The Dale Center’s 103rd Infantry Division Digital Humanities Project: An Update

By James Witkoski

This past summer, I was fortunate to be a member of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society’s team designing and building a digital archive centered on the World War II experiences and historical sources belonging to the U.S. Army’s 103rd Infantry Division. The team has worked diligently to create a website that is both user friendly and accessible to the public. A major goal was to create a site that anyone can use to learn more about the extraordinary experiences that the men of this Division endured as they fought through the European Theater of Operations for nearly a year. I really wanted to work on this project so the public, from academic researchers to people with an interest in World War II to family members of those who fought in the Division, have free and unrestricted access to these important historical records. By providing a digital archive for the Division, we are also able to better understand and remember the actions and sacrifices of the men of the 103rd Infantry (Cactus) Division.

James Witkoski

James Witkoski is from Marlton, New Jersey and is a current U.S. History PhD student at the University of Southern Mississippi. His current research focus is on the Vietnam War, and explaining how and why intelligence was altered as it ascended the chain of command in 1967. He received his M.A. in History, as well as a Certificate of Graduate Education in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey in 2022.

For me, this project served as an eye-opening introduction into the world of digital humanities. Before working on the project, I had virtually no experience building a website, or even how to properly structure a web page. Fortunately, the rest of the team members were excellent, training and guiding me on all of the technical aspects required to create an excellent website. I am endlessly thankful to everyone I worked with, as they patiently took the time to work through any technical issues I had to make sure that our work was able to proceed at an incredible pace.

While working on this project, one fact about the Division I was most struck by was that the 103rd Infantry Division was one of the few units to receive the “Holocaust Liberation Unit” designation from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Army Center for Military History. Dr. Kyle Zelner, Associate Professor of History at USM and the project's director, first told me about the 103rd Division digital humanities project, he also mentioned that the Division found and liberated a Nazi concentration camp while they were engaged in combat in Germany. Dr. Zelner knew my research interests and previous studies heavily focused on Holocaust and genocide education, and I was intrigued. After doing some additional research, I learned that the Division liberated Kaufering subcamp I, a part of the Dachau camp network. In the 103rd Infantry Division archives, I also found written testimonials from individuals liberated by the Division in April 1945. In a 2002 Unit Association newsletter, one camp survivor wrote that those interred in the camp still vividly recalled the nearly impossible sight of American soldiers arriving to free them from the hell that was the camp—an account that I found incredibly moving.

There were also some other aspects of the project that I personally developed and take great pride in as they took a substantial amount of effort to construct and are crucial for those who will visit once the project is released. One of my major accomplishments was to create a glossary for the “Morning Reports,” which was a daily update of each units’ movements and major personnel changes. While I was creating the “Morning Reports” glossary, I concurrently edited the glossary for the entire website. The glossaries are vital tools for those visiting our website, as the majority of the primary source documents, like the “Morning Reports,” are written in confusing military jargon laced with acronyms and abbreviations that to most people makes absolutely no sense at first view. Luckily, I have had experience both in my personal research and in my personal life as a member of the military in reviewing documents with this jargon and acronym-filled language. With this existing knowledge, I meticulously went through the Morning Reports and created a glossary specific to these documents. In addition to editing and updating the primary glossary, my goal in creating the “Morning Report” glossary was to provide a usable guide for those who visit the site who have no knowledge of military terminology. In doing so, I hope to create a more inclusive and open digital archive for whoever would like to access these important records.

I also took great care when researching the various awards received by men in or units attached to the Division due to actions in combat. Of particular interest to me was Lieutenant Charles Thomas, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1997. Thomas was assigned to the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, a unit attached to the 103rd Infantry Division, and conducted feats of gallantry that are almost impossible to believe without written documentation. Because of his actions, as well as the significance of the medal which he was posthumously awarded decades after World War II, I decided to further research and detail every step associated with a servicemember selected to be a recipient of the Medal of Honor. This medal is not “awarded” to servicemembers, but rather earned through feats of heroism and gallantry that are so incredible that they are first meticulously investigated and verified to prove that the recipient is worthy of the medal and its importance in military history. It was a humbling experience to conduct this research and explain how Charles Thomas was finally deemed worthy of the Medal of Honor years after the war ended.

Working on this project has greatly expanded my (admittedly) limited understanding of digital humanities and the various methods in which people can learn from online databases and websites. Through this digital humanities project, researchers, family members, or anyone else who is curious about any aspect of the Division’s World War II history, will have access to a treasure trove of primary sources. This digital humanities project will be especially helpful for those who might not have the availability to travel to the physical archives collection housed at the McCain Archives here at The University of Southern Mississippi. As a graduate student myself, I sincerely hope that this website helps other students or those looking to complete a history or genealogical project on the men of the 103rd. This thought has made all of the hard work on the project extremely rewarding for me. By making these sources accessible through a digital humanities medium, researchers will have access to resources that they might not have available to them if they were conducting the research in person, such as the morning report glossaries or other aids that our team has developed to assist researchers.

Due to the completeness of this archival collection by the Division’s veterans, this work on the 103rd Infantry Division is crucial for the overall study of military history and World War II. Not only is this unit’s history, told through these primary sources, invaluable to future historians wishing to conduct research on the war, it also offers a myriad of audiences, from World War II enthusiasts to relatives to academics, the wonderful opportunity to view the war from other perspectives. The University of Southern Mississippi is so fortunate to have this collection, and partaking on this project is something that I am grateful and proud to be a part of as well.