| Date |
|
Description |
| 7 November 1944 |
- |
Left U.S.A. on the USS Marine Devil and anchored off Southampton Nov. 18. Took a 40 mile train ride to Tidworth Barracks to begin a stay that was to last until 4 January, 1945. |
| 4 January 45 |
- |
Left Tidworth and arrived Chickerall near Weymouth where we spent the night. |
| 5 January 45 |
- |
Loaded on an L.S.T. at Weymouth. |
| 7 January 1945 |
- |
Arrived at Le Havre, France at 1000. Drove to the small town of Totes, about 50 miles. Slept in a barn the first night, cold sa hell! During the night it snowed, and for the better part of two months there was a neverending blanket of snow on the ground. |
| 8 January 1945 |
- |
Spent the day rabbit hunting and getting acquainted with French apple cider, it's plenty powerful. |
| 10 January 1945 |
- |
Left Totes at 2300. It was still snowing like all hell, and for two days we became thoroughly familiar with the handling of tanks on icy roads. |
| 12 January 1945 |
- |
Arrived at Clemery, France in the vicinity of Pont-a-Mousson, and went to sleep in the remains of what appeared to be an old barn. |
| 13 January 1945 |
- |
Today we patched up the holes and settled down as best we could. An invaluable aid in this operation was an old Frenchman who became known to us as 'Porkchop Joe'. |
| 14-17 Jan 1945 |
- |
These days were spent in getting our vehicles ready for combat, stowing them with ammunition, and camouflaging them with whitewash so that they'd look like snow. |
| 17 January 1945 |
- |
Today the orders which we had all been awaiting came through. We moved that night, the journey was about 45 miles. When we stopped we knew we were close to the enemy because we could hear the rumble of artillery. |
| 18 January 1945 |
- |
Today we moved out and entered the town of Preshing, a small town on the French border. |
| 19 January 1945 |
- |
Today we got our first look at German vehicles, which had been knocked out a few days before. |
| 26 January 1945 |
- |
Today we got our first taste of combat. We moved up on a ridge outside of Nenning, Germany. Our mission was to support the 94th Inf. Div. It is not a pleasant feeling to hear artillery and discover that you are the target. At nightfall we moved back to Apach, just across the border. |
| 27 January 1945 |
- |
Moved up to attack the town of Sinz. In so doing we had to advance against a barrage of constatn artillery and mortar fire. We got our first taste of German rockets, the 'Screaming Meeemies'. From Sinz we were withdrawn after a battle that cost us one tank, knocked out, and two men wounded. This night we were informed that we were to be attached to the Ninth Army and were to proceed immediately to the town of Bocholtz, Holland. |
| 2 February 1945 |
- |
Arrived at Bocholtz, which is located just ten kilometers from the city of Aachen, Germany. We stayed there 19 days, during which time we were royally treated by the civilian populace, in whose homes we stayed while we were there. |
| 21 February 1945 |
- |
Moved to ?ck, Holland, a town on the German border. |
| 28 February 1945 |
- |
Moved out to join the all out attack across the Roer River. Spent most of the day in a town called Gladbeck, held up by a blown bridge. We passed the time by completely destroying the place. |
| 1 March 1945 |
- |
Moved to Wildenrath? where tanks 14, 12, and 13 were called to the front of the column for reconnaisance. We left the town burning. |
| 2 March 1945 |
- |
Moved out at 0500, took Breye, and moved cross-country to take Oirlich. We were forced to stop when we ran out of fuel and ammo. From here to Merbeck where we spent the next two nights. |
| 4 March 1945 |
- |
Moved to Wankum where we spent the night. |
| 5 March 1945 |
- |
Spent this night at Alderkerk. |
| 6 March 1945 |
- |
Were relieved by Combat Command 'B'. Moved into Wevlinghoven near Hinesbeck for a rest. It is a good thing we were relieved, as a few days later C.C.B ran into a trap and lost 50% of their tanks. Most of our stay here was spent in screening neighboring villages for guns, etc. |
| 19 March 1945 |
- |
Our company was attached to the 30th Inf. Div. and moved into a wood near Issum. |
| 23 March 1945 |
- |
Moved up to an assembly area one mile from the Rhine River. Listened to one of the most tremendous artillery barrages of the war. It's nice to know it is your own guns making all that noise. |
| 24 March 1945 |
- |
Crossed the Rhine at 1130 on an L.C.M. It is not a very comforting thought to know that if you are forced back, you'll have to swim for it. We moved into Spellin about 1800 and outposted the town. |
| 25 March 1945 |
- |
Ran into nine 88mm guns and captured 116 prisoners. That night we moved out for an objective 45 miles away. After an advance of ten miles we were stopped by stiff opposition. |
| 26 March 1945 |
- |
We were relieved by the 742rd Tank Bn. We moved into Gahlen and spent the night in a basement under enemy artillery fire. |
| 27 March 1945 |
- |
We moved up to outpost C.C.A.'s area |
| 28 March 1945 |
- |
We were joined by elements of the 75t Inf. Div. and moved up. For the first time we were treated to the experience of being strafed by aircraft. They were M.E. 109's. At night we moved into Im Loh. The Jerries spotted us going into a house and sent over a few shells to keep us company. The nearest one was about 50 feet away. |
| 29 March 1945 |
- |
Moved into Neighler and watched P-47's knock hell out out of a bunch of Jerry tanks. In the afternoon we moved into Polson where we lost two tanks to mines and sent two men to the hospital. We stayed in Polson two nights. |
| 31 March 1945 |
- |
Moved to Selm from Polson. |
| 2 April 1945 |
- |
Were attached to 'Task Force Poinier' and moved out to Beckam |
| 3 April 1945 |
- |
Started to work wiping out the Ruhr pocket. We were taking two or three towns a day. Had to live exclusively on 'K' rations and sleeping in the tanks. |
| 8 April 1945 |
- |
Forced to stop for a day of maintenance, the tanks are taking a terrific beating with very little maintenance. The last town we took was taken by tanks 11 and 13, the other three were disabled. |
| 9 April 1945 |
- |
Liberated a big farm house and dozens of slave laborers.You see thousands of them along the roads nowdays. |
| 10 April 1945 |
- |
Outposted the town of Stockum. |
| 11 April 1945 |
- |
Captured the city of Unna, captured the distillery, and also 59 prisoners. When the tanks pulled out the distillerie's stocks were somewhat depleted. |
| 13 April 1945 |
- |
Outposted Landschede. We sat on one side of the river and watched the Jerries dig in on the other. When we moved out for Wolfenbuttel the Jerries gave us a few air bursts as a going away present. |
| 14 April 1945 |
- |
Pulled into Wolfenbuttel, rejoined the company and stayed three days. We really lived in luxury, electric lights, radios, and best of all a hot bath in a real bathtub. |
| 17 April 1945 |
- |
From Wolfenbuttel to Schermke, just twelve miles from the 2nd Armored. |
| 19 April 1945 |
- |
Schermke to Muedebar, where we slept in a barn. |
| 20-21 April 1945 |
- |
Cleared out the Harz Mountain pocket in the vicinity of Wernigerode. |
| 22 April 1945 |
- |
Moved out and went to Westerode. |
| 23 April 1945 |
- |
Went screening in the Harz Mountains, got 4 prisoners. |
| 27 April 1945 |
- |
Went on outpost in the mountains. During the night a car slipped through the outpost. In the morning while attempting to trace the car we ran into a Jerry patrol.We killed two, wounded one, and captured the rest.However we could not find the car. That night we returned to Westerode. |
| 8 May 1945 |
- |
V. E. Day. The long awaited has arrived, now we begin to sweat out the Pacific in ernest. Today a man in the company killed himseld while cleaning his carbine. Ironic that fate should catch up to one on such a day. |
| 13 May 1945 |
- |
Left Westerode for Osterode. |
| 14 May 1945 |
- |
Left Osterode for Bad Grund. |
| 2 June 1945 |
- |
Left Bad Grund on a 300 mile trip to Czechoslovakia. Arrived Pilsen 4 June 1945. |
| 8 June 1945 |
- |
Moved to Pilsen airport to process Allied Prisoners of War |
| 26 June 1945 |
- |
Demobilization of the 8th Armored announced. All low point men to be transferred into other units outbound for the Pacific. |
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|
3/24/10 |
