376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion
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The 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (376th PFAB) (later redesignated the 376th Airborne Field Artillery Battalion) is an inactive airborne field artillery battalion of the United States Army. Active with the 82nd Airborne Division from 1942–1957, the 376th PFAB saw action during World War II in Sicily, Italy, the Netherlands, the Battle of the Bulge, and Germany, often serving in support of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team.
The 376th PFAB was activated using cadre from the Parachute Test Battery. The initial battalion commander was Major Paul Wright. The battalion was composed of five batteries: Headquarters Battery, three firing batteries (Batteries A, B, and C) each of four 75mm pack howitzers, and Battery D, an antiaircraft/antitank battery with 37 mm antitank guns and .50 caliber machine guns. In October 1942, Major Wright left to take command of the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, and Captain Robert Neptune assumed command. In January 1943, Major Wilbur Griffith assumed command, and now-Major Neptune returned to his duties as battalion executive officer. In April 1943, the battalion departed Fort Bragg, and staged at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, before departing the New York Port of Embarkation on the George Washington. The battalion arrived at Casablanca on 10 May 1943, and staged there briefly before moving to Oujda, French Morocco. There, the battalion, the 504th Regimental Combat Team, and the 82nd Airborne Division trained in miserable conditions until before moving to Kairouan, Tunisia, on 1–2 July.[1]
En route from North Africa to Sicily with the 504th PIR on 11 July 1943, the battalion suffered heavy losses when its aircraft were hit by friendly fire from American shipboard antiaircraft guns, with 24 men killed and 11 missing.[2][1]
