US soldiers in Devizes during World War 2

Scott Pinkowski of the US found some old photo negatives after his grandfather died in 1993 aged 78. Like many veterans he did not talk about his experiences much to his family. Scott is tracing his grand father's progress through Europe during the Second World War.He has sent a selection of them to Devizes Heritage.

Scott writes "My grandpa is the Staff Sergeant situated in the middle of the Crammer photo - below left - and to the right in the courthouse photo - below right. All the other men are unidentified. Grandpa died in 1993, and like many of our WWII veterans he was pretty closed-lips about the war. This photo collection was unknown until after his death when a hatbox full of 35mm negatives was found in a storage barn after his death. So we didn't get to ask about specific things in the photos. Everything I've learned so far has been through my own research or with the generous help of others like yourself who have an enthusiasm for this sort of thing. So, I've come a long way with retracing his footsteps across Europe using these hundreds of photos, but my information is sketchy, and more and more it's getting harder to find surviving friends and members of his unit.

About grandpa, I can briefly say he was born in 1915, and thus was 26 when America entered the war. He was living in Chicago before the war. He had been married to his wife, Alice since the summer of 1941. Inducted into the Army in September of 1942. Had a skeletal injury to his arm as a child which healed incorrectly and was eligible for limited service, at least I think so. Many of the men in his unit had similar injuries and partial blindness that would normally limit or even prevent their military service. But the need for mechanical skills was great and many of these limited service men were needed to fill these jobs. Before the war he was a master automobile mechanic, and this was his job in the military as well.

His Company left for the European Theater in October of 1943. He spent some time in Sudbury, New Brighton, Devizes and finally Southhampton in England before the invasion of Europe. His company started out with the US Third Army, it was reorganized into the First Army while in New Brighton, but was transferred, once again to the Third Army after the breakout at St. Lo, France -when the Company was put into direct support of Patton's armored columns.

So, needless to say, he got an express tour of Europe while chasing the racing Third Army. His photographs show many of the places the Company stayed or passed through, LeMans, Metz, Morfontaine, Luxembourg City, Saarlouis, Würzburg, Nuremberg Munich, plus a few places he must have visited while sightseeing like Etretat and Donzere, France; and Bremen, and Berchtesgaden, Germany. When victory in Europe was finally achieved in May, 1945, the Company had some occupation duties but was preparing to head to the Pacific when VJ day came and grandpa finally got to go home after 3 years of military service, two of them overseas. He returned to Chicago and his wife, had one son in 1947. Owned a salvage yard, and I think he might have worked in corrections at some point too. Eventually moved to the small town of Odin, Illinois in the 1960s where he lived the rest of his life. Grandma passed away at the age of 90 in 2007. My dad, Terry, served in Vietnam in the United States Marine Corps (also in Motor Transport) and received four Purple Hearts. That's pretty much it in a nutshell."

Further photos from Scott Pinkowski

Above: Does anyone recognise the "barracks"in Devizes?

Right: The Kennet and Avon Canal near Devizes

in 1944