World War II Liaison Team Reunited in New Hartford, October 29, 1978
- Date
- Creator
- Gazin, Sharon
- Format
- newspaper
- Category
- Stories
- Subcategory
- Ben Schnieder
- People
- Gazin, Sharon
- Burke, Michael
- Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
- Aubin, Emil
- Bohle, Henri
- Littman, Paul
- Bissonette, Richard
- Gagnon, Ernest
- Kopelow, Seymour
- Pappas, William
- Lessaro, John
- Blum, William T.
- Sherline, Gerry
- Places
- Utica, New York
- Camp Ritchie, Maryland
- Camp Crowder, Missouri
- Africa
- Naples, Italy
- San Fransisco, California
- Italy
- Saint Tropez, France
- New Hartford, New York
- Bakersfield, California
- Ludlow, Massachusetts
- Adams, Massachusetts
- Brooklyn, New York
- New York, New York
- Setauket, New York
- Webster, New York
- Macon, Georgia
- France
- Data URI
- soh.sto019.00029.xml
THE OBSERVER-DISPATCH REGIONAL
Utica, N.Y., Sunday, October 29, 1978
WWII Liaison Team Reunited in New Hartford
Thirteen members of the 5th Signal Center Team, which acted as a liaison between French and American troops during World War II, were reunited yesterday for the first time in more than 30 years.
Gerry Sherline, of 6 Windsor Terrace, New Hartford, said that although members of the team were from all over the United States, with one living in France, two of its 18 men and three officers were from the Utica area.
Besides Sherline, Michael Burke, a professor at Mohawk Valley Community College, also served with the team.
The group served as a French language team during the war, he said, "We were organized in August of 1943 to serve with the French and American armies for communication between the two."
The French army was the First French Free Army and the American army was the American 7th Army, he explained.
Members of the team were high speed radio operators, cryptographers, interpreters and message senders. Several of the men on the team, Sherline said, also served in dual capacities.
Some members of the team, he said, had lived in France previously or were French-Americans
...
SHERLINE SAID the men attended Military Intelligence School at Camp Ritchie, Md., and then went to Camp Crowder, Mo. From there, they were sent to Africa, where they worked with various units to sharpen their skills.
Members of the unit went to Italy with the French in the Italian Campaign, with some staying in Naples and others taking part in the D-Day Invasion, landing at St. Tropez
The team was reunited later in North Central France, Sherline said, later serving in the Bordeaux pocket, where 50,000 Germans were trapped. The group served with the French there, he explained.
Members of the group also served in Germany, and were at Berchtesgarden, Hitler's mountain retreat, where they received the surrender from the German 15th Army, stationed in Austria.
When the war ended, Sherline said some members were sent home, and others served with the War Crimes Unit in Ludwigsburg, staying there until they were discharged.
Sherline said that although he and Burke did not know each other before the war, they enlisted on the same day, their serial numbers were four numbers apart, and they were both assigned to the same unit.
Burke received a battlefield commission, and retired from the service as a lieutenant colonel. Sherline was discharged with the rank of sergeant.
Others attending the reunion included Emil Aubin, of Bakersfield, Calif.; Henri Bohle, of San Francisco; Paul Littman, of Denver, Colo.; Paul Picher of Winoski, Vt.; Ernest Gagnon, of Adams, Mass.; Richard Bissonnette, of Ludlow, Mass.; Seymour Kopelow, Brooklyn; William Pappas, of New York City; John Lessaro, of Setauket; William T. Blum, of Webster, and James Green, Macon, Ga.
The group attended a dinner Friday at Sherline's home, with a cocktail party there last night, followed by a banquet at the Treadway Inn, New Hartford.