Paths of Armor

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Foreword

The Fifth Armored Division's record of achievement is unsurpassed by that of any other division. And the ratio of its casualties to such achievement is the lowest in the entire United States Army.

It was the Fifth Armored which devised the married formation of tanks and infantry; it led the Normandy break through; it sprang the Falaise trap which meant the death of the Seventh German Army and the Field Marshal who commanded it. The Fifth Armored was the first division to reach the Eure River, the Seine, and the Our; it cut off near Mons thousands of Germans, later taken by the 1st Infantry Division. In one incredible day, it crossed the stubborn battlefields of World War I and outraced fleeing Germans from Nyon to the Belgian frontier. Throughout that day the route of its advance was a roll call of past battles:

Cambrai, Le Cateau, St. Quentin, Vimy Ridge, Valenciennes.

The Victory Division was the first to enter Germany. It breached the Siegfried Line early in September, while other parts of our armies were still demonstrating before it, or skirmishing within it. The Fifth Armored cleared the Hurtgen Forest, after the job had been begun by five infantry divisions. In four days it overran its given area of the Rhineland. Three weeks later, within a few hours after crossing the Rhine, its engineers were maintaining bridges at Hamelin where:

The River Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on
The southern side;

A few days later the division was on the Elbe, with bridge sites chosen and reconnaissance parties in boats--nearer to Berlin than any combat group in the American Army. While the Fifth Armored was accomplishing these feats, the American public heard little about the division because of the tight censorship under which it operated and because it did not possess an elaborate public relations staff. This history is now published to cast some light on these outstanding achievements. It tells how they were accomplished. It is also published as a tribute to the division's Commanding General, Major-General Lunsford E. Oliver (now retired). The record of the division, we all agree, merely reflects his wise, patient, intelligent and always aggressive leadership. It is only borrowing a phrase from the greatest of Books to say that General Oliver created the division in his own image.

No foreword would be complete without a word of appreciation; first and foremost to Vic Hillery and Major Emerson F. Hurley, without whose efforts, over 30 months' time, this history could not have been written at all. Lon MacFarland, Dave Batey, Bill Daniel all spent a great deal of time getting it published. Lt. Col. Fred E. Ressegieu and Harry Entrekin helped very much and Erling Foss took many of the photographs used. And probably most harassed of all was Lou Filas, our Association Secretary, who had to type, retype, edit, and re-edit the script, to decipher strange hands, and never once lost his good humor in doing so.

In the name of and on behalf of the Fifth Armored Division Association we thank them all; and we thank all of you who contributed source material in the form of letters, stories and whose actions we have been writing about.

We hope you like the book.

Martin Philipsborn, Jr,
(President, 5th Armored Division Association (1948-1949)

Contents:

Foreword

A Message From General Oliver

I. A Star Is Born .................1
II. What's In A Name ...................3
III. Between The Flower Beds And The Sea ......6
IV. Wind, Sand And Sun ................9
V. The Man From North Africa ..............13
VI. Preview In Tennessee ..............25
VII. Pine Needles, Snow And Apples ........28
VIII. Would You Still Be My Darling .......33
IX. Over There .....................37
X. A Military Wedding .................43
XI. Vive La France ................45
XII. The Sickle ...................56
XIII. In The Distance The Eiffel Tower ....68
XIV. All Is Kaput .................99
XV. Corridor Through The Siegfried Line .......114
XVI. Wet Autumn ..................152
XVII. The Days Before Christmas ..........156
XVIII. Snow Battle ...............219
XIX. Through The Cabbage Fields ..........223
XX. Across The Heart Land ............253
XXI. The Last Fight ..............311

Division Staff And Unit Commanders ...........327

Citations .....................348

Photographic Sections

Tennessee And Desert Maneuvers ..............17
Normandy to the Seine ......................81
Northern France And Luxembourg ................129
Hurtgen Forest And The Bulge ..................193
Roer To The Rhine ..........................241
Rhine To The Elbe ..........................281

A Message from General Oliver

This is the story of the Fifth Armored Division; the division which led in the drive that created the Falaise pocket, which was the first of all the Allied units to set foot on German soil and to pierce the Siegfried Line, which in the closing days of the war went out a hundred miles in front of the supporting infantry and fought its way to the Elbe River, closer to Berlin than any other Allied unit, and which was stopped there, not by the Germans, but by order from Ninth Army. Necessarily there can be mentioned in this story only a few of the many acts of heroism which made this record possible. The long months of training for the task ahead, the drudgery, the endurance of cold and wet and fatigue, that contributed to this record could not possibly be adequately portrayed. To have participated with you, men of the Fifth Armored Division, in all these things has been the greatest privilege of my life.

It is my hope that in the years to come the same spirit which drove you onward to your achievements in this war will cause you to take the lead in your communities in doing everything possible to make our country a better place in which to live, and to improve our international relations and prevent future wars, so that our heroic dead shall not have died in vain.

Lusford E. Oliver
Major General, Commanding

Maj. General Oliver

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Chapter I
A Star Is Born
It Was 1 October 1941.

On Europe's Eastern Front Wehrmacht forces under Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt broke through the Red Army's primary defenses as the Germans concluded the first week of their offensive against the Crimea. North and east of Dniepropetrovsk, on the line toward the industrial Donets River basin, German armored divisions captured several Russian batteries, destroyed 45 of their tanks and encircled four Soviet infantry divisions.

In England inhabitants of Newcastle dug the dead and wounded from the rubble of the still smoldering buildings that has been crushed and burned by a devastating Luftwaffe attack during the previous night.

On the red clay wasteland of Kentucky's Fort Knox, far from all this clash and smoke of battle, a group of soldiers lined up and came to attention. Some were regular U. S. Army men, others 12-month selectees, others active-duty reserve officers. They had been gathering here in tent city all during the previous month of September. Now their numbers were sufficiently great officially to form the nucleus of an army division.

This was activation day of the Fifth Armored Division. Appointed to command the new group was an officer from the Armored Force Replacement Center. He was Brig. Gen. Jack W. Heard (later promoted to Major General).

In his address to these assembled soldiers General Heard declared that this division would have a brilliant future. It seemed a rather rash and optimistic prediction. For if this division ever did come to grips with the enemy its battle opponents would be these Wehrmacht units which even then were already battle-seasoned and were winning brilliant engagements on the Eastern Front. Certainly it would be an exceptional accomplishment if this Fifth Armored Division even succeeded in holding its ground in any future encounter with any one of these German units.

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But the Fifth Armored Division was destined to have a brilliant future. It was destined to meet these crack German panzer divisions in battle, and it would smash them. It was destined to carve out, on Europe's battlefields, one of the most brilliant combat records of any U. S. division in World War II. These are some of the battle laurels which the Fifth Armored wears:

It lead the encircling movement in France which swung in back of the German Seventh Army and snapped shut the trap on this enemy force at the Falaise Gap;

It was the first division to reach the Seine River;
It was one of the first divisions to enter Belgium;
It was the first division to reach Luxembourg;
It was the first division to fight on German soil;
It was the first division to plunge through the Siegfried Line;
It was the American division, which, after the thrust across the German heartland, lay closest to Berlin; it was halted on the west bank of the Elbe River, 45 miles from the enemy capital, not by the Germans but by orders from SHAEF.

And although it amassed this impressive record of combat accomplishments, the Fifth Armored came through the war with a casualty rate that was among the lowest of all U. S. battle-scarred divisions. This attests to the speed and efficiency with which it executed its assigned missions; the excellence of its staff work and the hardiness of its soldiers. It also attests the genius of its leader, Major General Lunsford E. Oliver, who, two years after the close of hostilities, was to be told by his officers and men that "no division had a more beloved leader."

But it also has been the fate of the Fifth Armored to have its deeds little known. Because it was always in the vanguard, the division's identity was kept well concealed under such anonymous tags as: "Patton's ghost troops," or "First Army armored wedge," or "Ninth Army spearhead." And when much later the layers of censorship were finally rolled back and announcement was made of the division's 'accomplishments, the headlines were busy with much more immediate events. Therefore, this story is told so that others may know and Fifth Armored veterans may not soon forget.

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Chapter II
What's In A Name
Fort Knox
1 October 1941--10 February 1942

Just as Wellington traced the successes of British troops to the playing fields of Eton, the Fifth Armored's victories in Europe had their roots in the sands of the Mojave, the mud of Tennessee and the snows of upstate New York. It was a difficult and torturous path which the division had to follow before it reached the field of battle. It spent 34 months and traveled thousands of miles preparing to meet the enemy.

The first four months of the division's life were spent at its birthplace, Ft. Knox. Here, too, it was given its name even before it was formally activated. On 10 September 1941 it was decided to call the Fifth Armored the "Victory Division." It was a name which proved to be exceptionally appropriate, for three years and one day after it was adopted, the division led the victorious Allied ground forces into Germany.

The name was suggested by Pvt. Sidney Huttner, Battery B, 58^th Field Artillery Bn. (armd). In an explanatory piece which he submitted with the suggested name, Pvt. Huttner pointed out that the Roman numeral equivalent for the Fifth Armored was V and that this symbol was then being used by the peoples of Europe's Nazi-occupied countries to express their faith in the ultimate victory over the enemy. Pvt. Huttner wrote this piece on 7 September 1941 while en route to Ft. Knox. For his effort he was rewarded with a furlough.

Members of the fledgling division began knuckling down to the grim and monotonous and sometimes interesting business of learning how to fight a war. There were hundreds of individual jobs that had to be learned, everything from cooking to taking apart tank motors. There was the ever-present close order drill with its annoying insistence on complete uniformity of dress. And there

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were dirty jobs to be done: washing dishes, cleaning latrines, loading trucks, firing stoves, hauling ashes.

On 10 October 1941 the division received its first medium tanks when five N-3's were driven into the 81st motor park.

On 27 October it was assigned its first mission: to guard the gold bullion deposited in vaults at Ft. Knox by the U. S. government. The initial alert platoon given the job came from the 85th Reconnaissance Battalion and was commanded by 1st Lt. John P. Gerald, later, as a Major, killed in action near the German border.

On 11 November the division made its first public appearance when artillery, infantry and engineer units paraded with other Ft. Knox units through the streets of Louisville in an Armistice Day celebration .

When the declaration of war on Germany came 11 December 1941 the training pace was quickened. And plans were rushed to move the division to its new station, Camp Cooke, California.

Originally the Fifth Armored had been activated as a heavy armored division. It consisted of three tank regiments, a brigade headquarters, an artillery regiment, an artillery battalion, an infantry regiment, a reconnaissance battalion and an engineer battalion.

But on 1 January 1942 the division's organization was completely revamped. Of the original three tank regiments, 81st (medium tanks), 34th (light tanks), and 31st (light tanks), it was decided to inactivate the 31st; the other two regiments dropped their light and medium designations and instead each was given one light tank battalion, and two "medium" battalions. No "heavy" tanks were seen throughout the war.

The 46th Armored Infantry Regiment, which originally had two battalions, was assigned another. The division's brigade headquarters gave way to two combat command headquarters.

Other units inactivated were the 21st Ordnance and 19^th Quartermaster Battalion. In their place appeared the Maintenance Battalion, Supply Battalion and Train Headquarters and Headquarters Co.

The 65th Field Artillery Regiment was changed to a battalion and the 95th Artillery Battalion was formed. The 58th Artillery

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Battalion remained unchanged. The 85th Reconnaissance and 22nd Engineer Battalions also remained unchanged.

After the reshuffling had been completed, the division settled down for another cold month of training. Then in the second week of February orders went out for the Fifth Armored members to pack up their equipment. With their horseshoe rolls on their backs they marched off to the railroad station. But not everyone went west. Just as the Fifth had been formed from cadres supplied by the Third and Fourth Armored Divisions, it left behind a cadre for the Eighth Armored Division.

As the California-bound train pulled away from the red clay wasteland there were few regrets among the Fifth Armored men. Behind them they left some medium and old "Mae West" light tanks, the mud, the tents, the stoves, and the fire shovels.

The Fifth Armored's first Chief of Staff at Ft. Knox was Col. John B. Wogan; he later became a major general and commanded the 13th Armored Division.

Brigade Commander at Ft. Knox was Brig. Gen. John S. Wood, who joined the division on 1 December 1941.

First commanders of the 81st and 34th were Col. Vernon Evans and Col. Robert W. Grow, respectively; both became major generals later in the war.

First commander of the 31st were first Col. Guy W. Chipman and Col. Sereno E. Brett.

First commander of the 46th was Lt. Col. John H. Ringe; Col. Floyd W. Waltz arrived late in January and took the regiment to Camp Cooke.

First commander of the 65th was Lt. Col. J. J. B. Williams; Lt. Col. Harold W. Blakely assumed command on 18 October.

First commander of the 58th was Major John G. Howard; Lt. Col. Samuel V. Krauthoff was first commander of the 95th.

First commanders of the 85th and 22nd were Lt. Col. Frank A. Alien, Jr., and Major Reginald L. Dean, respectively.

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Chapter III
Between The Flower Beds And The Sea
Camp Cooke, California
15 February 1942--1 August 1942

CAMP COOKE, CALIFORNIA, is literally a garden spot. It borders the multicolored Lompoc and Santa Maria Valleys, which are the greatest flower seed-growing areas in the United States. But actually the camp is no bed of roses.

Located high above these valleys on a mesa that juts out into the Pacific, the military reservation is swept by high winds and frequently is engulfed in blankets of dripping fog. While its colorful neighboring valleys glow with rows of sweet peas, larkspur, nasturtiums, zinnias and other blooms, the camp's uncleared areas are covered with sage brush. Where this brush has been cut away the surface is either sand or cream-colored diatomaceous earth. There are also rows of tall stately eucalyptus trees, which were planted when the reservation was still a ranch to shield it from some of the winds off the sea.

The camp's military structures are set back about a mile from the reservation's eight-mile coast line. These buildings were all new when the Fifth Armored made its home here in February. The veterans of Ft. Knox's Tent City were happy to find oil-heated barracks, modern kitchens and elaborate motor parks.

Even before it was out of its steel diapers the Victory Division began to feel the war's hot breath. Before the California-bound soldiers had left Ft. Knox they had been issued several .50 caliber machine guns. Anti-aircraft Plan A had been ready to go into effect during the trip if the Jap should strafe the train. Gun crews had been prepared to rush these ground mount fifties out of the cars and start blazing away at the enemy planes. During the five-day trip "old timers" taught the rest of the soldiers how to field strip these machine guns.

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On 24 February, just nine days after the division arrived at its new home by the sea, a Japanese submarine surfaced about 10 miles north of Santa Barbara and started lobbing shells into the Elwood oil fields. At Camp Cooke, about 55 miles north of this spot, the 22nd Engineers (which was the "Alert Battalion" that night) sent patrols to the beaches. The remainder of the division stood by for action, But that night there was no further enemy activity. The following night word was received that unidentified planes had been fired on by coastal anti-aircraft batteries at Long Beach and the camp had its first blackout.

During March olive drab was painted over the bright yellow exteriors of all the camp's buildings. And the glass in all the windows facing the sea was painted over.

Many "vacate camp alerts" were issued by the Western Defense Command during the division's early months at Camp Cooke. Frequently they came in the middle of the night. Fifth Armored men had to haul their equipment to the motor parks, load up the tanks and halftracks and head out on a 15 or 20 mile motor march.

While the Japanese fleet was maneuvering in the North Pacific during the last week in May, the Fifth Armored was on special alert status. The division, less Combat Command A, occupied the reservation's coastline and made plans to counterattack any enemy landings. CC A, under the command of General Wood, moved to Alondra Park on the southern edge of Los Angeles. It's mission here was to repulse any enemy paratroop landings near the plane factories and the Airports. When the Battle of Midway started the alert was ended.

Despite these numerous alerts the division continued its basic training according to the original schedule mapped out by the War Department Mobilization Program. In March over 9,000 men had arrived at Camp Cooke to fill out the armored skeleton which had been formed at Ft. Knox. These men had come straight from induction centers, mostly midwest centers, such as Camp Grant and Ft. Sheridan, Ill., and Ft. Snelling, Minn. But there had also been big contingents from other states, such as Ft. Dix, N.J., and Ft. Bliss, Texas. These men were given the regular 13 weeks of basic training and then six weeks of specialized training.

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In the individual alerts and exercises that required participation of the entire division, flexibility in the attacking formation was becoming popular. The division commander combined his tactical units in whatever type of striking force he thought could best meet the individual "enemy" situations. He massed his tanks in a simple powerful steamroller force, or employed all the infantry units in the traditional type of attack force, or formed combination tank-infantry battalion teams. This last formation was a forerunner of the even greater tank-infantry integration which the division would achieve by the time it reached actual combat. Then it would have "married" tank-infantry companies that proved so devastating to enemy forces.

While still at Camp Cooke the division also started developing the combat command type of tactical headquarters. CC A was first commanded by Brig. Gen. Wood and later, by Brig. Gen. Harold W. Blakely, CC B's first commander was Brig. Gen. Serene E. Brett. CC A's tactical units included: the 34th Armored Regiment, 71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and the 1st Battalion of the 46th Armored Infantry Regiment. CC B's organization consisted of: the 81st Armored Regiment, 47^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and the 2nd Battalion of the 46th. The remainder of the units formed what was known as the Division Reserve.

By mid-summer the Fifth Armored was beginning to shape up as a fighting force. On 1 August 1942 its strength was 15,000 men.

But America's armies were continuing to expand and the division was again called upon to contribute some of its strength to the formation of still another armored division. In August many of the soldiers who had started with the division at Ft. Knox packed up and departed for Camp Beal, California, as a cadre for the 13th Armored Division.

Orders went out for the rest of the division to pack up, too. During the first week of August it rolled its tanks and halftracks onto railway flat cars and blocked them in place. Then while part of the personnel mounted the trains, the rest climbed into wheel vehicles and started on a 250-mile overland journey. Their destination was a hot spot on God's scorched acres bounded by Needles, Blythe, and Desert Center in California's Mojave Desert.

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Chapter IV
Wind, Sand And Sun

The Mojave Desert
August to December 1942

In the Mojave Desert the Fifth Armored received nature's Baptism of Fire. Here in this hot dry basin at the height of summer the sun's uninterrupted rays beat down with an intensity that drove the temperature as high as 130 degrees. Men had to swallow several salt tablets each day to keep from losing consciousness. They had to keep their heads covered or quickly become victims of sun stroke.

During the first three weeks in this inferno no heavy work was permitted from ten to two each day. Men lay panting under their shelter halfs hoping the evening would come quickly. And then when darkness with its cooling relief did come, they lay behind their netting wondering about the rattlesnakes, tarantulas and scorpions which holed up during the heat of the day and crawled around at night.

Usually a death-like stillness prevailed in these vast open expanses with only the heat waves rising from the hot sand. But often this stillness was broken by the violence of an electrically charged wind storm which would rage across the desert floor churning the sand into choking clouds and ripping the shelter halfs and other canvases from their moorings.

By the end of August the heat had abated slightly and men had become somewhat acclimated to the hot dry atmosphere. Then the actual maneuvers began. And as the huge fleets of tanks, halftracks and trucks moved out over the open wastes they stirred up billows of dust which became a serious problem for both men and machines. The men clapped dust respirators or handkerchiefs over their mouths and nostrils. Over their eyes they wore goggles. In the diesel tanks the dust packed between the clutch plates so that shifting became almost impossible. Oil in air cleaners had

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to be changed daily, otherwise the dust got into the motors and would scar the piston walls.

While members of the Fifth Armored battled the heat, dust and the "enemy", their thoughts often strayed to another desert. In the North African desert one of the war's crucial campaigns was being fought. There the British 8th Army was starting its long drive to push Rommel's panzer forces back from the gates of Egypt. Victory Division men wondered if they were being trained to fight eventually on this North African desert. Their interest was heightened in this engagement on the other side of the world when five soldiers who had just returned from a nine-week stay in the North African theater joined the Fifth Armored on 20 September.

These tankers had been sent to Egypt from the Ft. Knox Armored Force Replacement Center. Attached to the British forces, they had manned American tanks which were under enemy fire for eight days. They had participated in a three-day engagement with German tanks and had been bombed by enemy planes. These soldiers and the Fifth Armored units which they joined were: Cpl. William E. Grove, 85th; T/5 Benjamin F. Folsom, Hq. CC B; T/5 William E. Malpede, Hq. CC A; Pfc. John Aspesi, 34th; and Pvt. John Sullivan, 81st.

As thick as the dust clouds throughout the maneuvers were, the rumors that the division at any moment would be shipped to that other desert. For some members of the Fifth Armored these rumors proved to be true. In September two artillery battalions, the 58th and 65th, quietly withdrew from the maneuvers and from the division. The 58th arrived at Casablanca 11 November 1942 and fought in North Africa and Sicily. At the time it left the Mojave this battalion was commanded by Lt. Col. Bernard W. McQuade, who later was killed on "D" Day during the invasion of Normandy. After the 65th, under the command of Capt. Edward A. Bailey, left the division it did not go immediately overseas. It remained in the desert for several weeks and arrived in Casablanca 26 January 1943. It, too, fought in North Africa and Sicily.

The withdrawal of these battalions from the Fifth Armored did not leave the division short of artillery units for the remainder

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of the maneuvers. On 10 Septembers two more artillery battalions arrived from Ft. Sill. They were: the 71st, commanded by Lt, Col. I. B. Washburn, and the 47th, commanded by Lt. Col. Harvey K. Palmer. They had been Artillery school troops and were already familiar with marking base points and firing for effect.

The Fifth Armored's actual tactical maneuvers in the Mojave consisted of eight field problems. Each was from four to six days long, followed by a rest and maintenance period. The enemy, always far superior, was represented sometimes by other troops. On the broad expanses between the jagged ridges General Heard, the cavalryman, had an opportunity to employ all the trickery and deception of an armored division in corps operation. During one problem the 85th was sent off 20 miles to one flank to stir up a large column of dust. This drew the enemy reserves out of position. And then the 81st and 34th concentrated on a narrow front to crash through and "destroy" the enemy.

During the final problem the "red" enemy forces consisted of the battle-ready 3rd Armored Division. And it fell victim to the Fifth Armored's chicanery. A Fifth Armored Company commander called over the "enemy" radio channel to come over to the corral near the highway for gasoline. The "red" tank battalion innocently assembled in the face of the Fifth Armored's massed tanks and anti-tank guns to be "destroyed."

Later in the same problem, however, the Third Armored retaliated for this ruse. An "enemy" liaison group managed to capture a Fifth Armored task force commander by boldly walking up to a headquarters sentry and asking him, "Which way to Colonel Boyer's Command Post?" The "enemy" party was escorted right into the blackout C P tent.

The tactical details of the desert warfare, as portrayed by the long arrows and the pincer operations on the acetate-covered maps never quite filtered down to the average soldier to permit him to visualize the "routed enemy's burning columns and his overrun positions." But the training nevertheless was valuable to all members of the division. By November all crew members were qualified drivers. Tank maintenance crews thoroughly learned their jobs by keeping vehicles rolling through the knee-deep dust

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and the endless miles of sand. The driving experience enabled the division's motor columns to move like clockwork. And each man had become an experienced individual cook and could live alone in the field.

Over 100 newly-commissioned officers from the Armored Force School and the Infantry School joined the Fifth Armored during the maneuvers. These lieutenants later became the company commanders and unit staff officers when the division made history in Europe.

At the conclusion of the maneuvers the division assembled near the little city of Needles. This community on the Colorado River is the oldest city on the desert. Here the division spent a month waiting for transportation back to Camp Cooke and repairing the damages done to the vehicles during the three-month grind through the sand.

Then, during the final week of November, the division left this scene of its play war, where there had been also a few real casualties.

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Chapter V
The Man From North Africa
Camp Cooke, California
December, 1942--March, 1943

When the Fifth Armored came out of the hot crucible of the sun and journeyed back up the California coast, the tanned soldiers viewed Camp Cooke in a new light. They had a new appreciation for its plumbing, mattresses and mess halls. They decided it was not such a bad place after all.

After shaking the sand from their clothes and equipment, they settled down to more rehearsing for battle. They concentrated on combat firing and platoon and company problems. The artillery battalions received new M7's and used the range south of the Santa Ynez River. Tank and infantry battalions fired into the ocean from the sandy hills of Tangair Range, which extended from Port Petrol south to the river. Bushes on the range became enemy machine guns and were blasted with tank shells and hand grenades.

Training was as realistic as possible. Tank battalions buttoned up and fired at each other with .30 caliber ammunition. Infantry dug in and listened to artillery shells whistle overhead and explode 600 yards to the front. The 85th reconnoitered half the state of California. And the 22nd threw bridges across the Santa Ynez River and laid mine fields all over the reservation.

During January and February all platoons of the division were tested for combat efficiency. General Blakely examined the tank platoons while testing of the infantry platoons was conducted by Brig. Gen. Eugene A. Regnier, who had joined the Fifth in December, and had succeeded General Brett as the commander of CC B.

During this post-desert period members of the division were also enjoying their first furloughs. These first trips as soldiers back to the homes they had left as civilians were strange and memorable experiences.

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Then one day in early March everyone put on his o.d.'s and field jacket, lined up and marched down to the field house. Here a tall, lean-cheeked, gray-haired soldier was introduced as the Fifth Armored's new commander. He was Major General Lunsford E. Oliver. There was a tan on his face but it had not been acquired in the Mojave sun. He had just returned from North Africa where he had led the First Armored's Combat Command B in the American forces invasion of that continent. General Oliver described the fighting on North African battlefields where American units had, for the first time in this war, encountered the German Wehrmacht. And as the assembled soldiers listened intently to his grim words they realized that the war was far from won, that much difficult and bloody fighting lay ahead, and that the Fifth Armored would play an important role in this tremendous military effort.

Many changes in commanders were made during the 13 months on the west coast. Gen. Wood left the division in June to command the Fourth Armored Division and Gen. Blakely became the new CC A commander. Col. Roy L. Dalferes joined in November to become the Division Artillery Officer. Gen. Regnier arrived in December to succeed Gen. Brett as commander of CC B.

Col. John T. Cole arrived in September to command the 81st Armored Regiment. Among the battalion commanders were: 1st Bn., Lt. Col. Littleton A. Roberts, Maj. William R. Kirchner, Lt. Col. Joel B. Stratton, and Lt. Col. Moderwell K. Salem; 2nd Bn., Maj. Jesse M. Hawkins, Jr., Maj. LeRoy H. Anderson; 3rd Bn., Maj. Robert P. Smith, Jr., Maj. Richard W. Ripple.

The 34th Armored Regiment commanders were: Col. Frank A. Allen, Jr., Lt. Col. Thomas W. Roane, and Col. Emerick Kutschko. Among Battalion commanders were: 1st Bn., Lt, Col, Horace W, Forester, Lt. Col. Halbert H, Neilson, Lt. Col. Charles E, Morrison and Maj. Luther L. Willard; 2nd Bn., Maj. Clyde A. Burcham, Lt. Col. Gustavus W. West, and Lt. Col. Richard H. Jones; 3rd Bn., Lt. Col. Paul C. Febiger, Maj. Joseph J. Baker, Maj. Thomas H. Dowd, and Maj. William A. Hamberg.

During desert maneuvers Col. Harry L. Reeder succeeded Col. Waltz as commander of the 46th Armored Infantry Regiment before Col. Glen H. Anderson arrived to become the permanent commander. Battalion commanders included: 1st Bn., Lt. Col. Howard E. Boyer; 2nd Bn., Lt. Col. Earl S. Gibson; 3rd Bn., Capt. William H. Burton, and Lt. Col. Edgar A. Gans.

The 95th Field Artillery Battalion was commanded by Maj. Malcolm K. Benadum, Maj. LeCount H. Slocum, and Maj. Daniel H. Heyne. In December, Lt. Col. James W. McNeer joined the battalion and remained as the commander throughout the war.

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Successive commanders of the 85th Reconnaissance Battalion were: Lt. Col. Thomas G. Dobyns, Maj. Wayne J. Dunn, Lt. Col. Gustavus W. West, and Maj. Kent Fay.

As chief of staff Col. Wogan was succeeded by Col. Cornelius M. Daly. At the end of maneuvers Col. Lee. G. Clarke was assigned the job.

Two members of the war-time division staff started their duties at this early date. Maj. Lonsdale P. MacFarland took over the G-2 position from Lt. Col. Rufus L. Land and Lt. Col. Charles E. Morrison was succeeded as G-4 by Maj. Harrison R. Entrekin, who had served as Asst. G-l since the activation of the division. Lt. Col. Edward G. Farrand was G-3 and Lt. Col. Weeden B. Nichols became G-l.

THE FIFTH ARMORED'S NEW COMMANDER

Maj. Gen. Lunsford E. Oliver graduated from West Point in 1913 with a commission of Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

During World War I he organized and trained several railway engineer battalions and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. After the war the most important of the many engineering jobs he undertook was the Mississippi River Flood Control Project.

General Oliver graduated from the Engineer School at Ft. Belvoir in 1916, the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth in 1928, and the Army War College in 1938.

In 1940 he was assigned to the Armored Force at Ft. Knox as the Armored Force Engineer. During these early days of armor, General Oliver directed the experimental work which resulted in the development of the steel treadway bridge that later carried American tanks across all the rivers in Western Europe.

Assigned to the First Armored Division in January 1942, he commanded Combat Command B. He was promoted to Brigadier General on 16 February 1942. Going overseas with the division 6 May 1942, General Oliver's command trained in Northern Ireland during the summer and autumn. In September he was called to London to assist in planning the invasion of North Africa.

When the Allies invaded Algeria General Oliver's command landed at Oran. Two weeks later his command moved east into Tunisia and fought its first major engagement at Medjez-el-bab from the 6th to the 10th December 1942.

General Oliver was promoted to Major General on 20 November 1942,

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When the remainder of the First Armored Division arrived in Africa General Oliver returned to the United States to command the Fifth Armored Division, bringing, as aides, two veterans of the early fighting in North Africa: Captain Ray Cannon and Lt. Frank Poole, whose experience and reports helped members of the Fifth. Armored Division to realize the realities of combat.

Photos of Tennessee and Desert Maneuvers
[p.17=24-photos]
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Chapter VI
Preview In Tennessee
24 March-1 July 1943

General Heard had forged the Fifth Armored Division into a mighty lance. Now it remained for General Oliver to temper it, bring to it razor-sharpness and to drive it into the heart of the Wehrmacht. But the first task which befell the new division commander was to lead his troops against one of the most unpleasant foes of all ground forces: Mud.

Soon after General Oliver's arrival the Victory Division men turned their vehicles over to the Sixth Armored Division, stuffed their belongings into barracks bags and climbed aboard eastbound trains. Their destination, they were told, was Tennessee, where they would participate in more maneuvers. Many believed, however, that the division was actually headed for an Atlantic Coast port of embarkation.

But the trains went no further east than Tennessee. There the soldiers were taken in trucks from the railhead and hauled to open fields near Manchester and McMinnville. These fields were soft and damp. As soon as the men and vehicles started moving about in them, they turned quickly into sticky quagmires. During the first three weeks in Tennessee it rained frequently, snowed once and was bitter cold every night. This was an abrupt change from the heated barracks and conveniences of Camp Cooke. But the ingenious use of logs, clapboard, straw and sawdust made homes of the shelterhalf in the fields and woods. With the numerous small log cabins that were erected many areas took on the appearance of early American frontier settlements.

Fifth Armored men spent the initial week in the field getting reacquainted with pup tent life and learning how to conquer the mud. They were also put through a vigorous physical conditioning program which consisted chiefly of long hikes. During this period, too, units began receiving their quotas of tanks, halftracks,

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peeps and trucks. New gasoline-driven tanks with the automatic transmissions were assigned to the tank platoons. It was the first time the crews had seen the V-type engines and enthusiasm for them was high. Mechanics started arriving back from Ft. Knox where they had been attending special schools. They had been taught how to keep these tank engines running and they now spouted such terms as "insoluble long-fiber grease," "concentric and excentric carburetors," and "dead track blocks."

By the time the maneuver exercises or mock battles got under way during the last week in April, chill winds and dampness of the winter's end had disappeared and spring was coming in. The weather grew milder; the forests started turning green; plowed furrows appeared in the fields; and the streams became warm enough to make baths a pleasure. The vehicles still kept mostly to the roads, except, of course, when they pulled into bivouac or detoured around wooden bridges that could not support the heavy tanks. Many of the roads that wound precariously through the hills were very narrow and more than one vehicle toppled down an embankment.

Many of the four-day tactical problems included a crossing of the Cumberland River. The initial jump to the "enemy" tank was always made by infantry in assault boats. After the bridgehead had been secured the 22nd Engineer Battalion would construct a treadway bridge. Then the tank regiments would pour across this bridge, break out of the bridgehead and "destroy the enemy."

After the treadway bridge had been constructed during the first river-crossing maneuver, a telegram was received from Washington forbidding treadway bridges to be used by 30 ton medium tanks. To demonstrate that the bridge was capable of supporting these tanks General Oliver climbed into one and took it across the river. In subsequent river crossings all the division's vehicles used the bridge.

Through the spring days and nights as the tanks and halftracks rumbled over the slippery unreconnoitered roads and through the narrow passes and forests, many Victory Division men believed this experience was a waste of time. They thought such movements would never be made in actual combat because the field

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manuals stated that tanks should avoid areas where freedom of maneuver would be hampered. Contrary to this belief, however, the maneuvers in Tennessee were in many ways a preview of the conditions of the Fifth Armored would encounter later in Europe. Many of the long night marches across Tennessee were identical to those made later in France-except that the distant figures slinking in the shadows were 79th Division doughs and not German soldiers. And the mud which the F Fifth came to know during its early weeks in Tennessee would be met again along the Siegfried Line and in the Huertgen Forest. As the muddy roads turned to dust under the hot June sun and the swarms of flies and chiggers descended on the bivouac areas, the Division completed its tactical exercises and rolled its vehicles onto railway flat cars. It was on the move again. This time to northern New York state.

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Chapter VII
Pine Needles, Snow And Apples
Pine Camp, N. Y.
5 July-10 December 1943

The GI looked at every camp with a jaundiced eye. He had his own particular terse and derisive comment for each new military post to which he was sent. His descriptive tag for Pine Camp was "a place where there are two seasons - winter and the Fourth of July."

the Fifth Armored GI would add grudgingly, however, that he was happy to arrive at this northern New York state camp in the summer of 1943 and leave behind him Tennessee's humid June heat. Despite the GI's exaggeration, the camp enjoys the normal four seasons, although nature does seem to place its emphasis on the winter months. Even in summer the pine-scented air is usually cool and brisk. The reservation is not far from the St. Lawrence River and some of its firing ranges are on the shores of Lake Ontario, which is about 37 miles from the camp.

Hopes of the Fifth Armored men that they would be able to relax in the pleasant atmosphere of this new camp after the rigors of the maneuvers soon were shattered. Shortly after their arrival it was announced that the division would begin an intensive training program. It was basic training all over again with a few new embellishments. The morning drill and calisthenics period was lengthened and there were long marches and other physical conditioning exercises. All the division's members were later put through the XIII Corps' stringent physical fitness tests which included running, crawling and carrying tests and a long speed march.

As psychological training, division members also had to go through obstacle courses. In one of these they had to crawl through barbed wire entanglements while explosive charges were set off near them and streams of machine gun bullets were fired a few

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feet above their bodies. Another obstacle course was designed to quicken men's mental alertness. It included booby traps, trip wires, snipers, partly-concealed enemy equipment and electrified fences.

Greatest emphasis during this tuning-up period, however, was on weapons proficiency. Long hours were spent field stripping and reassembling the different guns and learning to identify their individual parts. Each man wrote a field message each day to satisfy G-2. Units took turns spending several days at Stoney Point on Lake Ontario where they practiced firing on the rifle ranges from dawn until dusk and pulled targets in the pits until their arms and backs ached. In the tank gunnery training, crews tried to hit the target with the first round and were expected to bracket with at least the first two rounds.

Answering a distress call in September from the fruit growers of central New York state who could not obtain sufficient help to harvest their apple crop, the division asked for volunteers from among its members to do the job. About 1,000 men readily put away their rifles and went off for a month to pick apples. Later in their army careers they would once again come to know apple orchards familiarly - in Normandy.

Pine Camp is remembered by most Victory Division men chiefly as the place where the War Department's scalpel cut away some of its bulk. Combat experience and the observations of maneuvers in the U. S. had convinced some of the army's high architects that armored divisions could operate more efficiently and effectively if they were reorganized and reduced in size.

In the streamlining process the Fifth Armored's two tank regiments were broken up into five separate battalions, two of which were transferred out of the division. The infantry regiment was changed to three separate battalions, with no regimental headquarters. Two companies of the engineer battalion were taken out of the division and two troops were added to the 85th, which was redesignated as a Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized.

Generally, the effect of the reorganization, which took place officially on 20 September, was to reduce the number of units, eliminate the regimental headquarters and divide the division into

[POA p.30]

three fairly set combat teams: Combat Commands, A, B, and R. Each team had a tank battalion, an infantry battalion, an artillery battalion and separate companies of reconnaissance, medical and engineer troops. The reshuffle also strengthened combat command headquarters, giving each of them a headquarters company of its own. And it created a new combat command, CC Reserve.

Appointed to command the new combat commands were: General Regnier, Combat Command A; Colonel Cole, Combat Command B; and Colonel Anderson, Combat Command R. Earlier Lt., Col. Farrand had been made Chief of Staff.

It was not long after their arrival at Pine Camp before the Victory Division men had heard numerous impressive accounts of the low temperatures and deep snows which visited the section during the winter months. And when in October they began receiving issues of cold weather clothing and orders went out to winterize all vehicles, these veterans of the Mojave feared that their destiny's pendulum was now swinging them into the other extreme of nature. Swiftly word swept through the barracks and day rooms that the division would participate in winter maneuvers.

Not too happily did the Fifth Armored members watch the brilliant colors of northern New York's fall fade and the first snows arrive with November. Unit training continued and a few nights were spent sleeping out in the snow trying out the new winter sleeping bags.

But during this activity an undercurrent of new rumors began to stir. It was said that the maneuvers had been called off and that the division was going to move again, perhaps toward a port of embarkation. Supporting these rumors were unusual occurrences such as the visit of Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson to witness a combat firing demonstration.

One of the last exercises held at Pine Camp was a demonstration of air power and ground anti-aircraft defense. Participating units were 1st Lt. Richard A. Biederman's A/34th and Capt. Arthur J. Elmore's B/15th.

Then on 25 November came the order for the Fifth Armored to pull up stakes in northern New York State and move to the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania. Winterizing

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vehicles was immediately halted and supply sergeants called in all the new winter clothing. General Regnier was in charge of the advance party which left on 30 November for the division's new home, while the remainder of the division followed ten days later. The tanks and halftracks were taken by rail. But the wheel vehicles were driven in a cold overland trip; water froze in the canteens of men riding in the backs of the trucks.

The division had missed taking part in full-scale winter maneuvers. Later, however, it would fight actual battles in the snow.

In the reorganization of the Fifth Armored the following major changes were made:

		UNIT 						REDESIGNATED AS 



34th Armored Regiment 						34th Tank Battalion 
	(Less 1st and 3rd Battalions, Band,
 	Maint., and Rcn. Cos.) 

81st Armored Regiment 						81st Tank Battalion 
	(Less 3rd Battalion, Band, 
	Maint., Service, and Rcn. Cos.) 

3rd Battalion, 34th Armored Reg. 				10th Tank Battalion 

46th Armored Infantry Regiment 					46th Armored Infantry Battalion
	(Less 1^st and 2nd Battalions) 

1st Battalion, 46th Armored Inf. 				47th Armored Infantry Battalion

2nd Battalion, 46th Armored Inf. 				15th Armored Infantry Battalion
								85th Cav. Rcn. Squadron, Mecz.
								(Less Trs. D and E)

Rcn. Co., 34th Armored Regiment 				Tr. D, 85th Cav. Rcn. Sq., Mecz.

Rcn. Co., 81st Armored Regiment 				Tr. E, 8,5th Cav. Rcn. Sq., Mecz.

Maint. Battalion, 5th Armored Div. 				127th Ord. Maint. Battalion


TRANSFERRED FROM THE DIVISION

1st Battalion, 34th Armored Reg. 				772nd Tank Battalion 
3rd Battalion, 81st Armored Reg. 				707th Tank Battalion
Co. E, 22nd Armored Engineer Bn. 				989th Treadway Bridge Co.
Co. D, 22nd Armored Engineer Bn.
Supply Battalion

General Blakely was transferred from the division on 28 August; he went overseas with the 4th Infantry Division and at the war's end was Major General and the division commander.

In July Lt. Col. John B. Rosenzweig was made commander of the 47^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and Maj. F. Boynton Butler, Jr. became G-3.

Lt. Col. Richard H. Jones was made commander of the 772nd Tank Battalion with the original light tank unit being augmented with personnel from the Maintenance and Headquarters Companies of the two tank regiments.

[p.32]

Lt, Col, Richard W. Ripple was given command of the 707th Tank Battalion;

The 989th Treadway Bridge Command and Company D, 22nd, were transferred to XIII Corps with no changes in personnel.

Lt. Col. Earl S. Gibson was given command of the 46th and Maj. John S. Wintermute was made commander of the 15th Armored Infantry Battalion.

[p.33]

Chapter VIII
Would You Still Be My Darling
Indiantown Gap, Pa.
10 December 1943--4 February 1944

Indiantown Gap is about 140 miles from the sea but during the war it was considered part of a Port of Embarkation. Here was the start of the long and tedious processing which ended many weeks later at the gangplank. By the time a soldier reached the end of this line, he had, among other things, been inoculated with malaria, typhoid and booster tetanus shots; his slightly worn shoelaces had been replaced with a new pair; his unit had completed the Army Ground Force Battalion tests; and he had said his good-bye.

The assembly-line pre-shipment preparations were carefully sign-posted by voluminous POE instructions. Company commanders and unit staffs dug through these directions, mapped out their programs and then recorded each man's individual progress. The overseas-bound GI had to complete his marksmanship firing, go through the infiltration course, take a furlough, observe the attack of a fortified position, see the required training films, get a new set of dog tags along with other new clothing and equipment, pass through two grenades. It seemed a soldier just couldn't get on a boat until he had thrown two hand grenades; to meet this requirement some men had to be taken out after dark to the ranges where they threw their grenades by the light from truck headlamps. In the evenings after chow troops were assembled in the mess halls so that personnel officers could personally interview each man and verify the entries in his service record.

Even medical officers had become militarized in their thinking. "Soldiers are returning from furloughs with civilian diseases," declared Lt. Col. Joseph O. Boydstone, Division Surgeon, at a meeting of unit commanders. Efforts were redoubled to prevent the

[p.34]

spread of these colds and influenza infections, brought back from the "civilian" world,

The tank, artillery and infantry battalions and the 85th completed the Ground Force tests in January. A team from XIII Corps conducted the exercises in the frozen, windswept valley beyond Blue Mountain ridge west of the camp. High scorers in each group were: the 34th Tank, 95^th Artillery and the 15th Infantry.

Lights burned long and POE instructions became dog-eared as the furious bee-hive activity continued. Soldiers in supply rooms and motor parks shook their heads and muttered, "Madhouse." But each platoon leader and company commander knew in great detail the status and rate of progress of the men in his own little orbit of training. Gradually the division worked its way toward the gangplank.

To bring the infantry battalions up to strength approximately 250 non-commissioned officers from the inactivated 181st Infantry Regiment were added to the division. These well-trained soldiers from New England were quickly converted into armored infantrymen. The fact that each company had two 1st sergeants was no problem for 1st Sgt. Garvice R. Duckworth. He wrote the words "Tactical" and "Administrative" before the names on the overseas rosters.

During this period Maj. Francis W. Marks (later Lt. Col.) became G-l to complete the division staff for the duration of the war and Maj. Roland S. Biersach (later Lt. Col.) was assigned command of the 127th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion.

All the division's tanks, halftracks and other vehicles were turned in to the post during the last few days of January. Then on 4 February the Fifth Armored was en route to Camp Kilmer, N. J. This was the last stop before boarding the trans-Atlantic transports. During the four days here activity reached a feverish pitch as the last minute shortages were filled, final rosters prepared, numerous showdown inspections conducted and instructions given on how to abandon ship and load life boats in the event of a torpedoing.

Finally on 9 February the Fifth Armored members hoisted their

[p.35]

packs and horseshoe blanket rolls to their backs and marched down to Camp Kilmer's loading platforms. From here the trains took them to ferry boat slips in Jersey City. As they went from the trains to the ferry boats each man also shouldered his duffle bag in addition to his pack and gun and other equipment. The ferry boats glided down past the skyscraper-crowded tip of Manhattan Island, gleaming in the sunlight, to Staten Island where the vessels which would carry the Fifth Armored to England were docked. Many men gazed for the first time on the Statue of Liberty towering above New York's harbor. Many, too, looked upon it for the last time.

The Victory Division sailed from the Port of New York before dawn on 10 February 1944 in two ships. General Oliver was on the army transport Edmund B. Alexander and General Regnier was in charge of the troops on the British ship Athlone Castle.

At this point in the war the submarine menace had been brought largely under control. Ships were now crossing to Europe in gigantic spread-eagle convoys, hauling the thousands of tons of supplies that were turning the tide of the struggle. The Fifth Armored sailed in one of the largest of these Atlantic convoys. On bright days ships could be seen as far as the horizon in almost every direction. The aircraft carriers, with their decks loaded with strapped-down planes, rolled and dipped in the swells and the watchdog destroyers knifed in and out among the transports ready to go into action at the first sign of a U-boat.

This wartime voyage to Europe was no rest cure. Troops slept on canvas bunks four tiers high that were packed together below decks in stifling atmospheres. Because of the enormous number of men who had to be fed only two meals were served each day. For the first of these meals men began lining up early in the morning. Chow lines with clanking mess kits continued to stream through the mess halls almost all day long and soldiers were still being fed late in the evening.

On the boat deck of the Edmund B. Alexander General Oliver could be seen nervously pacing back and forth. This was his second crossing of the Atlantic in World War II. Behind him lay the battles in North Africa. Ahead was the difficult role his Fifth Armored Division was to play in Europe.

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On other parts of the ship, between inspections, exercise and KP, men were playing a new card game called Up-the-Duck-and-Down-the-Cumberland, along with the old stand-bys, Hi-Lo Seven, and Baseball. And many men inappropriately were whistling and humming the popular tune, "If I came Home Tonight, Would You Still Be My Darling. ..."

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Chapter IX
Over There
England
24 February 1944--July, 1944

Great Britain had been at war almost four and a half years when the Fifth Armored arrived there on 24 February 1944. During those many grim months of conflict this island people had felt the enemy's wrath at first hand. Whole blocks of their cities had been crumbled by the Luftwaffe's raiders. They knew well the terrifying screech of the bomb, the violence of the concussion, and the cries of the wounded. The air raid shelter, the blackout, and the nightly drone overhead of enemy planes had become an integral part of their lives. This was a theater of war and the ever-present threat of a death-dealing enemy pervaded the atmosphere and shaped all life there.

Signs of the enemy's handiwork were immediately visible to the Victory Division members as their transports nosed into the mouth of the muddy Mersey River. In the stream were the partly sub-merged wrecks of bomb-battered vessels.

It was late afternoon when the Edmund B. Alexander and the Athlone Castle tied up at the Mersey Docks in Liverpool. Over the city lay one of the famous English fogs. In a single line with their duffle bags on their shoulders and their packs, guns, gas masks and other gear hanging on them, the Fifth Armored men filed off the ships and down the docks to the waiting trains.

There was no flourish of trumpets or other fanfare to welcome the division after its safe 13-day crossing of the Atlantic. No time was available for such things now. Troops were arriving almost every day from the U. S., crowding on to this island in preparation for the coming assault against the continent. Waiting in the bomb-scarred station, however, were British Red Cross girls who served coffee and doughnuts to the troops before they boarded the small English railway cars.

[p.38]

As the trains pulled away from the docks in the fading light, the soldiers stared out at the rows of British homes with the little air raid shelters in their backyards. Soon the blackout blinds were drawn and the trains rolled along in the darkness. Men dozed and awoke intermittently to hear the engine's high-pitched whistle crying shrilly in the night. Before daylight troops had unloaded from the first trains at the city of Swindon and at two nearby camps, 175 miles to the south of Liverpool.

Most of the division was assigned to Quonset huts and British barracks in the Chisledon and Ogbourne St. George Camps, while the 15th Armored Infantry was billeted in Swindon. The three artillery battalions and the 85th Cavalry Squadron moved directly to Perham Down Camp in the Salisbury area. All these billeting arrangements had been made by an advance party, commanded by Col. Cole, which had crossed earlier in the Queen Mary. Personnel from the Third Armored Division had drawn the equipment for the individual kitchens and had a hot meal waiting for the Fifth Armored members when they arrived that cold morning after the all night trip from Liverpool.

The Fifth Armored's first cold damp six weeks in England were spent in drawing equipment and small unit training. It was also a period for getting acquainted with this foreign country and learning the countless regulation of the ETO (European Theater of Operations). Food was in short supply at the time and efforts were made to conserve it; soldiers were warned to take no more than they could eat and some first sergeants stood by garbage cans to make certain no edible food was discarded. Fuel was also short and fires were permitted in the little stoves that heated the Quonset huts only during the early evening hours. There were visits from old friends in the 58th and 65th artillery battalions, former division units, and from other battle-wise veterans of the North African campaigns.

Almost daily the huge mass formations of Allied planes roared overhead going and coming from their forays on the enemy's continental installations. This was the period when the Luftwaffe was being dealt the crucial blows from which it would never recover. At night German aircraft were often in the skies above the division areas and from the English people Fifth Armored men

[p.39]

were learning to identify these enemy planes by their sounds. From the English people, too, division men were being taught how to observe security regulation; lifelong residents of English towns claimed, when asked, not to know the directions to neighboring communities only a few miles away.

On weekends many men visited the cities of Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Oxford and London (where they saw inhabitants of the city sleeping nights on the station platforms of the Underground or subway). For their social assault on this new land many men had come prepared with gifts of such scarce and coveted items as nylons, lipstick and gum.

Early in April preparations were being made for the division to start field maneuvers and training in combat firing. But these plans were abruptly halted when an order came down from higher headquarters with the swiftness and disruptiveness of a V-bomb. It instructed the division to "proceed to southern England and operate the camps in the marshalling areas there for amphibious exercises and the invasion of Europe."

"This is a slug in the jaw to our combat training," General Oliver told the men in each battalion as he explained this new assignment. But he added that it was a necessary job and that the Fifth Armored would do it well.

On 10 April the division moved by train and motor convoy to the southwest tip of England where it took possession of the seaside camps and hotels in the Truro, Plymouth and Torquay marshalling areas. These hotels and camps (pyramidal tent communities strung out along the edge of fields and partly concealed from air observation by camouflage nets and called "sausages") served the important leading ports of Falmouth, Plymouth, Dartmouth and Torquay. General Regnier remained at Ogbourne St. George with the rear echelon of division headquarters 127th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion and the 145th Signal Company. Extensive alterations and maintenance were continued on the combat vehicles by the 127th while the 145th conducted a radio operators school.

The marshalling area camps were set up to accommodate the assault troops which would conduct practice invasions on English beaches and finally sail across the channel for the invasion of the

[p.40]

continent. The troops' stay in the camps varied from a few hours to three days, depending upon the arrival of their invasion craft and the rate at which these ships were loaded. They came without kitchen and supply troop, knowing that the camp personnel would cook their food and fill out their last minute equipment shortages. When the ships were loaded they moved out into the channel, turned and "attacked" a section of the English coast. The engineers would precede the amphibious tanks, LST's and infantry craft. After a practice assault, the troops would move inland and again assemble in the marshalling camps to await transportation back to their permanent stations.

To perform the cooking and housekeeping duties at the marshalling camps the Fifth Armored was completely revamped for the two-month period. All the infantry battalions plus CC Reserve headquarters were placed under the command of Col. Anderson and assigned the camps in the Torquay area. The tank battalions plus CC B headquarters and the 22nd Engineers under Col. Cole, were assigned the camps in the Truro area. The artillery battalions plus division artillery headquarters operated camps in the area west of Plymouth, under Col. Dalferes. And the camps east of Plymouth were run by Division Trains, the 85th Rcn. Squadron and 75^th Medical Battalion under Col. Nelson. The forward echelon of Division Headquarters was located at Tavistock, north of Plymouth.

Many Fifth Armored men called the operation of these camps "K.P. in England" as each company had to run four to six messes or hotels. To do this a call for volunteers was sent out to the tank crews, artillery sections, and infantry squads. The results were surprising. In one battalion 72 men qualified as 1st cooks. Later in combat when men had to prepare their own meals these soldiers with culinary talents became very popular members of their tank crews and infantry squads.

Inspections of the camps in the marshalling areas became so frequent that battalion operations officers wrote training memorandums on "How to Conduct Inspecting Officers Through Kitchens,"

Toward the end of May assault troops again started to move into the Fifth Armored's marshalling camps as they had done

[p.41]

several times before. At this time of the year with summer fast approaching and British double summer time in effect, the sun did not set until late each evening and out-of-doors it remained light until almost 11 o'clock. So on Sunday, 28 May, it was very near midnight when most men retired that night.

But they had not been in their bunks long before aircraft motors could be heard in the skies over some of the division's areas. Soon the long bluish beams of the anti-aircraft lights were searching the sky. And then while most men were still in their bunks, the planes began to dive and send their bombs shrieking to the earth.

In Torquay a pair of bombs bracketed Col. Anderson's command post at the Livermead Hotel; others hit several homes and a civilian-occupied hotel in the town. Some oil tanks were set on fire in the Truro area. During the raid Staff Sgt. Alfred J. Libby, of the 15th Inf., carried four civilians out of Torquay's Bay Court Hotel after it was hit. For this action he later received the first award for heroism made in the division. The morning after the bombing the German radio announced, characteristically, that Torquay had been left in flames.

The assault troops continued to pour into the camps all during the first week in June. And then toward the end of the week they began boarding the ships. From the vast number of troops that had come to the camps this time, the thoroughness of their preparations and the strict secrecy, many Fifth Armored men suspected that this would be no practice invasion. But they did not know for certain until the morning of 6 June when a heavy rumble rolled across the channel from France, violently shaking the window panes in their frames, and the German radio announced that Allied troops had landed on the beaches of Normandy.

The Fifth Armored's housekeeping duties in the southwest of England were completed. Now came an eleventh-hour period of intense training before the division moved on to the battle field.

On 10 June Col. Anderson moved the three infantry battalions and the 22nd Engineers by train from Torquay to the Barnsly-Wold range near Cirencester and about 20 miles north of the Ogbourne St. George camp. Truck drivers had preceded the train to Ogbourne St. George and were waiting at the station with the

[p.42]

vehicles so that the troops could be taken directly to the range.

During the three weeks here the training day was 15 hours long. Every man fired a qualification course with his individual weapon, including assault and transition firing. Machine gun crews fired both ground and vehicular courses. The 22nd Engineers also completed training in the use of flame throwers.

Between 10 and 15 June the remainder of the division assembled at the West Down Camp. Here Col. Cole directed the tactical training of the tank battalions. He worked them from dawn until dark on the ideal rolling terrain.

Gen. Regnier was in charge of the tank firing at Minehead, on the Bristol Channel, during this period. One tank company at a time moved to this range and participated in intensive combat practice firing. Crews fired at moving targets and from moving tanks.

The artillery battalions resumed training on the Imber range at the West Down Camp. In charge of them was a new Division Artillery Commander, Col. Douglas J. Page, who had been executive officer of the 9th Infantry Division Artillery in North Africa. Another North African veteran, Col. Hugh J. Fitzgerald, was assigned to CC B as deputy commander.

Late in June the Reserve Command, under Col. Anderson, was assigned as a fighting combat command by Gen. Oliver and was called Combat Command R.

On the last day in June all the division troops assembled in the Tilshead Camp for the last few weeks of training.

The rehearsals were almost over.

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Chapter X
A Military Wedding

Chapter XI
Vive La France
Utah Beach to Le Mans
26 July--8 August

To the peering eyes of the men on the decks of the LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) and the LCIs (Landing Craft, Infantry), France lay like a long thin line on the horizon, slightly greener than the sea. And beyond was the unseen thick green line of the massed German Seventh Army. These men were approaching another continent and also another world--combat. Their passports to this new world were the live rounds of ammunition they carried in their belt pouches and in their tank racks. Behind them were many thousands of difficult hours of drilling, maneuvering and learning how to fight in a modern war. Now they had finished firing at paper targets. Now they faced the Germans, who also carried live ammunition in their leather pouches.

The Fifth Armored had boarded the vessels at battered Southampton on England's south coast and made a smooth crossing of the channel during the night. On 26 July it was nearing Utah Beach, where other GIs and D Day had smashed a bloody entrance into Normandy. In the sea some distance from the land could be seen the superstructures of a wall of submerged ships; they had been sunk there as a breakwater to protect the beach from the waves. At high tide each LST, carrying Sherman tanks, halftracks and other vehicles, rammed its bow onto the beach. Then, after the tide had receded and the big bow doors had been swung open, bulldozers quickly built a ramp up to the exit; and the vehicles rolled out of the ship, onto the shore.

It was dark before all the unloading was completed. And with the night came the enemy planes which were kept out of the beachhead skies during the day by the ubiquitous Allied aircraft. But in the darkness they came to dump their bomb loads; and up from the ground to meet them went long streams of red-blinking

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tracer bullets and bursting ack-ack shells. Assembled on the beachhead was the war's greatest concentration of anti-aircraft batteries. Some of the Luftwaffe's bombs exploded near an LCI, loaded with Fifth Armored men. Other division members already ashore huddled beneath their vehicles to shield themselves from the ack-ack fragments which came down like hail from the skies.

While the Fifth Armored was disembarking in France on 26 July, endless columns of bomb-heavy allied planes, marking the skies with their long white streaks of vapor trails, mercilessly were blasting near St. Lo a breach in the tight semicircle which enemy forces held around the Normandy beachhead. Through this gap in the German defenses, strewn with dead soldiers and burned-out vehicles, poured First Army tanks and infantry to exploit and widen the breakthrough.

After it landed at Utah Beach the division moved from the shell and bomb-churned seaside area and assembled in forests and fields near St. Sauveur Le Vicomte. Here under pleasant mid-summer French skies Fifth Armored men carefully inspected the scattered equipment and personal belongings (mess gear, clothing, weapons, ammunition, photographs, letters, helmets and food) left behind by the hastily departing Germans. These traces of a retreating army were to become a familiar sight to Fifth Armored men along the road to Germany during the weeks and months to come.

The Fifth Armored was placed on the secret list of General George Patton's Third Army and attached to the XV Corps. To the world it would be known as part of "General Patton's Ghost Troops." From a mobile corps reserve division its status was quickly changed to an armored division to be used for exploitation behind enemy lines. And it was to be the first American armored division to be assigned such a mission.

On the first day of August it moved to a new area just north of the Periers-Lessay road. This was its initial night move behind friendly lines. Along the route was the litter of smashed enemy equipment and the bodies of German soldiers and animals with their sweet sickening smell. The last vehicles pulled into the new area by 10 the following morning. Then an hour later came the division's first order for action against the enemy, It was instructed "to proceed south without stopping, cross the See and Selune

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Rivers, assemble south of the Selune, seize the town of Fougeres, and reconnoiter vicinity of St. James, St. Martin, and St. George for further action."

This was a big order for an untried division. But the Fifth Armored for a long time had been preparing for the role it was now about to play on this European battlefield. The tankers and infantrymen rolled up their bedrolls and tied them on their vehicles; they slid shells into the chambers of the big tank guns and also made certain that their machine guns and other smaller caliber weapons were loaded. Then they started the engines of the Sherman tanks and haIftracks and rolled onto the roads. They were ready to go.

Preceding the division, the long probing fingers of Lt. Col. Kent Fays 85th Cavalry Sq, pulled out at 1430 hours and began to reconnoiter the bridges and roads along this southward route by which the division was slipping out of the Normandy beachhead and thrusting deep into enemy territory.

In this rush down the Normandy Peninsula toward Avranches, CC A and CC B moved abreast in two columns. But soon they found themselves entangled with troops of the VII Corps, which were moving east into the First Army zone. Serious traffic tie-ups developed which delayed the tails of columns for such long periods that Division Headquarters lost radio contact with the Combat Commands. The congestion became so acute at the St. Denis bottleneck, where the route crossed the Avranches-Brecey road, that General Patton ordered the division to halt its march and pull off the roads.

This order, however, failed to reach CC A and CC B, and they continued rolling south,

Late that afternoon, when the traffic snarl was its worst, General Patton called a meeting of those divisional commanders who could be assembled quickly.

The tension was extremely high. Everyone knew that if enemy bombers discovered this knot of men and vehicles jammed up around St. Denis, a severe blow could be struck against the advance. General Oliver and the other divisional commanders wondered if their heads might not roll because of this tie-up.

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General Patton strode into the anxious gathering and opened the meeting.

"Gentlemen," he said, "we are in a hell of a mess, and it's all my fault."

Then he explained that in his haste to send the units south he had given orders directly to the division commanders without informing his staff. "Now we shall just sit here until my staff can work out schedules and routes," he declared. "Then we shall continue." That night CC R assembled at Le Mesnil Villeman but CC A and CC B did not halt, never having received the order to do so. Through the moonless night they continued, clanking to the south over the strange roads. Their route was often obstructed by the French civilians who were either fleeing from or returning to their homes; they rode in big blue two-wheeled horse-drawn carts which were stacked high with bedding and other possessions. The night was also filled with the rushing roar of artillery shells belched out by both the German and American batteries. Enemy bombers, hovering over part of the route, dropped flares and then followed these with bombs. When a segment of a column became separated from its lead elements, tank and halftrack commanders were able to decide in which direction to go at each fork or cross- roads only by getting down on their hands and knees in the road and with their flashlights seeing which way the tracks led.

But despite the congestion and confusion and the fact that this was their first night of real combat, CC A and CC B had arrived by dawn at their originally designated areas near St. George and St. Hilaire du Harcouet, south of the Selune River.

Later that day CC R pulled up stakes at Le Mesnil Villeman and reached Marcilly to the south by 8 in the evening. As the combat command's vehicles were leaving the road and going into its assembly area here, 13 Luftwaffe fighter planes dived out of the skies and strafed the columns. The enemy craft were pursued, however, by four P-51s which shot down three of the enemy raiders. About this time, too, the 85th Cavalry Sq. made its first contact with enemy units near the line St.Ellier-Fougeres.

It was during these moves that men of the Fifth Armored first witnessed the jubilation of the liberated French people; they

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expressed their joy and gratitude by strewing flowers on the tanks and other vehicles, by handing up cider and calvados to the troops and by kissing and hugging the dusty soldiers. Similar roadside demonstrations would be encountered all the way across France and Belgium. The troops also were meeting for the first time the bands of Free French, the underground French fighters, who now appeared with their odd assortments of knives and guns and with their Cross of Lorraine arm bands. They immediately went to work rounding up French collaborators and any "Boches" who were still in the area.

From 3 to 5 August the division was in XV corps reserve south of the Selune River just behind the 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions. Roadblocks were set up to the south by CC A and CC R, and preparations to launch possible counterattacks were made by CC A and CC B. It was expected that the Germans would launch a large scale attack to retake Avranches and thus cut off the U. S. divisions that were south of the town. But the anticipated enemy attack was not made. The Germans continued their night bombings but caused no extensive damage. Meanwhile enemy stragglers moving at night were often picked up.

Plans were made for the capture of the city of Fougeres, which lay further to the south. It was decided that CC A and CC B would attack simultaneously with the 79th Division. But the Germans did not defend the city and the 79th Division occupied it late on 3 August.

The next day the Fifth Armored was directed immediately to furnish 100 trucks to transport doughfoots of the 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions. These trucks were supplied from unit trains and it was necessary temporarily to dump their loads of fuel and lubricants in order for them to complete the mission.

During the halt in the St. James-Ducey-St. Hilaire area, small retreating enemy groups were continually washed up against Fifth Armored roadblocks. Civilians reported that German tanks and artillery were in many nearby areas. Among the more than 100 prisoners taken were men from these enemy divisions: 5th Parachute, 2nd SS Panzer, 266th Infantry, 17th SS Panzer Grenadier, 91st Infantry and service units.

But there was no letup in the pressure being applied to the

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Germans now that they were disorganized and on the run. The Fifth Armored's role in this effort was to advance on the right flank of the corps, remaining in readiness to support the attack of the 79th and 90th divisions, and to extend the front to Chateau-Gontier, and possibly as far south as Angers. It was also to be prepared to execute a quick envelopment around any stubborn knot of enemy resistance that might block the advance of the infantry.

The division was scheduled to hit the road again on 6 August. Its 100 fuel trucks had not yet returned from their detail with the two infantry divisions, so the 3912 Q.M. Truck Company was attached to the division; it was ordered immediately to secure gasoline at the Army Truckhead and to join the column at St. James the next morning. But the fuel was not available when the trucks arrived and the quartermaster trucks, therefore, did not return before the time of departure. The Fifth Armored pulled out without refueling and headed south from St. James to Fougeres and then to Vitre.

After CC A and CC B were south of Vitre and advancing on the Mayenne River, the division received orders, about 1430 hours to "push rapidly forward to seize and hold Le Mans."

Plans for a lightning pincers attack were hastily devised. CC A and CC B were ordered to advance in parallel position on the city. CC A would cross the Mayenne River near Chateau-Gontier and, proceeding east through Grez En Boufre, Bouessy, and Chantenay, would block all enemy movement south and east out of Le Mans. CC B, crossing the river at Houssay and plunging through Villier, Meslay, Cheville, Love, Chassile, Coulans and La Milesse, would seal off all enemy movement west and north out of the city. CC R, in reserve, would follow CC A to protect the right flank, while Division Headquarters and the Trains would follow CCB.

The attacking units trundled along swiftly and by midnight of 6 August, the very day the attack order had been received, CC B was across the Mayenne at Houssay and CC A was mopping up in Chateau-Gontier. The Division Command Post was at Houssay on the west bank of the river, In the early hours of the morning of 7 August the quartermaster truck company arrived with the

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gasoline and the empty tanks of the Shermans and the halftracks were refilled in the darkness.

Before dawn the armored spearheads were again on the roads grinding east to encircle Le Mans, But CC B's Task Force Wintermute, while passing across the front of the 79th and 90th divisions, found the Laval-Le Mans highway being used by the l06th Cavalry (XV Corps) they were preceding the advance of the shuttling 79th division. To avoid this congestion CC B was given a new route south of the Laval-Le Mans highway and CC A was shifted further south. CC A was instructed to swing in a wide are south of the city and block all roads to the north and northeast; CC B would block those to the east, while CC R would choke off those to the south.

CC A had left Vitre at 0730 hours the morning of 6 August and by 1610 hours its married B Companies, which were leading the single attack column, had pushed through light scattered resistance and had reached the outskirts of Craon. Just before the head of the column reached the bridge in Craon it was blown up by the Germans who continued to defend the opposite bank with small arms fire. By fanning out to the north and south of the second platoon discovered a bridge north of the town and the column was rerouted over this crossing with little delay.

The first heavy resistance was met at Chateau-Gontier. Here the bridge across the Mayenne River had been partially destroyed and it was defended on the far side by antitank guns. These guns disabled one tank of B Co., 34th Tank Bn., and also hit General Regnier's tank.

Dismounting from their halftracks, the infantry crossed the river, and, fighting throughout the night, drove the German soldiers from the town. The enemy force was estimated to be one infantry company supported by antitank guns and mortars. A Co., 22nd Engineer Bn. immediately went to work on the bridge and traffic was moving across it by 7 the next morning.

The CC A column poured through the town and continued its advance until 1510 hours when it was halted by a stubborn force at Poille-Sur-Vegre. This force was attempting to keep open the Prulon-Le Mans escape route.

Some P-47 fighter bombers arrived over the column just in time

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to join the fight. Diving on the enemy positions, they dumped their bomb loads and all resistance here was completely neutralized by 1700 hours. While this fight was in progress orders changing the attacks routes on Le Mans were received.

When the head of the column reached Fille it took the road to Spay by mistake. The remainder of the column, with A Companies leading, crossed the Sarthe at Fille and continued on the assigned route. B Companies crossed at Spay and continued on a parallel road until it was possible to get back on the main route. A German bivouac area was caught between these two parallel columns and 30 Wehrmacht vehicles were destroyed. An infantry company and an engineer company were captured. During the scrap Lt. Marvin Orgill, B Co., 34th Tank Bn., changed tanks three times; he abandoned a tank each time it ran out of ammunition.

At daylight 8 August, the column stopped to refuel in the southeastern suburbs of Le Mans. The gasoline trucks pulled up alongside the parked tanks and halftracks and the five gallon cans of fuel were handed up to the crews.

In the village of Yvre the head of the column caught up with some retreating tanks. Lt. Thomas Burke, B Co., 34th Tank Bn., saw two German tanks moving toward the main intersection of the town. Rushing his platoon into the village, he sent his tanks down different streets. The Sherman commanded by Sgt. Shiverski met a German tank head-on and in rapid fire pumped six rounds of armor-piercing shells into it. Lt. Burke then knocked out the other enemy tank as it tried to get away down the street. Outside the town enemy infantry had ironically dug ground defenses in a graveyard. The 46th Bn. infantrymen dismounted from their halftracks and, attacking with artillery and tank support, rooted them out or made their choice appropriate.

As the lead tank crossed the Paris-Le Mans highway about 20 enemy ammunition trucks were leaving a bivouac area in an attempt to escape toward Paris. The gunner of the lead tank, Cpl. Joe Perry, fired as rapidly as his gun could be reloaded and he destroyed every truck in the group. His rhythmic handling of the 30 cal. and 75 mm. floor firing buttons reminded his friends of his pre-war days as a drummer in a Montana band. During

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the long day of 8 August "Drummer Perry" fired 87 rounds of 75 mm. And 16,000 rounds of 30 cal. ammunition.

CC A's advance continued until 2100 hours. By that time it had closed off the last escape route north of Le Mans.

Meanwhile, CC B had begun rolling south from the fields near Vitre at 1000 hours 6 August, The combat command attacked in two columns, Task Force Wintermute and Task Force Anderson, with the bridge of the Mayenne River at Houssay as their objective. At Crosse-le-Vivien, Task Force Wintermute enveloped the east flank of the resistance via Astille and Origne. Task Force Anderson continued on the main highway through Quelaines to the objective. At Astille the column was halted briefly when it encountered machine gun and bazooka fire from about a dozen Germans who were in a house on the edge of town. The tanks of Lt. Larry Hitchcock's platoon fired point-blank into the house and killed all of the enemy defenders. The absence of civilians on the streets indicated that more enemy soldiers were in the village, so the column by-passed it to the north.

Just before dark the bridge at Houssay was captured by Task Force Anderson which then pushed on to Meslay-du-Maine for the night. Two German cars loaded with demolitions were destroyed near Houssay by Lt. Leonard Keene's leading tank. A roadblock near the crossroads east of Houssay in charge of Lt. Merle Powers captured one of the dreaded 88 mm. guns as it was being towed south from Laval.

As Lt. John G. Jonasch was organizing the roadblock on the Laval road at Meslay, four Mark IV tanks attempted to smash through it. The Shermans commanded by Sgts. Gene Krafka and William Minturn opened fire at almost point-blank range. One Mark IV withstood all the shells hurled at it and continued through Meslay. It was escaping toward Le Mans when Lt. Robert McNab, aiming at the red flame of its exhaust, pumped a shell into its rear and crippled it. An inventory at daylight of the night's handiwork revealed that in the melee the Germans had lost four Mark IVs, two sedans and a motorcycle.

After refueling from the 3912 Q.M. Truck Company during the night, both columns rolled on toward Le Mans. Resistance was light and many confused and disorganized Wehrmacht soldiers

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were taken. A French commercial bus loaded with German soldiers turned into the married B Column of the 81st Tank Bn. and the 15th Infantry Bn. It was sprayed with rifle and machine gun bullets; then it caught fire and rammed into a 57 mm. antitank gun. In the village of Maigne the sniping was very persistent, so the armored column spewed out machine gun and rifle fire in every direction to make the Germans keep their heads down. The tracer bullets, however, set fire to the harvested wheat shocks that had been stored in and near the barns and soon much of the town was in flames. Twenty Germans, attempting to flee on bicycles, were killed.

CC B reached Spay at dark and found units of CC A crossing the bridge over the Sarthe River. The next day, 8 August, the advance continued and the armored column made a wide swing through the checkerboard pattern of streets around the southeast side of Le Mans. By 1800 hours CC B had blocked all roads to the east, and patrols of Task Force Anderson had entered the city.

During this advance, spearheaded by CC A and CC B, Col. Anderson's CC R was in reserve and followed the general route of CC A. It protected the right flank of the division in this sudden drive on Le Mans. In the evening of 7 August a married platoon from Task Force Hamberg's A Companies, supported by the 10th Tank Bn's. Assault Gun Platoon, engaged a force of Germans who were aided by tanks at Chemire-sur-Sarthe. The enemy withdrew after a Mark V was destroyed. They left a warehouse full of supplies.

Snipers remained in many of the captured towns and continued to harass CC R's columns as they pushed on toward their objectives. Late in the afternoon of 8 August CC R moved into the area near St. Gervais and blocked all roads leading south from Le Mans.

The division trains, hauling records and supplies, were commanded by Lt. Col. Glenn G. Dickenson. They followed right on the heels of the Combat Commands in this armored rush into enemy-held territory. Lt. Michael Moran was the first Train casualty; he was killed 6 August near Crosse-Le-Vivien while he was with a billeting party.

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Thus, by the night of 8 August the Fifth Armored's tanks and halftracks lay in a tight ring around a city of 75,000 people, which would soon surrender. In the seven furious days and nights this untried division had pushed 180 miles into the interior of France, it had crossed two rivers; and now it faced threats of counterattacks on both flanks--from forces on the north, on the one hand, which might attempt to squeeze close the breakthrough route and, on the other, from the troops in the Brittany Peninsula which might attack from the south. In this intense rapid-paced armored warfare men of the Victory Division had over night become seasoned oldiers.

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Chapter XII
The Sickle
Le Mans to Argentan
9 August-14 August

Now the momentum was high. The French campaign had reached its crucial point. The Wehrmacht's defenses in Western France were crumbling and Allied commanders were determined that the enemy should be given no time to catch his breath, no opportunity to reorganize and to build up a secondary defense line. Pressure was to be applied relentlessly at all points. While fighter-bombers continued to harass the Germans from the air, the armored spearheads plunged into the weak spots and systematically sliced up the enemy's several defense positions. [Every German account of this period of the war tells of the dread in which Germans of all ranks held the hated "Jabo".] Then the infantry divisions pressed forward on a wide front and quickly mopped up the cut-off and disorganized German soldiers, most of whom surrendered without a fight.

Applying this pressure to the fleeing Germans, however, was no easy task. It was as exhausting for the pursuers as it was for the quarry. Fifth Armored soldiers got little sleep during the drive south from their first assembly area in Normandy. During practically all the days and many of the nights they were on the road. When they pulled off into a field to bivouac or set up a roadblock they had to dig in to be ready to fight in place.

Men prepared meals individually. Little cans of pork and beans or hash or vegetable stew or the better selection in the 10 in 1 rations were heated on the one-burner Coleman gasoline stoves. They could also be heated on the motor of a vehicle or at the end of the exhaust pipe. When time was short a K ration was broken open and eaten cold. Sometimes fresh eggs and potatoes were obtained from the French civilians by trading candy, soap and gum. And in the apple orchards, which were frequently used as

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bivouac areas, swarms of yellow jackets had to be shooed away from the food. The steel helmets with their liners removed were used as wash basins. Men slept in their clothes; they stretched out on their bedding rolls, spread on the ground, with their small arms always within reach.

On 7 August the Germans finally launched the counterattack to close the breakthrough route at Avranches; the Fifth Armored had expected and had been ready for this attack when it had bivouacked in the St. Hilaire-St. James area from 3 to 5 August. Into this effort against the First Army front in the vicinity of Mortain, the enemy threw the 1st SS, 2nd SS, 2nd and 116th Panzer Divisions. The attack continued for three days and finally was abandoned on 10 August.

Having completed the encirclement of Le Mans before dark on 8 August, the next morning the Fifth Armored was alerted for movement to the North. Immediately the 85th Cavalry Sq. hit the road. Its mission was to determine the status of the bridges over the Orne River, 20 miles to the north, and to find out what enemy troops were in that area.

At 1740 hours the detailed order for the attack reached the division from XV Corps Headquarters. It instructed the Fifth Armored to seize crossings over the Orne River for the passage of its own troops and also for those of the 2nd French Armored Division. After they had passed this water barrier, both divisions were to proceed north, abreast of each other, the French on the left and the Fifth Armored on the right, to the Carrouge-Sees line. The 90th Infantry Division would follow the French Armor, while the 79th Infantry Division would follow the Fifth. The French 2nd Armored was assembled near Vitre.

It now became clear what the Allied Armies in France were attempting to do. Like a huge sickle, the U. S. Third Army had cut down and around the German Seventh Army and was now attempting to slice up behind this enemy force. At the point of this sickle was the Fifth Armored Division.

The division's combat commands advanced on their objectives the same evening on which the attack order was received. CC A and CC R rolled forward in parallel positions, with CC R on the right; CC B was in reserve and followed CC R.

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Having pulled out of the Le Mans area at 8 that night, CC A three hours later was fighting to hold five bridges over the Orne on a six and a half mile front in the vicinity of Ballon. Two-thirds of the combat command was committed in this night action. For the first time it was encountering concentrated enemy artillery fire. German antitank guns to the north of the river knocked out two M7s of the 47th Armored Field Artillery Bn, and two light tanks and a halftrack of CC A Headquarters. With the support of the 47th batteries and the mortar platoons the bridgeheads were held during the summer night and by daylight the enemy fire had slackened.

That night CC R also seized five river crossings south of Marolles, Two of the bridges were taken by Task Force Hamberg, which pushed well beyond the river to dig in for the night. The Married A Companies, of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47th Infantry Bn bivouacked at Peray while the married C Companies stopped south of Marolles.

Throughout the night these companies could hear, just north of their positions, the rumbling of enemy vehicles. It was assumed that these German troops were withdrawing further north. But at dawn on 10 August unexpected hell broke loose in the assembly area of the married C Companies as enemy tank and artillery shells began to thunder down. Instead of withdrawing during the night, the German tanks had jockeyed to a new position on high ground which overlooked the C Companies area. During the first few moments of this sudden morning shelling the commander of the infantry company, Capt. John M. Crafts, was killed; command of the company was then assumed by Lt. Leo Marcikowski. The commander of the C Company tanks, Capt. Francis J. Baum, returned the fire with all the weapons at his disposal. Since the river at their backs restricted maneuver, they fought in place until the A Companies rushed in from the northeast to relieve the pressure.

When the furious fight was over, it was discovered that two enemy Mark IV tanks had been destroyed. Losses of the married C Companies included: four tanks, three halftracks, and 27 casualties.

CC B had left the Le Mans area about midnight 9 August and

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had assembled at daylight near Bonnetable, just east of CC R's area. As the 15th Infantry Battalion's commander, Lt. Col. Wintermute, and its S-3, Major Hurley, attempted to drive back to CC B's Headquarters, their peep was struck by a projectile from an enemy self-propelled gun and they were both wounded. The German gunners placed the officers on the enemy vehicle and took them into Bonnetable to a house the Germans were using as a medical aid station. As the rumble of CC B's tanks grew louder the Germans withdrew from Bonnetable and the officers were recaptured. Major Toney Giorlando assumed command of the 15th Infantry Bn. and Capt. Donald Crafts became the Battalion S-3.

The commander of the 81st Tank Battalion, Lt. Col. Anderson, also encountered enemy fire when he attempted to get back to CC B's Headquarters. His peep was ripped by machine gun fire. He and his driver then walked back across the field to the battalion area to get a tank platoon for an escort.

At 8 that morning Division Headquarters issued orders that the advance to the Garrouge-Sees line be resumed. CC A turned over its job of guarding the Orne crossing to the 2nd French Armored Division, which also continued to advance on CC A's left.

In this area north of the Orne, into which the Fifth Armored was plunging, about 50 enemy tanks were active. Enemy soldiers here were members of the 9th Panzer, 709th Infantry and 130th Panzer Lehr Divisions. As the Victory Division clanked northward it encountered German antitank guns at all the main road junctions. By nightfall CC A had run up against strong tank forces at Marolles and CC R was trading blows with enemy forces on the outskirts of Mamers.

But the Wehrmacht soldiers now began to realize that these huge pincers were slowly squeezing shut and were threatening to trap the entire German Seventh Army. So the enemy's counterattack to retake Avranches was given up on 10 August and the Germans decided to withdraw their forces as quickly as possible from France. Every effort, they knew, must be made to keep the lips of these pincers open until the retreating Seventh Army could be evacuated through this gap. The Fifth Armored, therefore, began to pound against extremely bitter and determined resistance.

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It found almost all dominant terrain in this northward path being utilized as defense positions.

Therefore, the division's advance on 11 August was much slower than it had been the previous day. Combat Commands A and R were instructed to by-pass the cities of Marolles and Mamers and to continue in the direction of Sees. On the flanks the 85th Cavalry Sq. remained ready to repulse any sneak attacks. Enemy 105 mm. and 150 mm. artillery guns shelled the division's forward elements.

When CC A came upon the approaches to St. Remy, French civilians reported that the German armor in the town consisted of 23 tanks and one 88 mm. gun. Task Force Burton deployed to develop the situation and received tank fire at ranges greater than 2,000 yards. The 47th and 400th Artillery Battalions went into action hurriedly and pounded the enemy defenses. They were joined by the tank destroyers of A Co., 628^th Bn. Then, after the fighter-bombers gave the town a working over, infantrymen of C Company, 46th Infantry Bn., entered. They found that one Mark V had been destroyed and that the other tanks had withdrawn to the northwest.

Higher headquarters informed the division that the large Foret de Perseigne contained two enemy divisions and elaborate supply installations, General Oliver decided that the lack of roads and the defenses of the trees in this woods made it a tank trap. He, therefore, directed CC A to by-pass it to the right.

Formidable enemy resistance loomed in front of CC R's Task Force Boyer when it reached the outskirts of Essay. Here the Column's lead tank was hit by a projectile which passed between the driver and assistant driver without injuring either of them.

Capt. Pool, B Co., 10th Tank Bn., observed five Tiger tanks in the town. This enemy armor was subjected to fire from the 81 mm. mortars and from the guns of the 95th Artillery Bn. Then air support was called for and the fighter-bombers, peeling off and roaring down on the town, bombed and strafed the enemy positions, Columns of black smoke which spiralled up into the sky indicated several hits. Dismounting from their halftracks, the foot troops of C Co., 47th Infantry Bn., closed in and cleared out the buildings as the armored column moved through the town. The Task Force assembled for the night on the high ground just

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north of Essay. But its action for the day was not yet finished. In the darkness a Tiger tank came creeping back toward the town and was destroyed.

When the leading elements of the Fifth Armored stopped for the night of 11 August CC R was fighting on the edge of Sees and CC A had crossed the Sarthe River, north of the Foret de Perseigne. At 1945 hours the division received orders to "continue on to Argentan, and cut all communications to the north." As the Fifth Armored men slept uneasily that night, the darkness in almost every direction was dotted with the red glow of fires that marked the trail of the day's battles.

At dawn of 12 August both CC A and CC R were on the road pushing forward to take Sees.

CC A with Task Force Burton in the lead, had veered to the right to assist CC R in the attack on the city. Under the pressure of both Combat Commands, Sees fell at 1000 hours. An entire battalion of enemy troops was captured on the road. A column of the 2nd French Armored Division followed CC A's Task Force into the town and the resulting traffic congestion caused several hours delay in refueling the combat command's tanks and halftracks. Col. Farrand went to the headquarters of the 2^nd French Armored Division and asked that their troops be moved out of the city so that CC A could get through Sees and push on toward Argentan.

After CC A got through Sees it was jabbed by the point of a 116th Panzer Division column which was coming from the southwest into the city. The presence of this German division, as well as elements of the 1st and 2^nd SS Panzer divisions in this area, indicated that the enemy was making a frantic effort to get its armor out of the closing trap; only two days before these enemy divisions had been in the Mortain area taking part in the unsuccessful counterattack toward Avranches.

A self-propelled 75 mm. gun in the column of the 116th Panzer Division fired on the CC A Task Force and broke a track on each of the two leading tanks of C Co., 34th Tank Bn. The remaining C Company tanks then blasted the enemy force and also enlisted the aid of the 47th Artillery Bn. This forced the German armor to flee toward Mortree. Before it reached the town three of its

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small caliber antitank guns were destroyed. Pursuing the enemy into Mortree, Task Force Burton knocked out a Mark VI at a range of 20 yards. A Mark V backed into a building which collapsed on it. Under a covering fire from the tanks, infantry of C Co., 46th Infantry Bn., dismounted and flushed the enemy soldiers from the town.

In this operation two more C Company tanks were disabled by enemy antitank shells. Lt. Richard J. Monihan, C Co., 46th Infantry Bn., climbed up on one of these burning tanks to rescue a wounded tanker. While he was still on top of the tank another shell smashed into it and knocked both him and the tanker to the ground. But Lt. Monihan picked up the wounded man, carried him to safety through machine gun fire; and killed two Germans. Lt. Monihan was the first Fifth Armored soldier to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Task Force Bartel passed through Task Force Burton in Mortree, but was halted by a mined roadblock. This obstacle, however, was removed and at 1400 hours the drive on Argentan was resumed. Company A's tanks were spread out on a wide front as the task force advanced over the rolling wheat fields south of the town. By 1900 hours they were on the edge of Argentan south of the Orne River. Two of the attacking tanks had been knocked out by mines and one had been destroyed by antitank fire.

Not wishing to tangle with the enemy so late in the day, CC A withdrew southwest to the high ground overlooking the town. Patrols sent into the town during the night reported that there was intense activity of tanks and infantry. Throughout the night, the 47th and 400th Armored Artillery Battalions turned their big guns on Argentan and blasted the town and its approaches.

Argentan lay only about 15 miles south of Falaise, toward which the Canadian Forces were pressing from the north. The Germans, therefore, were in a panic. They were trying frantically to squeeze their whole seventh Army through this narrow gap and at the same time struggling desperately to prevent the giant pincers from clamping completely shut.

To the right of CC A the armored column of CC R, after leaving Sees that day headed toward the northeast. With Task Force Boyer leading, it proceeded forward against moderate resistance.

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By 1600 hours the married B Companies of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47^th Infantry Bn. were in Nonant-le-Pin. Prisoners captured here said that their outfit, the 12th Panzer Division, was located in the vicinity of Gace, and that the town was well fortified with tanks, antitank guns, and mines.

From Nonant-le-Pin Task Force Hamberg pushed on toward the reportedly well-fortified Gace, while Task Force Boyer turned northwest in the direction of the main road junction halfway between Gace and Argentan. At La Corbette the married A Companies of Task Force Hamberg became ensnared in their first mine field. Coming forward quickly from their place in the column, engineers of C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., hurriedly uprooted these mines. By 2100 hours the column had established a roadblock at the junction of the main roads, five miles south of Gace. From the town the task force was receiving artillery and antitank fire.

Just after darkness had descended Task Force Boyer pulled into a position south of Exmes and dug in for the night. A column of German vehicles, led by a Tiger tank, stumbled into this road- block and all the vehicles soon were burning in the night.

During the day CC B had been ordered to remain in reserve in the Sees-Nonant-le-Pin area.

In the darkness the Fifth Armored soldiers could hear the mass movement of the German vehicles grinding along every passable road in the confusion-filled escape corridor. Many of these clanking enemy columns crashed into the Fifth Armored roadblocks and were destroyed or captured. The artillery pieces poured their whining shells into the gap all through the night. Meanwhile, at their command posts, Victory Division staff officers assessed the results of this active day and prepared attacks to be launched the following day. Enemy losses inflicted by the Fifth Armored on 12 August were officially tabulated as: 301 enemy soldiers killed and 362 captured; 70 tanks, 2 armored cars, 7 artillery pieces and 88 miscellaneous enemy vehicles were destroyed.

Wearily Fifth Armored soldiers watched another dawn break on this French battlefield; and as they waited, Poised on the edge of this churning hell, they knew another day of hot and bloody fighting lay ahead of them. This 13 of August was also to be a

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day of indecision. At the offset the division's mission remained the same; it was to "continue to Argentan, cut communications to the north." But later in the day these orders from higher headquarters would be changed and then changed again. Under the protective cover of a ground haze, CC A's Task Force Bartel started at 7 that morning to move into position southwest of Argentan for the attack. Plans called for Capt. James McDonough's A Co., 46^th Infantry Bn. to enter the town with the close support of fire from the A Co., 34th Tank Bn. Task Force Burton was to make a coordinated attack enveloping the east flank.

But when the echelon of 34th Bn. tanks had nearly reached their jump-off positions, the haze suddenly lifted and left them in full view of the enemy gunners. From the edge of the town came an intense shower of antitank shells which pummeled the A Co. vehicles. Seven tanks and the G-3 halftrack were knocked out. And Lt. Col. Barrel was seriously wounded.

After recovering from the shock of this surprising blow, the task force quickly reorganized under Major Glen L. Foote, now in command. It then tried to smash its way into the town from the south but could not penetrate the barrier of massed Panzer tanks on the outskirts of the city. The supporting fire from the artillery and fighter-bombers did not help greatly in whittling down these defenses because the tanks were well concealed in and among the buildings near the railroad marshalling yards.

The combat command's reserve was then sent around the right flank to cut the road to Gace. But the enemy, using at least 35 Mark V tanks, continued successfully to resist all efforts to push north of Argentan. At noon the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion was attached to CC A. As the combat command staff made plans for another attack that afternoon, the reconnaissance platoon of the 34th Tank Bn., kept a watchful eye on the town. It observed the Germans install a hasty mine field on the edge of Argentan. But before another attack got underway orders were received stating that the 2nd French Armored Division would relieve CC A at 2000 hours.

Early that morning CC R's Task Force Boyer had rolled north four miles to the main road junction between Gace and Argentan. The Task force anchored extensive roadblocks at this important

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highway intersection and men encountered here, for the first time, the screaming Nebelwerfer fire.

From its position five miles south of Gace, CC R's Task Force Hamberg had kicked off early in the day in an attack to seize the main crossroads and bridge just south of the town. To reach its attack positions, the task force had to overcome a sizable German force. This had alerted the enemy troops in the town who now were ready to counterattack. As the married A Companies of the 10th Tank Bn. and 47^th Infantry Bn. approached the crossroads they ran into a wave of attacking German infantrymen, supported by heavy artillery concentrations. The enemy soldiers were repeatedly thrown back, but the artillery fire became so heavy that Lt. Col. Hamberg went to Col. Anderson's CC R Headquarters to explain the situation.

The CC R commander had just returned from Division Headquarters with new instructions. He told Lt. Col. Hamberg that CC B's 15th Armored Infantry had been temporarily attached to CC R to assist in blocking the area south and east of Gace. Co. B was placed in Croiselles and the remainder of the battalion in the vicinity of Exmes. Later in the day the task force withdrew to the road junction at La Catelle where the force had stayed the previous night. Here a defense was prepared against an armored threat from Le Merlerault.

Before the CC B's 15th Infantry Bn. was attached to CC R, CC B had earlier that day been ordered to pass to the right of CC A at Argentan and then out across the German's narrow escape corridor in an attempt to take Falaise. This order was rescinded about noon when General Oliver conferred with General Haislip. The Corps Commander told General Oliver that under no conditions should the Fifth Armored advance beyond the line Argentan-Gace because a large scale bombing mission was being planned to blast the area to the north of this line.

It was General Patton who had orally issued the orders for an attempt to be made to close the gap when he had visited the headquarters of XV Corps on the afternoon of 12 August. But at the same time, his Third Army Headquarters was receiving instructions from Army Group ordering the ground troops not to attempt to proceed across the escape corridor. A complicating

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factor was the fact that the international boundary line between the British and American zones extended northwest through the center of Argentan-Gace.

Describing these conflicting orders the After Action Report of XV Corps for 13 August states:

"The Commanding General, Third U. S. Army, directed the XV Corps to push slowly in the direction Falaise and made contact with Allied forces advancing from the north. As this action was being initiated orders were received rescinding it and directing the Corps to halt on the Orne River. The Fifth Armored Division to be charged with preventing German use of the roads leading east from Argentan without becoming involved in a serious fight for the town, and with cutting roads leading out of Gace to the east."

During the day the fighter-bombers and artillery continued hammering the targets in the vicinity of Argentan. One severely mauled enemy column, which decided to abandon its attempt to run this gauntlet out of the slowly closing trap, signaled its desire to surrender to the planes by waving white flags. An order was dropped by the airmen to the commander of the column, which directed him to march his troops to Rodeau. This column grew to 17,000 Wehrmacht soldiers and surrendered to the 90^th Infantry Division two days later.

Fifth Armored patrols, which had been probing the Germans defenses in Argentan during the night, were at daylight of 14 August withdrawn from the city. Then at 0630 hours a shattering artillery barrage was put down on the city as the enemy troops and vehicles continued their frenzied rush to get through the city and out of the pocket. They were harassed, too, by the fighter-bombers which began another day of bombing and strafing the terror-ridden corridor. Confusion now became general among the German forces in this area. Enemy columns of from five to fifty vehicles, all trying desperately to find their way out of the encirclement, were reported in all sections of the division zone. Ten enemy tanks were repulsed when they attempted to charge through CC B's positions ju

Foreword

Chapter I A Star Is Born It Was 1 October 1941.

Chapter VI Preview In Tennessee 24 March-1 July 1943

Chapter IX Over There England 24 February 1944--July, 1944

Chapter X A Military Wedding

Chapter I
A Star Is Born
It Was 1 October 1941.

Chapter VI
Preview In Tennessee
24 March-1 July 1943

Chapter IX
Over There
England
24 February 1944--July, 1944

Chapter X
A Military Wedding