Captured on D-Day with 82nd Airborne

I'm looking for information on a cameraman with the 165th Signal Photo Co. who jumped into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne on D-Day. He was apparently captured with his entire stick, held in Cherbourg, released when the city was liberated and returned to duty. He is mentioned here The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum : Oral Histories | Oral History . Reuben Weiner identifies him as "Joe Legalt" and states he was assigned to the 504th PIR. As far as I can tell the 504th was not involved in Normandy. I suspect the man's name may be spelled differently as well. Are there any 82nd Airborne historians out there who know more about this man?

 

Thomas,

Welcome to posting, been awhile since you landed here. It may be a snag, but our focus is British & Commonwealth in WW2. We have an American "cousin": ww2f.com which may be better to try.

Wiki (yes, not always right) states 504th PIR were not dropped into Normandy on D-Day. See: 504th Infantry Regiment (United States) - Wikipedia

That Wiki refers to the 507th PIR and 508th PIR being in the 82nd Airborne Div.; there were three regiments and the 505th were the third. See: 82nd Airborne Division - Wikipedia

An online search with: "82nd Airborne Division" + "normandy" site:ww2talk.com found a number of threads you could review.

An online search with: 165th Signal Photo + normandy site:ww2talk.com found a few threads, none when in "..." I have not looked at them. Nor do I know what they did!

An online search with found many web links and at a glance four detachments from the 165th landed on the beaches. So you may have a problem to resolve!

Now five years ago someone asked for a 165th personnel list on D-Day and got this reply:

From: Looking for roster of 165th Signal Photo Company on D-Day

I see Weiner's audio interview summary for D-day refers to:

From: The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum : Oral Histories | Oral History

There is no mention of Joe Legalt being captured until this passage:

From: above link

Anyway I can only suggest you contact people in the USA for help. I think the 165th has a Facebook group.

 

I found this report about the 165th Signal Photo Co. It gives a history of the unit, it says that 1 Officer, and 3 enlisted were training in Parachute training with the 505th PIR…..but it does NOT say they jumped in with them (see page 3, after the cover photo)

Source: Fold3.com

 

Kept looking and I did find this report, 165th Signal Photo Co covering the Capture of St. Lo.

Reuben Weiner’s name is in this report……..and another man, Tec 5 Robert Leiter (on page 2 below)……just a quess right now…..could this be “Legalt”??????

I’ll look to see if I can find anything on “Robert Leiter”

Source: Fold3.com

 

I found this record, 165th Signal Photo Co on their way home from Europe. I’ll see if I can find a passenger list ?

 

I’ve been searching, haven’t been able to find a troopship passenger list (I’ve found many before, I just can’t find this one). I have confirmed they departed Le Harve, France on the 27 Feb 1946 and arrived in New York City on the 5th Mar 1946. I believe they “disembarked” from the ship on the 6th Mar 1946. Ship was the Le Jeune (or in the records LeJeune).

I will see if I can at all possible find the passenger list. Just to see if their names are on the list…..but. Having said that, many men were transferred to other units at the end of the war..so they may have moved on. I’ve included a newspaper clipping of one man (unrelated to our search) to show he, and others were moved to other units

LeJeune below, in the write up, it confirms the dates the ship left New York and then returned to New York on the 5th Mar 1946




AND Finally this article that indicates the man in the story below was the CO of the 165th Signal Photo Co at the time of the D-Day landings…..which “may” help in your search



I’ve found more info on the above CO, thought I would post it as he was severely wounded on D Day. The Daughter of Captain Wall has keep a huge collection of information on her father…….you “may” want to contact her to see if their is any information that could help with your search

 

Still Searching for you.

First, I did find a Joe Legault who joined the US Army……I can’t confirm “yet” that this is our man, but a hint




Next, I FiNALLY found info on the SS LeJeune, Departing 28 Feb 1946 and arriving New York 6 Mar 1946. The 165th Signal Photo Co was suppose to be on this ship……but unfortunately the record tells me “nothing”…..so can’t confirm thru this means. Record below is all I could find



I’m continuing to look to see if the Joe Legault Jr above was possibly the man your looking for

Cheers

 

I can’t confirm this is our man yet, I can’t link him to the 165th Signal Photo Co

BUT, I’ll post all the info I found on him below, so that you can follow up. Note he did serve in the US Army in BOTH WW2 and the Korean War.

Also, his discharge date in WW2 is the 16 Mar 1946……this is 10 days after the SS LeJeune arrived back in New York……I was hoping to find the passenger list….but to no avail. Usually the US Army Nominal Rolls on return to the US normally stated the UNIT and all the personnel attached to that unit returning.

NOTE: his Veteran’s file seems to have a typo of his last name (I think that’s an Ancestry.com issue) as the date of Birth and Death are exactly the same as Joe Legault…just so you are aware of that

One finally thing, his Father was born in Montreal, Canada. So he would have had “dual” citizenship” in both Canada and the US












Found this record of him return (probably) from Korea on 30 Jun 1951. The paper is from Everett, Washington

 

I just finished going thru all the MACR’s that are available on line (theirs not a lot) and NONE had any information on a member of the 165th Signal Photo Co on board. I looked for aircraft the the passengers “survived” the crash (or bailed out) previous to reaching their drop zone (but I check the drop zone anyway) and their wasn’t anything i could find.

If you’d like a try yourself, first use this link to “find” the MACR for C-47 missing on the 5/6 Jun 1944

USAAF Missing Aircrew Reports - June 1944

Then go to this link, plug in the MACR number at the top (one by one I’m afraid), the record will come up, you can ready them and see if you can spot any “possibilities”……the records are not in the best of shape, hard to read sometimes, and sometimes you can’t read them at all (poor quality microfiche )

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91172973

the above link is to the last aircraft I searched. Just go to the search bar at the top, delete the number and just add the MACR number you want, the record pops up and you can open and read

NOTE: their is NOT a lot of C-47 on these records…..so a lot are still in files somewhere???

ANOTHER NOTE: the list on the first link “probably” does not have every C-47 MACR on it…..so there could be hundreds more in the 2nd link…..but going thru them is going to be a lot of work. IF, I find another MACR listing number I’ll go back and search the 2nd link again.

Cheers and good luck


Sorry, I forgot this site…….to find MACR numbers. MACR number is in the last column (to the right) of each aircraft.

Missing Air Crew Reports June 1944

 

I’ve found the other man, Robert Leiter, which may be the person we are looking for.

Robert Earl Leiter

In the information below, it shows he “worked” at a Camera Store in LA before the war, and on his OBIT page, one writer remembers him as an Army Photographer

 

Found a Joseph William LeGault with a Tech 3 rating and purple heart noted on his marker. Could not find anything about his service record and unfortunately my account with newspapers.com has expired.

Joseph W. LeGault (1909-1999) - Find a Grave...

Legault, Joseph William - Fold3 - US, WWII Draft Registration Cards, 1940 - Fold3

Legault, Joseph William in US, Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775-2019 - Fold3

 

FINALLY, found a story that at least confirms that the 165th Signal Photo Co personel did parachute into France on D Day. Article mentions Sgt Reuben Weiner’s name……still looking

 

FINALLY found it in the Earl Walter Witscher Collection. It took a while…….side note in these orders his take him to the 1st Canadian Corps located in Leatherhead Surrey. The news story above about 1st Lt Earl Witscher gave me the break through on the research. I’ve included the Library of Congress page on Earl Walter Witscher for reference.

Source: Image 1 of Orders (1/30/1944)

SGT JOSEPH W LEGAULT 19101545





Added one more document that has Sgt Legault name on it

 

And thought I’d add a little more info on 1st Lt Earl Witscher. I’m not completely sure if the first photo (of the paratroopers) is of him and his men…..probably not, but just a thought

 

165th Signal Photographic Company

Source: 165 SPC

 

Temujin,

Hopefully Thomas will return to see your research. He has not logged in since posting, so I will next PM him to return.

 

Thank you. I’m been researching still and found the “write up” of his reference on the source he quoted in his first post. As you can see hiis name was “misspelled” and you can quickly figure out that Joe Legault HAD to have been assigned to the 505th PIR,, as each man was assigned a different Regiment in the 82nd Airborne.

I kind of went down “rabbit holes” as I just looked at his written info….I didn’t look at his SOURCE, which I should have’, because his source info gives me a LOT more info to research and find the right man. Oh well, still found a lot of great information on Tec 5 Robert Leiter and have sent it on to his family (via Ancestry) for their info and records. And was able to post information on other men as well. Research is never useless, just may take more time to “get their” if I don’t read the information fully (another “teachable moment” for ME)

I have NOT found any evidence of his capture yet, but still looking

Source: The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum : Oral Histories | Oral History

 

I just found his name on the 505th PIR Roster…..it is copyrighted, so I can’t post you the list on this website, but go to this link. It’s Alphabetical so just keep going. He “jumped” with HHC - Regimental HQ & HQ’s company.

http://www.505rct.org/media/rosters/2019 Rosters pdf/505-PIR-Roster - January - 2025.pdf


When you look at his records on the above, note that under the column CIB = Combat Infantry Badge…….it’s recorded against his name as the letter “S”…….this means he was awarded this during the Sicily Campaign…..and he was also awarded the Purple Heart. It does not tell us “which unit he was with or attached to in Sicily” and we don’t know when he received the Purple Heart?

 

The enlistment record shows that Joseph William LeGault was a photographer in civilian life. I didn't find this page the first time I looked because the OCR scanner at NARA put a space between Le and Gault.

NARA - AAD - Display Full Records - Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Reserve Corps Records)