Walter Kaplan and GIs at Club Chipper, WWII Antwerp

At Club Chipper December 16, 1945.

The daughter of Walter Kaplan sent me this great photo today. It shows her dad and some friends at Club Chipper. This was an enlisted mens' club in Antwerp, which opened shortly after Germany surrendered. You can read more about it (and see photos) in this previous post.

Walter served in my grandfather's battalion in the 303rd Port Company.

280th Port Company group photo

A couple months ago the granddaughter of Enrico "Rick" Starnadori emailed me. His 280th Port Company and my grandfather's 304th Port Company were in the same battalion. She was nice enough to scan her grandpa's copy of the company's group photo.

Click on this photo for an enlarged image (then you can save the larger version to your computer)

The inclusion of the African-American sitting in the photo is interesting. The army was segregated during World War II, so there were all-black units, such as the 490th Port Company which was on Utah Beach and the 494th Port Battalion which was on Omaha Beach.

In a previous post I shared a near-complete roster of the 280th Port Company.