A Pennsylvanian in France and Germany, 1944-1945

Hello,

I thought I would post something a little different today. I was going through some old pictures of mine and found some of my grandfather from WWII to show some relatives who had been asking about his service. Since having those discussions, I thought I would share a little bit about him here.

My grandfather, Francis F Stine, served in the 95th Infantry Division, 378th Infantry Regiment under Patton's Third Army. He was a Technician 4th Grade with one of the Division's 105mm artillery battalions. He received the Bronze Star while working in the fire control center. When I asked him about this, he remarked "Bah! They handed those out like candy!" and added that he was just doing his job (one of the most common remarks you hear from WWII vets). He wasn't all that impressed with that citation. But, what he was proud of was his service as a FOO for the battery. Because of this, he qualified for the Combat Infantry Badge. The Army forgot to give it to him, so he had to file for it with the War Department. Beyond that, and the interesting stuff he brought home, he never talked about the war. He was a notoriously quiet man, though he loved to laugh at my grandmother's dirty jokes.

Anyway, here are some of his pictures and items from his service you might find interesting.

95th "Victory" Division

The 95th was nicknamed the Iron Men of Metz for their actions in France 1944

Pappy, center, with his M3 Grease Gun, somewhere in Germany

Pappy, first standing row, 2nd from right. I don't know anything about this picture beyond him being in it. He brought back two large Nazi fags from the war, but neither of them seem to be the same size as the flag in this pic.

The citation

The Combat Infantry Badge for his service as an FOO

Dogtag

 Hope you enjoyed these pics! I would like to some day take pics of some of the other stuff he brought back, including his Luger pistol, and an SS dagger.