Any WW II military historians in here?

http://www.457thbombgroup.org/Searc...ssmiller&Submit=Website Search&srcriteria=any

I'm doing some research on my great uncle. This is all that I've found so far. If anyone has and ideas please post them up .
Thanks
Doug

 

If his military records still exist (several thousand records were destroyed in a fire a few decades ago), you can request them. From there, you should have a start on training attendance, unit locations, etc. With that in hand you can contact the respective service archives and get each unit history for a specific period. Each service's history division generally has a small reference branch to help point you in the right direction, but the leg work will be your own. If you have an idea of where to look already (which it seems you do), you may also want to look at the national archives. It all gets pushed up to the archives eventually, and a large portion of that is research able online. If you want to take the easy route, there are paid researchers who will find what you're looking for at a cost.

The Marine Corps digitized much of their archive several years ago and is still adding files to the electronic archive. When I was working on my Masters, I was able to track the daily movement of personnel through daily unit diary reports at the company level and compare that info with Special Action Reports, and command chronologies to get a picture of how bad certain battles were.

I haven't worked with Air Force/Army Air Corps history, but they have much deeper pockets than the Marine Corps so my assumption is that you can find what you seek with a little research.

Hope this helps.

 

I recently read an autobiography of Col. Paul Tibbets. He was the Commander of the B-29 squadrons that trained at Wendover for the bombing missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It might help in your search. Right now a dear friend who walked out of the "Frozen Chosin" as a young enlisted man and retired as a USMC Colonel is reading it.

 

Paul Tibbets shot at the same club I was a member of.
He was a Skeet shooter. Shot a lot at Wright Pat. AF Base.
Very outspoken individual. You could spark an argument with him real quick.
He was the right man for the job.

Regards.....Gerald