(above insignia)676th GFAB Patch
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676th Glider Field Artillery Battalion
Unit History
 he 676th Glider Field Artillery Battalion (GFAB) was was activated
on 13 August 1943 at Fort Bragg, NC under the command of Lt Col Clark Lynn as part of the new 13th Airborne Division. The battalion gre in size throughout the late summer and fall of 1943. Young inductees from the New England States and former ASTP men who had come from everywhere by way of the 72nd Replacement Battalion at Fort Bragg continued to arrive until November 1943 at which time the 676th GFAB reached full strength. At that time Lt Col Henry L.T. Koren assumed command (picture right), Basic Training began and the 676th started to truly colasce as a battalion of fighting men.
During Basic Training the 676th GFAB moved from Fort Bragg, NC to Camp Mackall, NC where Basic Training ended on a Saturday in February, 1944. During April of that year the 676th GFAB undertook Airborne Training over the tobacco fields and pine trees of North Carolina in the belly of a CG-4A glider. After this training 60 percent of the 676th GFAB personnel trained as parachutists at Fort Benning Parachute School in Georgia during midsummer 1944. The remaining personnel gave glider training at Camp Howze, TX to the 103rd Division. By September, 1944 the battalion was back together training for night landings at Camp Mackall. After attaining a high score on its Army Ground Forces Test the battalion was ready for overseas deployment.
On the 19th of January 1945, the 676th moved from Camp Mackall NC to Camp Shanks, NY for overseas deployment. Six days later the battalion arrived by train to New York and embarked on the U.S.S. General George O. Squier and landed in LeHarve, France on February 7th. On that same day the regiments were packed into 40 and 8s bound for the staging area called Camp Lucky Strike, 200 miles SE of Le Harve in the town of Auxerre, France.
During the months in waiting in France the 676th offered parachutist training to those men who were not already qualified. Also, during this time the 13th Airborne Division was alerted several times for possible operations, however each time the fast moving Army ground forces preempted the need for an airborne operation.
After the German surrender on May 7, 1945 the 13th and 101st Airborne Divisions were notified of their reassignment to the Pacific. In July, 1945 the battalion left Sens, France and made stops at Camp Pittsburgh and Camp Philip Morris. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August, 1945 cancelled the redeployment of the 676th to the Pacific.
That same month the regiment was shipped home aboard the U.S.A.T Thomas H. Barry.
The 676th GFAB arrived in New York Harbor on August 20th and was deactivated soon after at Camp Kilmer, NJ.
676th Glider Field Artillery Battalion - Pictures 
- Battery A - 676th GFAB
- Photo of A Battery 676th GFAB aboard truck (Deuces Wild). (SEE Inscriptions for trooper identification) (Photo
courtesy of
Glenn Stimets)
- Battery A - 676th GFAB
- Photo of 676th GFAB A Battery friends. (FRONT: [left to right] Wendell Stimets ,Irving Feder & Nathan Kaplan. REAR: [left to right] Peter Gudenzi ,Don Bruegger & Norbert Duffy - foot on car fender)
(Photo
courtesy of Glenn Stimets)
books
R E L A T E D B O O K S
Ambrose, Stephen E D-DAY June 6,1944:
The Climatic Battle of WW II. 6/93, Simon & Shuster ISBN: 0671673343
Archer, Clark Paratroopers
Odyssey : A History of the 517th Parachute Combat Team. 266p., 1985, ISBN: 0961601507
Astor, Gerald 'Battling
Buzzards': The Odyssey of the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team 1943-1945. 338p.,
7/93, Donald I Fine Pub, ISBN: 0440236932
Badsey , Stephen & Chandler, David G (Editor)
Arnhem 1944:
Operation "Market Garden" (Campaign No.24) 1993
96p. ISBN: 1855323028
Breuer, William B Geronimo! American
Paratroopers in WWII. New York: St. Martin Press, 1989 621 p. ISBN: 0-312-03350-8
Breuer, William B Unexplained
Mysteries of World War II. John Wiley & Sons, Sept 1998 256 p. ISBN:0471291072
D'Este, Carlo
Patton: A Genius for War 1024 pp ISBN: 0060927623
De Trez, Michel
At the Point of No Return : Pictorial History of the American Paratroopers in the
Invasion of Normandy 7/98, D-Day Pub, 200 p. ISBN: 2960017617
De Trez, Michel
First Airborne Task Force: Pictorial History of the Allied Paratroopers in the
Invasion of Southern France 7/98, D-Day Pub, 500 p. ISBN: 2960017625
Devlin, Gerard S
Paratrooper! St Martin's Press, (P) c1976 ISBN: 0312596529
Gavin, James M.
On to Berlin : Battles of an Airborne Commander, 1943-1946 ISBN: 0670525170
Golden, Lewis Echoes From Arnhem Penguin
ISBN: 0718305213
Hicks, Anne The Last Fighting General: The Biography of Robert Tryon Frederick Schiffer Pub Ltd, 320pp, ISBN: 0764324306
MacDonald, Charles B A Time For
Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge Wm Morrow & Co
(P), 720 p. ISBN: 068151574
Masters, Charles J.
Glidermen of Neptune: The American D-Day Glider Attack Southern Illinois Univ Press, ISBN:0809320088
McKenzie, John
On Time, On Target Novato, CA: Presidio, May 15,2000. 304 p. ISBN: 089 141 714 1
Nigl, Dr Alfred J & Charles A Nigl
Silent Wings - Savage Death Santa Ana, CA: Graphic Publishing, Dec 3,2007. 288 p. ISBN: 1882824318
Ryan, Cornelius
A Bridge Too Far 670p. ISBN: 0684803305
Wildman, John B All Americans 82nd
Airborne. Meadowlands Militaria, 6/83 ISBN:091 208 1007
The Center of Military History The War in the Mediterranean: A WWII Pictorial History Brasseys, Inc.,
465 p. ISBN:1574881302
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