All or most of the information on this page came from the contact listed below. If you have comments or can add any information, please send e-mail to the Webmaster, or postal mail to Rodney Young, 251 Pine Mdw, Spring Branch, TX 78070. Or you can contact George Murray directly. Thank you very much.

Nickname: The Lobster (the battalion's code name in Europe)

Newsletter: The Lobster

Web site:www.86thchemical.us

Association: 86th Chemical Mortar Bn Memorial Assoc

Coordinator: Harold Matson, failed email contact Jan 2017

Contact: George Murray, Adjutant

Address: 818 West 62nd St, Anniston, AL 36206
Phone: 256-820-4415
E-mail:through his daughter Georgia Murray Putzer

Membership: 180 (as of 8 Jan 1999)

Reunions:

2012: Nashville, Tennessee, May 15 - Final Reunion
2010: Nashville, Tennessee, April 14-18
2009: Nashville, Tennessee
2008: Nashville, Tennessee
2007: Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, April 11-15
2006: Chattanooga, Tennessee
2002: Biloxi, Mississippi, April 14-18
2001: San Antonio, Texas
2000: Jykell Island, Georgia, March 15-18
1999: Scheduled for Jykell Island, Georgia, September 15-19, cancelled by Hurricane Floyd
1998: Springfield, Missouri, April 29

Memorial: The Battalion had placed a memorial monument to its men at Fort McClellan, Alabama. The Army closed that post on September 15, 1999, and all six (2nd, 3rd, 81st, 83rd, 86th, 91st) chemical mortar battalion monuments were moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, along with other Chemical Corps monuments including that of the 1st Gas Regiment. The monuments are now emplaced in a Memorial Park at Leonard Wood near the Chemical Corps Museum there. See photos of all memorial monuments at FLW.

Activated: 17 May 1943 as 86th Chemical Bn Motorized at Camp Swift, TX

Training: 17 May 1943 - 11 Apr 1944 Cp Swift, TX

Redesignated: 15 Feb 1945 as 86th Chemical Mortar Bn

Inactivated: 1 Nov 1946 at Camp Campbell, KY

Overseas: Arrived NYPE 19 Apr 1944, England 26 Apr 1944, France-ETO 30 Jun 1944; returned NYPE 10 Jul 1945. See note below.

Campaigns: Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe, Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland

Number of men killed in action: 40

Number of days in combat: 315

Number of rounds fired: 152,257

Note: The battalion departed New York aboard the New Amsterdam, arrived in Scotland 25 Apr 1944, moved by train to Port Sunlight, Cheshire, received two months training, and sailed for France on 29 Jun 1944. The unit was in Bischofteinitz, Czechoslovakia, at war's end, departed there for Le Havre, France (Camp Lucky Strike), on 13 Jun 1945, and sailed for the U.S. aboard the SS Sea Pike on 1 Jul 1945. After 30 days leave, personnel reported to Camp Campbell, KY, for further training and deployment to the Pacific theater on 1 Oct 1945. With the Japanese surrender, the battalion's redeployment orders were canceled and the unit was inactivated.

Unit decorations:

Companies A & C - Streamer in the colors of the Belgian Croix de Guerre embroidered Ardennes
Companies B & C - Distinguished Unit Streamer embroidered Hurtgen Forest
Company C - Streamer in the colors of the Belgian Croix de Guerre embroidered Elsenborn Crest,and the Belgian Fourragere in the colors of the Belgian Croix de Guerre

History and other published items


Return to the home page for chemical mortar battalions.