Eugene Russell Obituary Eugene P. Russell went to be with His Lord and Savior on August 29, just six days past his 91st birthday. Eugene was born on August 23, 1921 in McCook, NB to Perle and Anna Russell. He served with the 759th Railway Operating Battalion during WWII. After the war he continued his career with the railroad, working for the Denver and Rio Grande first as a fireman, then as an engineer. In 1953 he married Doris (Bower) Russell and together they raised three children in their Lakewood, CO home. He is survived by his daughters, Cheryl (Bob) Jeffryes of Castle Rock, CO, and Barbara (Patrick) Braun of Clarkston, WA, and daughter-in-law Diane Russell of Cody, WY, as well as six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Doris, and son Gordon. A memorial service will be held at Howard Moore Mortuary at 4345 W. 46th Ave, Denver, CO on Friday, September 7, 2012 at 9:00am followed by a military honors service at Fort Logan Cemetery at 11:15am.

 Clifford Crane 

 

Joe L. Hall

 

War time editions of N.Y. Central Railroad Headlight are a goldmine and this edition includes mentions of soldiers in the units: 

CH December 1945 

• 718th ROB Ross 
• 759th ROB Champagne 

 

War time editions of N.Y. Central Railroad Headlight are a goldmine and this edition includes mentions of soldiers in the units:

 CH October 1945

• 718^th ROB Battle of Bulge
• 712^th India Bassell
• 725^th ROB Austria Finley
• 759th ROB Zimmerman  
• 762^nd ROB Hilstrom

 

July 1944 

• MRS Africa 
• MRS Italy 
• 759th Railway Operating Battalion 
• Price Snider, Hammer, Champagne, Griffin, Schuarzenholer, Wolf, Wragg, Hansen, Micieli, Felici, Fillinger, Deney, Davidson, Zimmerman, Raver, McDowell, Woods, Collins, Smyers, Hudnall, Wells, Berkshire, Kingdon, Cortrecht, Wyle, Richeson, Dickerson 
• RSB Gambino

 

  

Sam writes about his grandfather, T/Sgt. George A. Akers.. 

I'm also attaching his formal Army photo in dress uniform, along with a snapshot of himself in a regular duty uniform and one of his wife, Mary Elizabeth (King) Akers that he carried throughout the war in a small brass envelope-shaped photo holder with two photo windows. He's wearing corporal's stripes in the snapshot, which would date it somewhere between May 2, 1941 and June 2, 1942. Outside of Army service, Grandpa worked for the Missouri Pacific in the DeSoto, MO
shops his whole life (other than a short stint when the DeSoto shops were closed and they were all commuting by train to Dupo, IL). He was a reservist, and called up to active duty with the 140th Infantry in late 1940. When the 727th ROB was formed, he was transferred there, and then was one of the core members of the 759th when that unit and others were activated and some soldiers from the 727th were transferred
to the new units. 

After the 759th was transferred from Italy to France, he was temporarily transferred to the 756th, HQ company, at Marseilles. In the last month of the war, he was returned to the 759th.

I'm attaching a much better scan of the 759th group photo if you would like to upload it. My grandfather, T/Sgt. George A. Akers, Company B, is in the fourth row, just left of the leftmost officer. When I had his copy of the photo professionally unrolled and mounted after 70+ years rolled up, I also had a high-quality scan and several duplicates made by a local photo shop.

 

 

 750th Railway Operating Battalion

 

 

 Railway Age - Vol 115  No. 19 November 6, 1943

759.pdf by Nancy

Thanks to Robert E Helm,Jr shared by his daughter Mitzi

American Battle Monuments Commission
ABMC manages 24 overseas military cemeteries, and 25 memorials, monuments, and markers. The cemeteries and memorials honor those who served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Search for names from the honor rolls. Information presented includes service information, dates of birth and death, and notes which relate to the circumstances of death, status, and awards received. http://www.fold3.com/title_853/

John L Donahue
Full Name:John L Donahue 1
Death:Buried: Buried at: Plot C Row 21 Grave 98<BR>Lorraine American Cemetery<BR>St. Avold, France 1
Death: 28-Mar-45 1
Death Date: 28 Mar 1945 1
Memorial Cemetery: Lorraine American Cemetery 1
Memorial Country: St. Avold, France 1
Memorial Location: Plot C Row 21 Grave 98 1
Residence:State: Nebraska 1
World War II 1
Rank:Private First Class, U.S. Army 1
Service Number:37449423 1
Regiment:759th Railway Operating Battalion 1

Leonard N Ervine
Full Name:Leonard N Ervine 1
Death:
Buried: Buried at: Plot A Row 13 Grave 13<BR>North Africa American Cemetery<BR>Carthage, Tunisia 1
Death: 1-Jun-43 1
Death Date: 01 Jun 1943 1
Memorial Cemetery: North Africa American Cemetery 1
Memorial Country: Carthage, Tunisia 1
Memorial Location: Plot A Row 13 Grave 13 1
Residence:State: West Virginia 1
World War II 1
Rank:Private, U.S. Army 1
Service Number:35745579 1
Regiment:759th Railway Operating Battalion 1

759th Railway Operating Battalion
WWII battalion holds 65th reunion in Oberlin

The 759th Engi­neer Bat­tal­ion, Rail­way Oper­at­ing — a bat­tal­ion that served dur­ing World War II build­ing, sal­vaging, and repair­ing rail­ways in the Euro­pean The­atre — held their 65th annual reunion in Ober­lin over the weekend.
Fam­ily and friends gath­ered with the remain­ing mem­bers of the bat­tal­ion, along with the fam­i­lies of those who have died, for four days at the Ober­lin Inn.
 Over the past 65 years, the reunion has been held in var­i­ous loca­tions across the coun­try includ­ing St. Louis, New York, Wash­ing­ton D.C., Chicago, and Ana­heim. This is the eighth year the group has met in Oberlin.
 “It’s a really nice place for us to stay, they were really accom­mo­dat­ing to our group, and that’s why we wanted to be here,” said Mary Weiler-Noll — of Aurora, Ill. — the event coor­di­na­tor this year. Weiler-Noll’s father started the reunions in 1947.
 “The town is fun. It’s a cute town to go to, and some of the more mobile ones of our group like to troll around the town,” said Weiler-Noll about the city of Oberlin. Of the 1,200 who served with the 759th Engi­neer Bat­tal­ion, only three mem­bers remain. All three attended the reunion. Dozier Wal­lace, 90, of Chester­field S.C., admits his mem­ory wasn’t what it used to be, but does have one dom­i­nant mem­ory of the war. “Going home,” he said with a large smile.
“When we got our dis­charge at 11 o’clock at night, they told us we could spend another night in the bar­racks if we wanted. We told them to go to hell.” Another mem­ber of the bat­tal­ion, George Nies, 90, of Cincin­nati, was a train oper­a­tor while serv­ing in Europe. “We hauled freight, and drove the trains up to the front lines. It was day and night on duty,” he said. “We had some wild rides down those moun­tains (in North Africa). We didn’t have any air, just the engine brake to hold that train back.” While most mem­bers of the 759th didn’t see much action dur­ing the war, Wayne Humphreys — 91, of Boun­ti­ful, Utah — wasn’t as for­tu­nate.
Humphreys was involved in six major bat­tles while serv­ing overseas. “I was shot at by snipers, they missed me twice. I was caught in a mine­field, strafed by Amer­i­cans and strafed by Ger­mans, bombed by Amer­i­cans and bombed by Ger­mans,” he said. Once, after fin­ish­ing his assign­ment in a town in Ger­many, Humphreys stayed the night in a Ger­man hotel. In the mid­dle of the night, he heard some­one beat­ing on his door.
It was the hotel man­ager telling him the Amer­i­cans were on their way to bomb the city, and it would be best if he went down into the base­ment with the rest of the guests. “I walked into a room with a big long table in it and there were about 15 Ger­mans sit­ting around the table. They had a can­dle shin­ing at each end. That light shin­ing didn’t make them look like angels,” Humphreys said. Wor­ried he’d just walked into a trap, Humphreys turned to aim his gun toward those gath­ered around the table. “I opened my mouth to say, ‘Sit still or I’ll shoot,’ and what came out sur­prised me so much I could hardly move. It was, ‘Let’s have a party,’” he said.
The Ger­mans invited Humphreys to sit down with them. The group sat together eat­ing canned peaches and a fruit­cake while bombs exploded overhead. “We had a nice party until the all-clear sounded, and the bombs quit falling. We shook hands, wished each other a good night, and went to bed,” Humphreys said. The reunions not only give the vet­er­ans a chance to share mem­o­ries and old war sto­ries, but also give the fam­i­lies a chance to see a side of fathers, or grand­fa­thers, they didn’t know existed. “Oh, it’s neat.
 It was neater the first time (I came) because there was a lot more mem­bers,” said Ray Nies, who has been com­ing to the reunion for years with his father. “My son always thought his grand­fa­ther was a meek and quiet guy, until one year they had a pic­ture of him wear­ing a coconut bra and a grass skirt. That’s when my son knew they were really related,” he said. Weiler-Noll said its get­ting too hard for the remain­ing mem­bers to make the trip, and after 65 years, this may be the final reunion of the 759th Engi­neer­ing Battalion.

759th Cho Choo News 1943 by Nancy

 

Thanks so much to Catherine for sharing !

Here's a better copy from Sam grandson of T/Sgt. George A. Akers, Company B,he writes ..  is in the fourth row, just left of the leftmost officer.  

 

Cathe, daughter of Harry North Stairs or “Boots”shared these great photos. If anyone knows any of the people in these photos she'd like to know - email me if you know any of Stair's buddies .

759th Railway Operating Battalion World War II sponsored by Missouri Pacific Lines

759th Rob Wwii by Nancy

I purchased this on Ebay and then handscanned the entire book. If you would like to donate to this blog please use the Paypal Donate link to the right ! Thanks !

759th MMetz by Nancy

Thanks Mark Metz