Orders: 2 May 1945 - 196th Signal Photo Company

Assignment of Army T/3 Don Wiedenmayer and T/4 Edmund Burke O'Connell to the 10th Mountain Division.

Orders: 30 May 1945 - 196th Signal Photo Company

Assignment of Army T/3 Don Wiedenmayer and T/4 Edmund Burke O'Connell to the 180th Signal Repair Detachment. This assignment involved the repair and processing of photo equipment and supplies captured from the surrendering German armies as well as the turn in, repair and disposition of their own equipment at the end of the Italian Campaign.

Army Pictorial Service (APS)

Historical overview of Army Pictorial Service

Army Pictorial Service (APS) - Units in the Field (1943)

Army Pictorial Service (APS) Bulletin  #2  - 29 March 1945  Addresses an unexpected shortage of photographic supplies; motion picture film, film packs and cut film, flash bulbs, paper, chemicals, replacement parts for cameras, etc.

Army Pictorial Service (APS) Photo Memo - Hometown Coverage (14 April 44)

Army Pictorial Service (APS) Photo Memo  - Re-enacted Scenes (17 May 44)

Publications

Army T/4 Donald Wiedenmayer provided his copy of a February 1945 Sunday Stars and Stripes Magazine which described the role of the U.S. Army Signal Corps still and motion picture photographers in recording the Italian Campaign of World War II. The news article featured a dramatic photo by Sgt. John Mulcahy of the 196^th Signal Photo Company . T/4 Edmund Burke O’Connell is quoted in the in its final paragraphs describing the difficulties of filming in combat. The PDF image is reprinted with permission from Stars and Stripes. © 1945, 2006 The Sunday Stars and Stripes Magazine.

Type A Camera Equipment (General Assignment Unit) Packing List Summary

Since the publication of The Last Farewell - A Journey of the Heart, Don Wiedenmayer has gone through his personal collection of photos, copies of wartime orders and other materials which we include here. This includes a two-page packing list summary of the Type A Camera Equipment (General Assignment Unit) still camera equipment his photo team was responsible for in the final months of the war.

Page 2 PDF

Captain Ned Morehouse, Commanding Officer, 196th Signal Photo Company

Captain Ned Morehouse wrote to Prof. Peter Maslowski, author of “Armed with Cameras” describing the origins of the 163^rd Signal Photo Company, the 3131^st Signal Service Company and the 196^th Signal Photo Company and his role as their commanding officer. These materials quoted from Maslowski's interviews with Morehouse and provided to the co-authors by Prof. Maslowski tell the interconnected history of these units from North Africa through the Italian Campaign. Army photographers Edmund Burke O’Connell and Donald Wiedenmayer were members of the 3131^st Signal Service Company and the 196^th Signal Photo Company.

3131 Signal Service Company - “This organization (the 3131^st Signal Service Company) was formed in late 1943 or early 1944 to contain the small groups or individuals who had been sent to various operations, and had been shed by units to which attached for the operation, when the operation was completed. It was initially called a provisional unit, and was formed by Allied Force Headquarters in Algiers. Personnel operated the still laboratory in Algiers and photographers had various assignments from AFHQ. A Col. Shaw was photo officer for AFHQ and also had charge of the postal unit, which made the photocopies of letters written by GI’s in the theater. This was a large operation, but out of my jurisdiction. Unofficially, I had been given to understand that the unit was to eventually be sent to Italy to succeed the 163^rd Signal Photo Company.

This eventually happened and the unit entered the Italian Theater and gradually replaced the 163^rd, which went on to the Southern France landing. This unit (3131^st) was deactivated and personnel transferred to the newly-activated 196^th Signal Photo Company on 24 Feb. 1945. There was a unit (one officer and six men) called the 196^th Signal Photo detachment already in the theater, and it was also reassigned at a later date. Technically, they were the 196^th, and simply joined and were picked up in the strength reports, and list of personnel available for duty.

Lt. Steve Wever was the Officer in Charge (OIC) of this unit. He had already considerable combat photo experience, and had taken one picture which was especially newsworthy and was published widely. It was of an Army medic holding a bottle of blood plasma above a wounded soldier in Sicily and was taken near the front lines in the fire area.

 “Wever (as OIC) was somewhat typical of many small photographic units that sort of “floated” in the theater of operations. He was very energetic and enterprising, and constantly searching for good news pictures, and his unit was trained in the same fashion. He was a professional photographer before the war, and has followed his profession since, becoming a publicity still photographer for major motion pictures and very successful for it.”

163rd Signal Photo Company - "The 163rd SPC was activated at Ft. Benning, Georgia, with permanent station at San Antonio, Texas, the 163^rd Signal Photo Company was designated Third Army troops and administered directly by Signal Section, Third Army. Shortly after activation, replacements soon began arriving, equipment began to be received by the Post Signal Officer, and training began. Other than the Commanding Officer, there was only one company officer, and he was detached to the Third Army maneuvers in Louisiana soon after arrival. A full complement of personnel, except officers, was received, either still or motion picture. Shortage of equipment, mainly cameras, was to plague training for many months, and it was not until the unit was assigned to Task Force “A” and moved to A.P. Hill Military Reservation, Virginia, that equipment for picture taking was received in any quantity.

There were many hindrances. For instance, a developing laboratory is essential to develop and print pictures taken by the still men, yet the Post Engineer would not allow the use of any buildings to build darkrooms, and photo training consisted of dry runs, which were more exasperating than anything else, and were of little value. This was overcome through the good offices of the Commanding General of the Corps Area, under whom the post was organized.

The Company furnished many detachments of photographers _ to Headquarters Third Army, to Ft. Huachuca, Arizona., to the Louisiana maneuvers, among others. Upon being alerted to move to A.P. Hill, it was very difficult to get these units returned, as everyone wanted to hang on to their photographers. In addition, Third Army transferred out almost 40 men who wanted to apply to OCS.

I finally told the Third Army Signal Officer that I couldn’t be responsible for the combat readiness of the unit if I didn’t get the photo units back, and that I would have to be relieved of command. The units were soon on their way.

At A.P. Hill, it was found that we were under the command of a Task Force that was to engage in a combat mission, and I went to the Pentagon to get my orders. There I found that coverage of a landing in large force was being organized under Col. Darryl Zanuck, with Major Anatole Litvak as an assistant.”

(Litvak served with the United States Army during World War II and joined with fellow director Frank Capra to make the Why We Fight film series. Because of Litvak's ability to speak Russian, German, and French, he played a key role as the head of the army's photography division responsible for documenting the U.S. D-Day landing on Normandy.

At the end of the war, he returned to filmmaking and remained active in Hollywood until the mid-1950s when he began filming in Europe. Most notable was Anastasia (1956) filmed in Paris and starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes. The film was a fictitious imagining of the mystery surrounding the Grand Duchess Anastasia. The movie enjoyed huge commercial success.

The 163^rd Signal Photo Company was to furnish four officers and 20 men to assist in this coverage, with additional men and officers to be received from the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center (SCPC) in Astoria, New York.

 Co-author Edmund Burke O’Connell was assigned to this task force and appears in a group photograph of Army and Navy combat photographers published in Zanuck’s book, Tunis Expedition.

 This later became known as Task Force A and landing was made on the north coast of Africa at several points. A few of the men eventually rejoined the unit, but most were transferred out for administrative reasons before the unit headquarters could come to the North African Theater.

The 163^rd SPC was eventually moved to Camp Sutton, North Carolina, and from there to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. While there, two photo units were ordered to the Pacific Coast, for what was to prove to be a landing on Sitka and Attu, Alaska. They never rejoined the 196^th SPC. Lt. Gerald Roth and Lt. Marvin Pike commanded the units.

While at Camp Sutton, the unit was again alerted for shipment overseas, but this, after two weeks of laborious preparation, proved to be erroneous, and it developed that all they really wanted was the Laboratory unit. This was duly shipped out, and landed in North Africa. Lt. Brooks Noah was in command. They later rejoined the unit when it arrived in North Africa, although the lab was shipped to Italy before my Headquarters, and we did not regain control until we were fully deployed there.

The unit, or what remained of it, was eventually ordered to move to foreign service, and we landed in North Africa while the Sicilian campaign was in progress. We remained there for some time, as shipping was tied up supporting the Italian invasion, but we were shipped about the time Naples fell, and landed a few miles north of Naples. Eventually our trucks were received, and we then moved forward and began to deploy the photo units in accordance with instructions from Col. Melvin Gillette at Headquarters, Fifth Army.

At this point I lost direct operational control of the 163^rd, as photographers and others were sent to Col. Gillette for assignment and supervision I was directed to remain at company headquarters, which essentially became simply an administrative headquarters, outfitting photographers, furnishing supplies of films, maintaining a place where men could come to when not needed or when awaiting further assignments.

The lab also operated under Col. Gillette’s direction. I organized a courier service between each Corps, Fifth Army Headquarters, the laboratory, and company headquarters. Over this flowed supplies of films, letters, etc., exposed film and so on, on a daily basis.

An officer at each Corps headquarters received exposed film, and distributed supplies and messages to each of his photo teams.

In addition to the regular photo teams in the Army, Corps and Divisions, we also had photographers with the British Eighth Army who were on the right of the Italian theater. As I recall, Sgt. Tischler, who is on the 163^rd SPC roster was one of these.

Also officers would come to the theater on special missions from Washington, D.C., and we furnished men and equipment for these missions. One such was John Huston, with a writer named Buck, who eventually made “The Battle of San Pietro.” Sgt. Tischler was also a member of this team photographic combat action for this movie.

 (See http://www.archive.org/details/battle_of_san_pietro for a sample clip of the Army Signal Corps film.)

The film is unflinching in its realism (showing people dying on the field) and was held up from being shown to the public by the United States Army. Huston quickly became unpopular with the Army, not only for the film but also for his response to the accusation that the film was anti-war. Huston responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot.

General George Marshall came to the film's defense, stating that because of the film's gritty realism, it would make a good training film; subsequently the film was used for that purpose. Huston was no longer considered a pariah; he was decorated and made an honorary major.

In 1991, The Battle of San Pietro was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

 During this time also, contingents of photographers were sent to Italy for duty, and we were attached to the 163^rd SPC for administration. Some were eventually assigned to the unit and served with it until the end of the war. At one time we almost resembled a small battalion in size, with more officers attached or assigned than a normal battalion.

In March 1944 I was relieved from assignment. Robert Lewis, a company officer, my executive officer, later became commanding officer of the 163^rd SPC.”