ASFFelix & World War IIASF

Company C, 3110th Signal Service Battalion

Northern France
Northern France
July 25 - September 14, 1944
July 24: Company C,  3110th Signal Service Battalion earns Normandy Campaign Participation Credit for being off English soil and on the water before 2400 on the last day of the Normandy Campaign.

July 25: Company C lands on Utah Beach.

July 26: Tamerville, France. Tamerville was about 3.5 kilometers (about 2 miles) from Valognes. Valognes was a major communications center for SHAEF and COMZ. Could Co. C been bivouacked. at Tamerville while constructing communications infrastructure for the facilities at Valognes.
August 18: Left Tamerville for Cherbourg.  American units from Utah beached advanced up the Cotentin Peninsula and entered the actual city of Cherbourg on about June 24, cleared most of it by the 26th, and secured the surrender of the last resistance on the 27th. By July 8, the Americans began to bring in supplies through the port of Cherbourg.
August 21: In response to the reports of an uprising in Paris, Com Z Forward sent a cable to England on the likely need to supply food to feed Parisians. The first relief convoy was in route by August 25, the day of the liberation of Paris.1 Establishing that communications link may have been exactly the type of work Co. C had been doing in Tamerville and Cherbourg since its deployment on July 26.

1P. 494, D-Day: the battle for Normandy, Anthony Beevor, Viking, 2009.

August 24: The rest of the Battalion lands on Utah Beach and proceeds to Valognes near Cherbourg.

September 5: The other companies proceed to Paris.

September 11 - 14: Most of Company C, including Felix, are detached to serve with Co. A., 810th Signal Service Battalion, Cherbourg.
September 15: Co. C men on detached service rejoin the rest of the Battalion in Paris.

Photos of Felix in Cherbourg
Felix and Company C were in Cherbourg from August 18 to September 14, 1944
3
Undated. "Cherbourg" in Felix's handwriting on the back. 

Felix is standing, first man on the left.

Might that be a camouflaged concrete German strong point to Felix's left?
101
Undated. "Cherbourg" in Felix's handwriting on the back.

Felix is standing in the back row, first man on the left.

Felix appears to be cold. His collar is turned up as tight as it can be around his neck. The French women have long coats. Sources state that the weather during the Normandy Campaign was frequently overcast, drizzly, and cool. Storms often blow in from the North Atlantic such as from June 19 to 22 when the worst gale in 40 years blew in.

Note the poles and lines to the right. The U.S. Signal Units tried to use existing French civilian and German military communication lines when possible or upgraded them with U.S. equipment. Company C was the battalion's "wire and pole" guys. Might Felix have done work on poles and lines like these?
Photos from the collection of Felix A. Cizewski, Co. C, 3110th Signal Service Battalion
Copyright © 2006 Leonard H. Cizewski. May not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission

More photos from Cherbourg from Felix's collection.

External links to photos from the collection of Lt. Col. G. E. Goodwin, G-5 section, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Team (SHAEF). They are from similar times and places as the events experienced by the 3110th.

Ship crossing the English Channel, July 6, 1944
18 days before Company C crossed.

Utah Beach, July 4, 1944. Co. C landed on Utah Beach on July 25. The rest of the 3110th landed on August 24.

Photos are from the Indiana State Library.

Photos of Signal personnel and facilities in Valognes and Cherbourg during WW2 >>

INDEX: Felix & WWII
INDEX: Cizewski, Lovetere, Musbach, & Robinson Family History

© 2006 - 2011 Leonard H. Cizewski

Posted:
Last Updated: February 9, 2012
Last Reviewed:


hosted by ibiblio