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142nd
Field Artillery Group |
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| Group History | |||||||||
| 1951 - 1954 | |||||||||
142nd Field Artillery Group DUI(Source: Image of unit crest submitted by Clyde Titus who states: "This unit badge was in use during my time in the 142nd from Mar 1952 to Mar 1954.") |
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| (Source: 142nd Field Artillery Group, Germany, 1954) | |||||||||
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On
20 January 1953, the 756th FA Bn moved from its previous station
in Baumholder to Würzburg. (Still need confirmation on that)
On 23 January 1953, the 631st Armored Field Artillery Battalion located at Hammelburg was attached to the Group. On 3 August 1953, the 393rd Field Artillery Battalion moved on permanent change of station orders from Artillery Kaserne, Neckarsulm, to Harvey Barracks, Kitzingen. At the same time, the Battalion was relieved from attachment to the 30th FA Group and attached to the 142nd Group. It appears that the 142nd Group was inactivated in December 1954 and replaced by the concurrently activated 72nd Field Artillery Group with station in Wertheim. |
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| If you have more information on the history or organization of the 142nd FA Group (or any of the subordinate units), please contact me. | |||||||||
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| (Sources: Email from Clyde Titus, 142nd Field Artillery Group, Germany, 1952-54) | |||||||||
| I was stationed
with the 142nd FA Group from August or September of 1952 until March
of 1954 in the S-3 Operations Section of Group headquarters. Trained
in Fire Direction Control, I did clerk-typist duties in camp since
I had two years of college and had better correspondence skills than
the trained clerk-typists. In the field I was assigned a REO two and
half ton truck with trailer holding all of our explosives plus plotting
gear and I worked in the REO built closed van (blackout capable) where
operations were conducted. In 1952 I was still using a WWII GMC 6x6 van at Baumholder (really hard to steer and shift), but that equipment was replaced by REO trucks throughout group headquarters. (REO's had standard transmissions as opposed to the more common and more streamlined GMC's which had automatic transmissions. The REO was a good truck, except it did not like to back up and the gears would wind up and eventually relieve the back lash with a very loud bang.) The Group radio van housed an AN/GRC-9 I believe. |
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| Another interesting
activity was the survey conducted in preparation for the 280 mm "Atomic
Annie" artillery. Small teams of top security clearance staff from
our Group headquarters went around the countryside in West Germany
to determine which roads and bridges could handle this massive equipment.
My recollection is that most of the routes would not be available
because of the size and weight requirements of the 280. This equipment
arrived sometime after I departed in March 1954. Wertheim was a really interesting location, with the little walled-medieval era village and a castle on the hill overlooking the river. It is now a tourist attraction and is called the "little Heidelberg". I returned once in 1989 at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall but could not get into the barracks area, since the cold war was still on. The 142nd Group insignia was a red shield with a cow skull and the motto "Try to Stop Us". I will prepare a sketch of it and forward it to you when I get the time. Our shoulder patch was the 7th Army patch (without the unauthorized "Seven Steps to Hell" motto). |
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| 194th FA Bn (155mm)(Towed) / 254th FA Bn | |||||||||
 194th Field Artillery Bn DI |
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| (Source: 142nd Field Artillery Group, Germany, 1954) | |||||||||
| History of the 194th Field Artillery Battalion The 194th Field Artillery Battalion was organized in November 1947 in Northwestern Iowa, as a National Guard Battalion, attached to the Iowa 34th National Guard Division. Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, the unit intensified its training, and was ordered to active duty on 11 September 1950. The first duty station for the 194th was Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, where it received fillers and trained for a combat mission. In August of 1951, the 194th was alerted for overseas movement, and arrived in Germany in September of that year. The first duty station in Europe was in Northern Kaserne, at Wuerzburg, Germany, where the unit became a member of the combined arms team, organized to prevent further spread of Communism in the European family of nations. In September of 1952, the 194th was moved to its present duty station at Wertheim, Germany, with no change in its primary mission. The start of the year 1953 found the 194th Field Artillery Battalion at home station busy with normal garrison duties and class room training. The month of January was highlighted by the transfer of the Battalion, for Tactical Control, from the 30th Field Artillery Group, to the 142nd Field Artillery Group; and the Battalion's first exchange of Allied officers took place with the British Army. The Battalion received an overall rating of excellent in its annual IG inspection conducted in May, and twice the Battalion was given an overall rating of superior in CMI Inspections conducted by V Corps. The Battalion ended the year 1953 and entered the current one with the command and troops looking back on a year filled with sound, logical training, and knowing they were able to perform their tactical mission. For the men of the 194th, successful completion of the V Corps conducted Battalion test in August at Grafenwoehr, border patrol at Bamberg both in April and September, and an intensive program of garrison training and preparedness have constituted the salient events and activities of 1954. |
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| (Source: Email from Jim Beilstein, 194th FA Bn) | |||||||||
I was assigned to the 194th FAB in Aug 1954.. The Group was the 142nd.
Early in 1955 the unit designations were changed. 194th became the 254th and the 142nd became the 72nd.
I went to Fort Carson in April of 1956 as part of Operation Gyroscope.
I noticed a note from a musician who was a member of the 72nd Band. When I arrived in 1954 the Group had a drum and bugle corps of about 8 men that practiced about an hour a day in the afternoon and performed for ceremonies. The Group Commander was Col. Curtis and he was an old schooler and instituted a bugler of the Guard who played about two dozen calls a day from a microphone at the guard house. In November he got instruments and formed a band that also practiced for an hour each afternoon and evenutally played for ceremonies. It started with about a dozen members. In the summer Col Curtis sent the band to Nurenberg with the baseball team and liked the way we performed and put us on special duty in Sep. of 1955. A point of interest: The MSgt in charge of the bugle corps and the new band was a Sgt Miller. He was the first bugler to blow Call To Arms at Pearl Harbor and was in the Recruiting station in New Castle Pa which processed all the enlistees from that corner of PA. when I enlisted in 1949. |
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| 393rd FA Bn (155mm How)(SP) / 282nd FA Bn | |||||||||
| (Source: Email from David Peterson, 393rd FA Bn, 1952-55) | |||||||||
Just finished reading Clyde Titus's article. I was assigned to the 393rd FA Bn with the 142nd FA Gp at Neckarsulm, Germany. After we moved to Kitzingen, the unit became the 282nd FA Bn under the 30th Group. We kept the same shoulder heraldic device regardless of unit designation but I didn't see it displayed.
My time at the Artillery Kaserne goes back a little farther to the post war years 1952-1955. The building photos look the same as when I first was introduced to Germany. The 393rd BN and the 282BN of the 30th and the 142nd Field Artillery Group under the 7th U.S. Army were equipped with 155mm SP Guns. Our later move was to Kitzingen in an old former German Airfield. Really some good wine in Neckarsulm. After the Service time I worked for Douglas Aircraft Co. builder of the Honest John in R&D phases as well as all the Nike series, Ajax, Hercules and Anti-Missile Zeus while stationed at WSMR, New Mexico. I served 6 years in the Army and never got away from the Sevens. 7th Division in Japan and Korea and the 7th Army in Germany. The photo of the entrance to the now Hq, used to be our Mess Hall.
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| 631st AFA Bn (105mm How)(SP) / 290th AFA Bn | |||||||||
| (Source: Email from Harvey Smith) | |||||||||
I was stationed at Camp Clarke, Hammelburg, Germany from the summer of 1951 thru the fall of 1952. I was stationed with the 631st Armored Field Artillery (105 howitzers). The 631st came from Fort Sill, Okla & was a National Guard activated from Miss.
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| (Source: Email from Jim Smith) | |||||||||
| I was in A Btry, 631st AFA Bn (FDC Fire Direction Center) Oct 1952 to Mar 1954. This unit had the 155mm towed howitzer M114, 18 in all. The “AFA” in the unit
designation stands for “Armored Field Artillery”; towed 155mm are not “armored” -- by
no stretch of the imagination. The 631st was on a hill, Lager Hammelburg, overlooking the town of Hammelburg. There was a tank unit and displaced persons camp on the post with us. We where a V Corps unit and wore the Seventh Army patch. The unit got there about a year or so before I got there from Mississippi. The unit had had self propelled 155mm (might have been M44s) in Mississippi; this I was told by one of the few Mississippi old National Guard artilleryman who was still in Hammelburg. They were told “you will have self propelled weapons in Europe” which was not true. |
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