chi Chi Press, 1994. See Aaron's web page for more information.
      • Gregory Orfalea's Messengers of the Lost Battalion: The heroic 551st and the turning of the tide at the Battle of the Bulge Free Press (Simon & Schuster), 1997.
      • James Montgomery's B Company, 776 Tank Destroyer Battalion in Combat in Africa and Italy. (Contact his son Dr. Tom Montgomery.)
      • Roger L. Shaffer's Letters Home: A Soldier's Legacy Republic of Texas Press, 1996. (His uncle, Bill Rogers, was in HQ Company, 2nd Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th "Texas" Division and was KIA at Cassino in January 1944.)
      • Rose Welton'sWe Clear the Way: A Tribute to my Uncle, Staff Sergeant John L. Schreir and the 319th Engineer Combat Battalion, 94th Infantry Division, United States Army Rose Welton; P.O. Box 22704; Juneau, AK 99802; (907) 364-2779, 2001. (Her uncle was killed in Germany in 1945.)

  3. World War II Veterans telling their own story

  4. Collections of veterans' and home front stories

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World War II Military and Related Sources
These are some useful pages for finding out about World War II military resources to find and tell your Dad's WWII story.

  • Commonwealth Countries
    The site Commonwealth Order of Battle: 1939-1945 includes United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Union of South Africa, Ireland. Return to top of Dad's War Home Page
    Special Groups
    While it is true that most of the Allied troops were adult white males, the war affected many other groups - in the war zone and at home, military and civilian. These are useful pages for information on people in some of these groups, which also include the troops who were captured.

    Return to top of Dad's War Home Page

    Broad Coverage World War II Sites
    These are some good pages for finding out about World War II in general, including jump sites that have a lot of links to other World War II pages.

    Return to top of Dad's War Home Page

    Places to Post and Read Messages on World War II
    These are some useful sites for making and reading postings from others interested in World War II. These may turn up some useful information, but they tend to be less useful than finding the right unit association.

    Return to top of Dad's War Home Page

    Places to Find Your Dad's Wartime Buddies
    If you have not been able to find one of your Dad's wartime buddies through the veterans' associations (see First Steps above), then posting messages on bulletin boards has limited usefulness. So here are some sources of information on how to find people. If you know their full name and where their home town was, you can start from there. Unusual names are the easiest ones to find, if the person is still alive.

    If you suspect one of your Dad's wartime buddies has died, you may want to search for him in the Social Security Death Index, which Ancestry.Com has made available for free searches. Be warned that this is a graphics-heavy web site that can be very slow to use, even with a high speed modem.

    Return to top of Dad's War Home Page

    Web Search Engines
    Use the best indexes to find more places on the web. I use three measures to give an overall grade to a search site: completeness of coverage, ease of query refinement, and value of similarity measure. These are constantly changing, usually for the better. So the grades for query and similarity are the most dubious, and the grade for completeness has the most weight.
    • Grade A
      • Google: (A/A/A)
      • MetaCrawler: (A/B-/A) searches many major indexes in one search but still seems to not do as well as Google
    • Grade B
      • Yahoo: (B+/C/B) Forget about searching their categories hierarchically and just do a SEARCH -- the categories force things into too narrow a box
      • Excite: (B+/C/B)
      • AltaVista: (A/C/B)
      • WebCrawler: (B+/C/B)
    • Grade C
    • Starting Point is a page of a collection of indexes. You can type the query once and try it in various engines.

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    "For Better or For Worse" drawings are protected by copyright of Lynn Johnston, as noted under each one, and are used with her permission.
    All else is Copyright © 2005 by Wesley Johnston.
    All rights reserved

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