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Remembered Today:

US Army in Bordeaux


brownag

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One of the war memorials I am researching lists a man serving as a sergeant in the US Army. He died in 1918 but his place of death is given as Bordeaux. Was this an embarkation - debarkation port for US troops in France?

If it was is there a military cemetery in Bordeaux, or were the bodies returned to the US at a later date?

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I do not remember that this was in & out place for US but Atlantic ports were busy and we did use others, can check tonight if you do not hear otherwise. There could be many other reasons to be there.

There is no US military cemetery there. 70% of bodies were returned.

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Paul

There was a US Port was at the Point de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde about 75kms NWN of Bordeaux.There is a memorial to its role and involvement with the AEF.I think the first AEF soldiers were landed here (The Point de Grave was also used to pick up British stragglers during the fall of France in June 1940.)

Bordeaux might have been used but one advantage of the Point de Grave is that the port may have been more accessible in terms of tides etc. It is possible that also there was a ferry facility to Royan, a distance of about 5kms across the river which cuts a large distance of road travel when needing to travel north.(There is a ferry at this point now having used it about 10 years ago to travel north from the Medoc area. I also failed to take a photograph of the USA Memorial before we crossed for Royan)

Regards

Frank East

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Guest Hussar

AEF Base Hospital No.6 was at Bordeux.

It was situated in HospitalComplémentaire No. 25(Petit Lycée De Bordeaux)

So he may well have died in hospital?

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Fellows I will have a look tonight at American Armies and Battlefields In Europe, 1938 and the bible on subject, post something tomorrow.

Give me his details so I can see if he remains in Europe.

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I may be able to add something, even if he was repatriated. I'll (also) need his name though.

Dave

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Many thanks for all replies so far. I'm afraid I don't have much information on the man yet.

He was Sgt. Angus MacKenzie (although he may also be listed as McKenzie in records)

He was born in Farr, Sutherland, and the Strath Halladale War Memorial lists him as being in the US Army and dying in Bordeaux in 1918.

That's all I have so far, Oh for American versions of the CWGC and SDGW! Any help in finding out more would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

Adam

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If he is buried in Europe Dave will tell us.

First of all I know Bordeaux is on the Atlantic, I should have phrased that differenly. We could not use the more convenient northern ports much since UK had them tied up.

Bordeaux was a base camp for Services of Supply, AEF. By the end we had shipped well over 2 million tons there, more than any other. Surely we would have had a hospital there but maybe we used a French one, cannot find out. Many of these soldiers were black.

Mu guess is this man was working in the US joined our army and he is buried in a US cemetry. But, what will be interesting and worth a story from his grave registration record is if we allowed his body to be repatriated but not to USA but to UK, never heard of that but maybe...

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Oh for American versions of the CWGC and SDGW!

There is! (These are where I'll be getting most of the personal info from, if I can).

Back soon....

Dave.

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He's definately not buried in a ABMC cemetery in Europe as his name doesn't appear in any form on their database. There's one Angus Mackenzie listed in the US casualty lists for 1918.He is listed as being from Stapleton, New York and he died of disease.

So, it looks like he was repatriated, probably back to the USA, rather than Scotland.But who knows?

Hope this is of some help.

Dave.

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Stapleton or the county seat of whatever county it's in may have a war memorial. The NY state adjutant general may well have a copy of his records especially likely if he was a member of 30th Division since that was NY National Guard. There are other reasons they could have them such as if the state ever paid a veteran's bonus.

Last resort is National Military Records Center St Louis Missouri but they are terrbile, slow as hell plus they let most of these records burn in 1970. At lease UK has a reason, Luftwaffe, our idiots burned our own.

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Many thanks again to all who replied, goodness knows how long it would have taken me to find out all this information if the GWDF wasn't around.

Dave, can I ask one last favour (or should that be favor)? Do the US Casualty Lists for 1918 give a date of death? With that I can then try and check the local Sutherland newspaper from the time to see if I can fill in some gaps. Also is there a unit or a service number given?

Thanks again

Cheers

Adam

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Sorry Adam.

The only exact dates and details (including NOK, etc) are for US Navy casualties. I'll dig a little deeper and see what turns up though.

PS. It's "favour" to me. I'm a Lancashire Lad! :D

Dave.

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Hi,

You may want to try the New York State Archives:

http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/researchro...rsvc_form.shtml

Requests are $1 they normally take about 4-8 weeks and they refund your dollar if they can't find anything! Just fill out the form with whatever information you have.

They normally have a large index card with date and place of birth, address, unit served in, if served overseas, wounded etc.

Good luck,

Neil

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