228387 PFC. Kenneth George "Mac" Magoon United States Army 41st Armored Infantry Regiment from:West Fairlee, VT USA I'm trying to find what my Dad, Kenneth Magoon did in WW2 from the time he went to England in May 1944 until he got back to the States in the October of 1945. His personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 St Louis archives fire. I have his discharge papers and final pay voucher plus his entire VA records. These aren't much help.
From 1941 until April 1944 he was in the New Jersey Guard 113th Infantry, doing shore patrol in NJ and DE. He married my mother, Charlotte, while in Georgetown, Delaware. He mustered out as a member of the 2905th Engineer Depot Platoon. This was mostly a labor detail formed from the 1274th Engineer Combat Battalion. He may have been a member of that at that point.
He landed in Normandy on 12th of June 1944 with the Second Armored Division. I know that when he was wounded in November of 1944 he was in the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment.
Most of his stories related to his service in a tank, although he was not trained stateside as a tanker. He mentioned waterproofing a tank prior to going ashore. He mentioned going through Nancy, France. He spent some time in a field hospital in Belgium and mentions his hospital tent being blown over by a buzz-bomb attack.
He also served as a truck driver, as an infantry man, was wounded by shrapnel on 19th of November 1944, was a squad leader, and was in the Battle of the Bulge. He was in action in Samree and said he went down to help rescue the people at Bastogne.
He seemed to know a lot about the M18 tank destroyer and may have been in Pershing tank late in the war. He said his pre-war experience driving a logging truck in wintertime New Hampshire helped him drive a tank on the icy roads during the Bulge. He talked about his gunner taking out a sniper who was in a chair in the upper floor of a bombed-out factory.
His VA records say he was in the 298th General Hospital for his wounds. In late January 1945 he spent a little time in the 28th General Hospital for trichinosis and frostbite on his feet. He suffered a lot from a skin condition from the time he was in New Jersey until well after the war.
He served under General Harmon in the 2nd Armored and was a member of Omar Bradley's First Army. The only friend he mentioned was Danny who miraculously walked out of an artillery hit on his foxhole. He was a pfc his whole time in service. He said he refused OCS a couple of times.
At some point in my Dad's service his serial number got mistakenly switched to 31046093, which actually belonged to another man who died early in the war.
|