Wartime History of Edward Ford
- Richard Murphy
- Dec 18, 2025
- 14 min read
A few months back, one of Edward's kids asked me to look into her father. This was shortly after word starting getting out in my neighborhood that I can sometimes find out stuff about what GIs did in the war. The daughter was fairly confident that Edward worked for Patton, although details were sketchy on what unit. She also told me, with a chuckle, that he was 'just an administrative officer.' So, I got some basic information from her and ran with it. We were lucky in that the archives did have some information on him. It wasn't much, but it helped me put together what follows, although this is the summarized version - most of these are. The details and numerous documents I can often find are provided to the family but there is no need for all of those here. Anyway, let's have a look at First Lieutenant Edward Ford, US Army...
Edward was from Highland Park. He had a law degree! This was all the Army needed to determine that he was intelligent enough to be an officer! He entered the Army in January of 1942 and got out in February of 1946. He was a Military Personnel Officer and was in charge of what some call the 'S-1' section: Personnel and Administration, aka P&A. We know from some of his papers that he was in charge of 12 men in this section, and they performed a myriad of important duties such as preparing payroll, writing their unit's morning reports, checking service records, handling unit correspondence, writing recommendations for citations and awards, preparing casualty reports, supervising the handling of mail, preparing letters of condolence, etc. The S-1 also had to have detailed knowledge of all the positions in the unit so that when they needed to be filled, they could be with the right qualified person in the right job.
The S-1 was part of the unit's command structure but that in no way means they were removed from the unit's operations and actions. Indeed, sometimes the 'head shed' was only a few yards away from the unit's front and there was rarely such a thing as a hardened bunker or structure involved. Edward's unit was a mobile one, and whatever functioned as a HQ was usually only a temporary 'office' at best, maybe a tent if they were lucky. The biggest responsibility of the S-1 was keeping track of unit strength. This was critically important.
It would be near impossible to say that anyone in the S-1 did not fire a weapon or take part in any action directed toward the enemy. It is certain Edward and his men certainly came under fire as much as the rest of the unit. That being said, all soldiers are soldiers and war is hell. We should not rule out that Edward and his team weren't involved in taking the fight to the enemy.
As with our favorite PFC Glenn Wible, Edward and his unit were also in five campaigns...see Glenn's section for why that is pretty darn cool.
The Belgian Fourragere is also pretty cool. It would have been worn on the dress uniform on the wearer's left, draping over the shoulder in front and back. It was awarded by the Belgian government if a unit was cited for valor in Belgium twice in one day. This award is not automatic and had to occur by specific decree.
Edward was in the 92nd Armored Field Artillery (AFA) Battalion, part of the 2nd Armored Division (AD).
The 92nd was in Combat Command (CC) A, and was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William R. Buster. The 2nd had three such commands, A, B, and R. The 92nd was one of three artillery battalions in the 2nd AD. The allocated manpower of these battalions was about 700. There were about 600 enlisted men (EM) and fifty or so officers per battalion. Its mission was to directly support the 2nd AD by closing with and destroying the enemy with mobile field artillery. All artillery can be moved but armored field artillery is designed to be moved.
The 92nd's Travels and Actions
After formation (January 8, 1942) and training in the states, the 2nd was deployed to North Africa as part of the western arm of Operation Torch, the earliest ground operations undertaken by US forces in WWII. The 2nd landed at Casablanca in Morocco on November 8, 1942, and the 92nd landed on Christmas Eve. Most of the 2nd’s duty in North Africa involved garrison and training duties, with specific attention on training for amphibious operations. The 92nd also functioned as a deterrent from possible attack of Morocco through Spain by the Spanish. It also spent time in Algeria. The 92nd was in North Africa for two years. The environment was miserable and the locals in the area, some new and some tribal going back centuries, did not welcome or befriend the Americans. While the 2nd AD participated in the invasion of Sicily, the 92nd did not due to a lack of transport and landing ships and the speed of the success of the invasion.
The 92nd, along with much of the 2nd AD, was sent to England to begin training and drill for the planned invasion of France. It arrived in Liverpool on November 24, 1943. The 92nd trained day and night well into the spring of 1944 in preparation for the invasion.
Originally planned to take part in D-Day on June 6, 1944, the 92nd, along with other units, was delayed in getting to France because of the fierce enemy resistance at Omaha Beach. The 92nd finally landed on Omaha in the Dog White Sector on June 10 and, according to one of its members, Richard Pryor, there was battle damaged debris and “rows and rows of bodies” everywhere. The Army’s Graves Registration Service was interring soldiers on a hill overlooking the beach but had to stage them to be buried in organized rows by the dozens. This was the 92nd’s first sight upon reaching France:
By the way, about 1,500 US GIs were killed at Omaha. Here is the National WWII Museum's fact sheet:
After clearing Omaha and the immediate area, the 92nd went to war and this was what they employed:
Detailed Partial History of the 92nd in Battle
July 1, 1944 (it takes time to regroup with all men and material, hence the gap from landing until July 1): moved inland from Normandy to support 41st Armored Infantry Regiment and reinforced other artillery units. Direct support provided to British 50th Brigade on 7 and 8 July at/near St. Germain d’ Ectot; particularly on July 8 the 92nd broke up a local counterattack and destroyed four Mark IV tanks with 80 Germans killed. Other work from the period 1-16 July included artillery missions: harassing, interdiction, and general support.
The 92nd rested Operation Cobra on July 25. It reinforced fires of adjacent units and broke up a counterattack against the Division Reserve, sometimes by the direct-fire method: direct fire means firing directly on a target instead of indirectly, which is mainly how field artillery operates. Direct fire indicates that enemy targets were what some would call ‘danger close.’ At the end of July, the 92nd, at least in one incident, provided fire support to a neighboring unit upon request even though the 92nd itself was receiving fire. Additionally, on July 30, the 92nd was called on to place artillery fire within 200 yards of the force’s front line…this is an incredible feat of accuracy.
Table above is an excerpt from the AAR about the timeline described. During this time, the month of July 1944, three EM were killed (one from aerial bombing, two from incoming artillery) and one officer and eight EM were wounded by various means. At the end of the month, taking away KIA and wounded and counting incoming replacements, the strength of the battalion was 51 officers and 744 enlisted men, 11.2% to the good. Edward and his men had to compile this information for their leaders and higher echelons - we can bet on that with high confidence.
After a period of rest from the end of July, the battalion supported Division Reserve near 1.5 miles SE of Villebaudon, 1 mile NE of Marqueray, and 1 mile N of Courson. Support missions continued for adjacent units at locations such as St. Pois, Barenton, Longny, Verneuil, Dame Marie, Conde-sur-Iton, Conches, Nogent-le-Sec, Ecauville, Cesseville, Mandeville, Chaufour-les-Bonnieres, Villers-en-Arthies, Delincourt, Boubiers, Valdampierre, Berthecourt, and then Sains.
On September 1, 1944, the 92nd moved from Sains, engaged an antitank gun near Montdidier, and crossed the Somme River Escolar and therefore into Combles (still in France). General support of the division continued, and the battalion was able to rest while attached to the Division Reserve until September 6, at which point it moved into Belgium at Dion le Val. Rummen was the next position and the battalion performed maintenance work while protecting the Division Reserve’s rear without incident. A feint maneuver was performed to distract the enemy from CC A’s attack across the Albert Canal north of Hasselt. At this position, and near Eyck, fire missions were performed upon request. This continued through a relocation to the Netherlands (Masstricht) and also in direct support of Task Force #1. On September 18, from Holland, the battalion fired its first rounds onto German soil. Finally, the battalion crossed into Germany on September 30 to support the breakthrough of the Siegfried line while reinforcing the 30th Infantry Division (ID).
October 1: The 92nd was 1500 yards due west from the German border and awaiting the signal to attack along the Siegfried line. It was part of Task Force #2, directly supporting the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment of the 30th ID. Avenue of approach was across the bridge at Marienberg (Netherlands). The attack was delayed until midday on October 2 and was under-supported by air. Therefore, the 92nd assumed replacing that mission and conducted its own missions on prearranged targets and enemy gun placements as air-observed. This lasted the whole day. The bridge was finally crossed that night, a brief period of rest and resupply occurred, and at midday on October 3 the battalion continued to support the ongoing attack. The enemy artillery was employing the massed approach on specific targets, including the bridge and roads to it, estimated sometimes to be three battalions of varying guns firing on one target. The attack continued on October 4. The enemy continued its condensed fire on roads, bridge sites, and front-line troops…this fire was not counterfire. From October 4 to 5, 44 different enemy gun and mortar positions were identified and fired upon. October 5 and 6 saw the battalion assuming a keep-and-defend posture in the areas it gained. Heavy shelling by the enemy continued. On October 7, the 92nd received its first counterbattery firing at 6:00am. At least 40 rounds fell in the battalion area, killing three and wounding two. This counterfire forced the battalion to relocate.
For the balance of the month, the battalion remained near Zweibrucken (Germany) in direct support of a line of troops there. The weather was bad and harassing fire from the enemy was constant. Ingenuity resulted in the 92nd improvising and fortifying firing positions from rubble and material found in the town. The battalion was also harassed by enemy aircraft, usually in the mornings and evenings. Additionally, twice during this period, friendly aircraft dropped bombs, twice, in the battalion’s area. Operations during this period included defensive fires, harassment fires, and counterbattery missions fired based on air-observation; at least ten German towns were shelled because they were being used as assembly points and communications centers by the enemy. The battalion was able to establish showers and movies during this period and select personnel were given brief leaves.
Total rounds fired during the period June 6 through October 31, 1944, were over 52,000. The rounds fired in October were the types M-48 (13,623), M-54 (4,333), M-57 (74), M-84 (291), propaganda shells (50), and red smoke (33). The battalion lost five (KIA) and 17 were wounded.
Moving into December 1944, enemy units were identified as the 9th and 15th Grenadier Divisions and the 10th SS Panzer Division. The 2nd Panzer Division was reported to be close by from a German prisoner (PW)…the 2nd has a strength of about 5,000 men with 75 Mark V and Mark VI tanks. The 6th Panzer Army was at the 92nd’s front and consisted of the 1st SS Panzer Division, 2nd SS Panzer Division, 9th SS Panzer Division, and the 12th, each with a similar strength as described to include up to 7,000 men and up to 25 assault guns. The enemy delivered only light firing during the first half of the month, mostly small caliber and on the front.
The latter half of the month, an attack was launched by units including the 92nd and was successful based on accuracy of counterbattery and speed which knocked out many of the enemy’s artillery forward observers. Counter attacks launched by the enemy, some with armor support, were “stopped cold.” Some stubborn resistance was put up by the enemy and resulted in house-to-house fighting in Merzenhausen.
At this point, assessments of the enemy in the area revealed that its morale was neither high nor low. Many of the enemy commanders and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO’s) escaped Normandy and provided combat leadership that brought their units up to a formidable posture and method of operating. This was despite the common knowledge of the enemy high command and its soldiers that Germany would lose. A significant part of the stubborn resistance was the result of lies told to enemy troops from their leaders about how horrible an Allied occupation would be.
The 92nd’s morale was high and it operated efficiently and effectively. During November it continued a high pace of operations (Close Support, Counter-Battery, Harassing and Interdiction, and Miscellaneous) and fired another 21,000 rounds across approximately 600 missions.
Right up until Christmas, the 92nd’s work was light and mostly of the harassing type.
After that, the 9th and 2nd Panzer Divisions were engaged near Havrenne-Rochefort in Belgium. The main difficulties were the enemy’s self-propelled guns and tanks. Captured artillery pieces revealed failure of lubrication of component parts due to shortages, yet another clue as to the weakness of the overall enemy military might. Brief rest breaks were allowed when possible and otherwise this was a ‘quite’ time: only harassment fires and a few counterbatteries were experienced by the 92nd.
The 92nd was in Haid, Belgium, at Christmas, just north of the westernmost point of Germany’s last gasp: the Battle of the Bulge. It succeeded in destroying several trucks and three Mark V tanks, as called in and then reported by observers. The battalion shifted to direct support of the 83rd ID for the rest of the month. (The 2nd, and therefore the 92nd, are officially credited with having participated in the Battle of the Bulge.)
One officer was killed in December 1944. Fourteen EMs were sick. Two enemy soldiers were taken prisoner. Strength fluctuated a bit. Morale and efficiency were high. About 300 missions were completed with approximately 11,000 rounds fired.
In early 1945, the writing was on the wall that Germany was losing the war. The enemy was sustaining 2.5 times more damage than it was delivering. Its troops were ‘the bottom of the barrel’ and it did not have enough of them, or organized units, to maintain any defensive postures. The fighting continued, however, because the enemy believed that the more damage it inflicted, the better its conditions of surrender would be, along with the conditions of their life after it.
The 92nd participated in supporting attacks to push the enemy southward in conjunction with the USA 7th Corps. Most of this was near Ciney, Belgium, in the first week of January. Additional supporting missions were carried out, and the battalion moved to Lamormenil and finally got a maintenance and rest break in Wibrin, Belgium. The last half of January was spent on that break, and it was secure and long enough that mandatory field training was resumed.
In February and March, the unit continued to travel and fire multiple supporting missions in support of adjacent units as needed. It crossed the Rhine River into Germany in mid-March and found itself in Ahlen, Germany. In Ahlen, a German military train tried to ‘run the gauntlet’ through town. The battalion was alerted and engaged the train by direct fire. Over 100 105mm rounds were fired at the train in addition to several hundred 50 cal.(machine gun). German elements on the train returned fire, but only from small calibers, and this did not last long – the train was silenced. The ‘booty’ captured or destroyed by this action included an intact 18” rail gun mounted on four RR cars. [Emphasis is the author’s…the rail guns were a big deal just because of their size and what they were capable of and how far they could launch rounds. However, they were very maintenance intensive and had very slow rates of fire, not to mention the logistics of making shells for them and transporting those shells to wherever the rail gun was or was going to be. All that being said, when one was captured, it was a big deal, especially to those in an artillery unit.]
![Likely but unconfirmed photo of the train in question during or shortly after the attack on it. [Found on Facebook, source not identified there.]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/927f97_6f7e865a260d473981cbc4741d988ac4~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_975,h_579,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/927f97_6f7e865a260d473981cbc4741d988ac4~mv2.png)
About 13,000 rounds were fired during this time, bringing the D-Day + total to over 131,000. Casualties and KIAs continued to be light.
Moving into April 1945, enemy artillery was nonexistent. All engagements with the enemy were essentially of the fire-and-retreat type by the remaining crumbs of the German army. The 92nd was moving toward Berlin. During these movements, despite the overall picture, the 92nd was strafed and bombed at one point by enemy aircraft. An ammunition car was destroyed, and seven casualties were reported. Another incident included the destruction of the battalion’s lead half-track by an enemy tank, resulting in eight casualties. Several M7s were brought forward, and the area where that occurred was neutralized and forward movement resumed. The Elbe River was in sight, and the battalion was firing on positions in Magdeberg, about halfway to Berlin.
At Seesen, Germany, in April 1945, the battalion conducted what can be called post-battle operations. It secured an area for a temporary garrison, cleared roads of debris and mines, processed prisoners, aided civilians, and evacuated displaced persons.
May of 1945 found the 92nd ‘stationed’ near Gandersheim, Germany. It experienced no contact with the enemy. It helped with security functions in the area, performed Military Government Operations, and assisted with evacuating enemy PWs to the rear…two of them had to be killed when they resisted. The 92nd moved to Salzgitter and in addition to post-battle functions the 92nd participated in artillery salutes to the Commander of the Third Russian Army and a visiting Chinese General.
The 92nd performed occupation duties in Berlin for 45 days in July and August 1945.
Conclusion
An S-1 officer feels responsible for everyone. It’s a dad-like job in some respects. They take it personally if anything is wrong with any piece of the soldiers’ lives beyond the direct involvement with the enemy. The non-combat stuff happened without known incident due to Ford’s efforts and those of his exceptionally led team.
The 92nd, by all accounts, was fortunate that it did not sustain heavy casualties at any point. It did lose more than a few, however, and Ford may have been the one to write and sign the letters home to the families of those who were killed in action (KIA). In the least, he approved the condolence letters that his team wrote and forwarded the letters to the unit’s commanding officer(s) for signature. This duty, the hardest burden of an administrative officer, was among the most unpleasant. Otherwise, running a unit such as the 92nd, note ‘running’ versus ‘commanding’ here, was a highly complex and detailed job, most of which occurred 24/7. The S-1 officers worked their tails off, as did their teams. And make no mistake, this work was vitally important.
After putting all this together, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two of Edward's kids and presenting this to them and explaining it to some detail. Their interest was keen and refreshing and they expressed excitement at sharing this information with the rest of their family - another mission accomplished.
The final cool thing about Edward is that his family undertook a mad dash to find his uniform when they found out more about what he did in the war! This made me chuckle with pride and I am certain, now, that another priceless piece of all this will be forever preserved and talked about!
