Andrew Jackson McCurry and wife Mary Margaret Adams McCurry, circa 1880?

Monday, September 5, 2011

Frank McCurry and World War II

Frank During WW2
These photographs were scanned by my brother Mark from family photographs our father Hyluard had.  My brother wrote about these three images, "3 Military pictures of Frank McCurry, on back one says "where is the fire?", also says "PVT McCurry"..Private McCurry. Mom says he was in Army in Europe during WWII."

[My husband says the big gun in the photos is a 30 (or perhaps 50) millimeter water cooled machine gun, an anti tank weapon. It is a single shot fired recoil-less rifle.  He says it looks like Frank is standing on a big piece of concrete with a large piece of iron added on top.

He also says it looks like he is carrying a Thompson machine gun which was fairly rare until late in the war and usually officers carried those.  My husband says this might have been taken in boot camp using display weapons.  By 1943 you didn't see the water cooled machine guns any more as they were not reliable, they overheated quickly and you couldn't run a lot of ammo through them.  They were replaced by belt fed machine guns.]

I only saw Frank once in Michigan that I remember.  He and my father Hyluard looked enough alike at that point to be twins, right down to the same coloring (olive skin and black hair and brown eyes) and pattern baldness.  Dad told me once that Frank was never the same after World War II.  It looks to me as if these notes in Dad's distinctive handwriting were taken from Frank's letters home while he was abroad. I suspect he planned to use them to trace Frank's military service but as far as I know he never did so.  I found the notes in the big chest I inherited when my mother moved into an assisted living apartment  in the spring of 2011.  The chest my dad always said belonged to his family and there are many McCurry artifacts in it.

The notes read:
**********************
S/N 34022678
FRANK EUGINE McCURRY
April 10, 1941 Frank wrote that he was in the Army at Fort Oglethorpe (Troop F Cavalry)
Nov 4, 1941 Still at Fort Oglethorpe, was leaving for N.C. for [no place]

[Pearl Harbor is Dec. 7, 1941, so Frank joined before the U.S. entered the war.]

Feb. 11, 1942 - Fort Oglethorpe, home last week
Feb. 19, 1942 - Camp Blanding, Fla. Left F. Oglethorpe, Monday arrive here Wed. - (Pvt Troop F, 6th Cavalry)
June 1942 - on leave. Visited McVeigh, Ky
June 29, 42 - Parade 4th July - Orlando, Fla.
July 21, 42 - Dilworth, N.C. - on training exercise
Aug. 11, 42 - still in N.C., near Charlotte
Aug. 21, 42 - Back at Camp Blanding, Fla
Sept - now a Clp [corporal?] - Troop G, 6th Calv
Oct 14, 42 - Had been to Detroit while on furlough
Nov. 5, 42 - Moved to Ft. Jackson, S.C. near Columbia, S.C.
Dec. 17, 42 - Frank wrote that he would be leaving S.C. soon
Jan 4, 43 - Still in S.C.
Mar. 23, 43 - Still in S.C.
April  26, 43 - On Move   Murfreesboro, Tenn
Nov 29, 43 - some place in northern Ireland
Jan 25 1944 - still in northern Ireland, still haven't heard from Hyluard
March 12, 1944 - still in N. Ireland
May 29, 1944, Stationed in England - all ok
June 9, 1944, Had moved, but could not say where.

[D-Day was June 6, 1944.]

July 20, 1944, Hoped to be home by Xmas

[If he was with 4th Armored Division which is mentioned later (6th Cavalry was reorganized into Patton's Third Army as the 6th Armored Infantry and was part of the First Armored, 15th Corps), he was on Utah Beach, or right off Utah Beach where they relieved the 82nd Airborne, according to my husband. (Did you see Saving Private Ryan at the movies? The 82nd Airborne was scattered everywhere, that is why they had to hunt and hunt to find Private Ryan.)  Then he was with the light tanks most of the rest of the way. They fought a lot of elite German Panzer armored forces in the hedgerows with the 82nd Airforne, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge and relieved the 101st Armored Division in Bastogne.  For more information see the links.  The Presidential Unit Citation was given to his 6th Cavalry unit.  This is a very big deal as awards go.  Not many Presidential Unit Citations are given.  The latest I know of is my husband's MACVSOG unit.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Armored_Division_(United_States)

http://6thcavalry.tripod.com/6thcav/id1.html

http://www.6thcav.net/history.htm

Aug. 22, 1944, Wrote that he had been in France for a long time.  Had just returned from the Front.  Was in a rest camp.
Oct 9, 1944 - Bad weather, had a cold for some time, but O.K.
March 23, 1945 - location was cut out of letter, was in rest camp, asked that the folks visit a friend (Arlean Cook) who was about 10 yard from him when he got hurt.
April 7, 1945 - Had been moving fast.  War should be over soon.
April 26, 1945 - Think war will be over soon.  O.K.
With the 4th Armored Div. inclosed a letter by James Cannon in ref to Lt. Col. Harold Cohen.
Aug 28, 1945 Was in Berlin, waiting to be sent home, has 95 points, and should be home in Sept. or October.

[Another oddity as this was probably Russian-held territory.  He may have been in the area, but not Berlin proper.  The Americans stopped about 100 miles from Berlin and let Russia take the city.]

Was mailing Luda and Margie a German parachute.  Should be home last month, but order were changed.
*********************

The original photos are in my brother Mark's possession but he digitized these for me.  If you would like copies of the above photos, please email me at mccurrymail@gmail.com.  I am happy to share. Information in brackets is from my husband.

Bottom line:  Frank's unit was in very important battles in WW2 and received one of the most prestigious military awards given.

signed, Jane McCurry Wood

Frank E. McCurry (son of Daniel Boone McCurry)

Daniel Boone and Lelia McCurry and Family
With Danny McCurry asking about his grandfather Frank's high school football days on our Facebook page, I thought I would post the information my father Hyluard had on Frank, who was his brother.  First of all, above is a photograph of Daniel Boone McCurry and his family.  The information on the back reads "Boone & Lelia, Luda (tallest girl), Jasper (tall boy), Rhoda (small girl), Hyluard (small boy between parents),and Frank (baby).....Geneva not born yet. The photograph is undated but since Hyluard was born in 1910, this was taken a few years after that.  Let's say circa 1912.


Dad also had this photo of Frank Eugine McCurry as a young man. It is also undated and has no information on the back side.  Apparently Frank was quite a football player in high school.  His knickname was Bulldog McCurry.  Here's a bit about his play at Jellico (TN) High School, seventh paragraph from the bottom.
http://www.jellico.com/mayor/030123.html


I have three photos of Frank taken during World War II but I am going to post those separately.  The final photo of Frank I have is this one with his sister my Aunt Luda and his mother, my grandmother Leila Thursa Bowman McCurry.  It is undated but I would guess dates from the 1940s judging from the clothing.  Can anyone identify the location or date?

I know Frank had several boys--Bobby, Leon, Tracy and Jerry--but I don't have his or their birth and death dates, whom he married and when, or any complete list of Frank's grandchildren although I know Danny is Bobby's son and that Danny has a daughter of his own named Rileigh.  Feel free to add any information you have to the Comments under this article and to send me photos to add to this article.  My email address is mccurrymail@gmail.com.  If you want digital copies of any of these photos (my brother Mark has the originals and digitized them for me), please just email me and I'll gladly share.  Thanks!

signed, Jane McCurry Wood