Tank Killers
Page 34
41. Josowitz, 19.
42. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 159.
43. “Organization and Employment of a Tank Destroyer Battalion,” HQS 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 11 October 1943.
44. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 37. Telephone interview with Randolph Mojsl, April 2002. AARs, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
45. Account of Col J.Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
46. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 35-36.
47. Josowitz, 19. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
48. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 185.
49. Griess, 236. Liddell Hart, 469.
50. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 194 ff.
51. Josowitz, 20. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 199.
52. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 201.
53. Liddell Hart, 469.
54. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 181. Griess, 236.
55. Griess, 236-237.
56. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
57. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
58. Calvin C. Boykin, Jr., General A.D. Bruce: Father of Fort Hood (College Station, Texas: C&R Publications, 2002), 33. (Hereinafter Boykin, General A.D. Bruce.)
59. Combat Lessons Learned Number 1. (U.S. War Department, 1944), 55.
60. Schmidt.
61. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
62. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
63. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
64. Griess, 238.
65. Combat Lessons, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 June 1944.
66. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
67. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 37. Account of Col J.Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
68. Account of Col J.Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
69. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
70. Sherman, 30.
71. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
72. Dunnagan, 161.
73. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
74. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 249.
75. The American Arsenal, 140.
76. History, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
77. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 252-253.
78. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
79. Gill, 47-48.
80. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
81. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
82. History, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
83. George Smith, Jack Hallowell, Joe F. Meis, Robert LeMense, Al Morgan, and Irving Kintisch, History of the 157th Infantry Regiment (Rifle), 4 June ‘43-8 May ’45 (Baton Rouge, LA: Army & Navy Publishing Company, 1946), 48. (Hereinafter Smith, et al.)
84. Sherman, 35.
85. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
86. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 269.
87. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 41.
88. Griess, 238.
89. Liddell Hart, 473.
Chapter 5: Anzio and Two Roads to Rome
1. Martin Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed (New York, NY: Cooper Square Press, 2001), 73-74. (Hereinafter Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed.)
2. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 359.
3. Telephone interview with John Hudson, May 2002.
4. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Josowitz, 22.
5. History, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Telephone interview with Rudolph Mojsl, April 2002.
6. The American Arsenal, 66.
7. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 75-76.
8. Ibid., 33-40.
9. Ibid., 43 ff.
10. Ibid., 56.
11. Ibid., 61-63.
12. Griess, 239.
13. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
14. Smith, et al, 52.
15. Battalion history, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
16. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 85-92.
17. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
18. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 85-97.
19. Lessons from the Italian Campaign, Training Memorandum Number 2, Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations, 15 March 1944. The Story of the 1st Armored Division, 33.
20. S-3 Journal, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
21. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Combat Lessons, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 19 March 1944 and 1 June 1944.
22. Patrick J. Chase, Seek, Strike, Destroy, The History of the 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion in World War II (Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, Inc., 1995), 32-33. (Hereinafter Chase.)
23. Ibid., 33-34.
24. AAR, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
25. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 105-117. Gill, 49.
26. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
27. Smith, et al, 57.
28. Smith, et al, 58ff. Schmidt.
29. Von Senger und Etterlin, 198-199.
30. Smith, et al, 58ff. Gill, 49.
31. Gill, 50.
32. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 125.
33. See Wehrtechnik.net, http://www.wehrtechnik.net/wehrtechnik/index. (Hereafter Wehrtechnik.)
34. Von Senger und Etterlin, 53,65,202-203.
35. Chris Bishop and Adam Warner, editors, German Weapons of World War II (Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, Inc., 2001), 121.
36. Horst Scheibert, Kampf und Untergang der Deutschen Panzertruppe, 1939-1945 (Dorheim, Germany: Podzun Verlag, not dated), 9.
37. Smith, et al, 58ff. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 132.
38. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 134-135.
39. Gill, 50.
40. Blumenson, Anzio: The Gamble That Failed, 134-135.
41. Gill, 50-51.
42. AAR, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
43. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Telephone interview with John Hudson, May 2002. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003. Gill, 50.
44. Chase, 42.
45. Smith, et al, 69. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
46. General der Panzertruppen a.d. Walter Fries, “29th Panzergrenadier Division (Feb. 1944),” MS # D-141. Historical Division, Headquarters United States Army, Europe, not dated. National Archives. (Hereinafter Fries.)
47. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
48. Fries.
49. Gill, 51.
50. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
51. AAR, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
52. Note to author from Bill Harper, 2002.
53. Telephone interview with Rudolph Mojsl, April 2002. Josowitz, 25.
54. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, for April 1944.
55. Military Attache Report 284.
56. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, for April 1944. Combat Lessons, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 19 March 1944. AAR, 821st Tank Destroyer Battalion, February 1945.
57. AAR, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
58. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 366.
59. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 378.
60. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 381-382.
61. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 43. Account of Col J.Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
62. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 397ff.
63. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
64. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
65. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
66. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 444.
67. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
68. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
70. Maj Wallace L. Clement, Lt Bruce A. Berlin, Lt James D. Freed, and Lt John B. Gregg, Eight Hundred and Fourth Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1941-1945, A History (Camp Hood, Texas: 804th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1945), 12-13. (Hereinafter Clement, et al.) AAR, 804th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
71. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
72. Smith, et al, 84.
73. Ernest J. Fisher Jr., Cassino to the Alps: The United States Army in World War II, The Mediterranean Theater of Operations (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1977), 137. (Hereinafter Fisher.) Whitlock, 296. Liddell-Hart, 535.
74. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
75. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
76. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
77. Fisher, 123, 126. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
78. Smith, et al, 87-88.
79. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
80. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
81. S-3 Journal, 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
82. Congressional Medal of Honor citation, Capt William Wylie Galt Headquarters, 34th Infantry Division. Lessons Learned in Combat, November 7/8 1942-September 1944. September 1944.
83. Josowitz, 29.
84. Sherman, 88.
85. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
86. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Sherman, 81.
87. Josowitz, 30.
88. John Hudson, letter to author, 8 February 2003.
89. AAR, 804th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
90. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Combat Lessons, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 June 1944.
91. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
92. Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army. Training Memorandum Number 2, Lessons From the Italian Campaign. 15 March 1945.
93. Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army. Training Memorandum Number 2, Lessons From the Italian Campaign. 15 March 1945. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Combat Lessons, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 June 1944.
94. Headquarters, 34th Infantry Division. Lessons Learned in Combat, November 7/8 1942-September 1944. September 1944.
95. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Combat Lessons, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 June 1944.
96. Headquarters, Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army. Training Memorandum Number 2, Lessons From the Italian Campaign. 15 March 1945.
97. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
98. The American Arsenal, 58.
99. Richard R. Buchanan, Richard D. Wissolik, David Wilmes, and Gary E.J. Smith, general editors, Men of the 704th: A Pictorial and Spoken History of the 704th Tank Destroyer Battalion in World War II (Latrobe, PA: Saint Vincent College Center for Northern Appalachian Studies, 1998), 25. (Hereinafter Buchanan, et al.)
100. Oliver, 8.
101. Buick advertisement reproduced in Gill, 81.
102. AARs, 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
103. Oliver, 10.
104. AAR, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
105. Sherman, 91.
Chapter 6: Storming Fortress Europe
1. Buchanan, et al, 9.
2. Normandy, CMH Pub72-18 (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, not dated), 21. (Hereinafter Normandy.)
3. Normandy, 26-32. Griess, et al, 295.
4. History, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
5. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 1-2.
6. Ibid., 24.
7. Ibid., 1-2.
8. Ibid., 2.
9. Ibid., 2, 13, 15.
10. History, 702d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
11. Griess, 318.
12. AAR, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
13. Normandy, 36.
14. Battle honors memo, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 6 September 1944.
15. Ibid. AAR, 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
16. Normandy, 36.
17. Griess, 316.
18. Griess, 256.
19. Combat Lessons Learned Number 4. U.S. War Department pamphlet, 1944.
20. Normandy, 34.
21. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 13.
22. “Panzer Tactics in Normandy,” Historical Division, Headquarters United States Army, Europe, 11 December 1947. This is a record of an interview conducted with General der Panzertruppen Leo Freiherr Geyr von Schweppenburg, who was commander of Panzer Gruppe West from 1943 to 5 July 1944 and Inspector of Panzer Troops from August 1944 to May 1945. National Archives. (Hereinafter “Panzer Tactics in Normandy”.)
23. AAR, 803d Tank Destroyer Battalion, July 1944.
24. “Panzer Tactics in Normandy,” 3.
25. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 13.
26. 746th Tank Battalion Report, 10 July, 83d Div G-2, G-3 Journal File, cited by Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit: United States Army In World War Ii, The European Theater Of Operations (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1993), 132. (Hereinafter Blumenso, Breakout and Pursuit.)
27. AAR, 6th Armored Group.
28. AARs, 743d Tank Battalion.
29. “Report of the 803d Tank Destroyer Battalion,” memo to the First Army antitank officer, 6 July 1944.
30. Ibid.
31. St. Lô, facsimile reprint of CMH Pub 100-13 (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1983), 36ff. (Hereinafter St. Lô.) Battle Honors Citations of Companies A and C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 11 December 1944.
32. Battle Honors Citations of Companies A and C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 11 December 1944. Medal citations, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Gill, 57. St. Lô, 38.
33. St. Lô, 36ff. Battle Honors Citations of Companies A and C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 11 December 1944.
34. Medal citations, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Gill, 57.
35. Medal citations, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Gill, 58.
36. St. Lô, 40.
37. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 17.
38. Ibid., 14.
39. Bronze star citation for Lt Wilfred C. Ford. S-3 journal, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
40. AAR, 635th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
41. History, 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion. AARs, 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
42. AAR, 802d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
43. AAR, 635th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
44. AARs, 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion.
45. AAR, 821st Tank Destroyer Battalion, July 1944.
46. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 2, 10, 15.
47. AAR, 802d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
48. Michael Green, M4 Sherman. Osceola (WI: Motorbooks International Publishers & Wholesalers, 1993), 102. (Hereinafter Green.)
49. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 2.
50. S-3 journal, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 16 July 1944.
Chapter 7: Armored Thunder
1. Col Robert S. Allen, Patton’s Third Army: Lucky Forward (New York: Manor Books Inc., 1965), 70-71. (Hereinafter Allen.)
2. Edward Jablonski, Wings of Fire. Garden City (NY: Doubleday & Company, 1971), 97-98. Griess, 330.
3. Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit, 181.
4. Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader (New York, NY: Ballentine Books, 1972), 265. (Hereinafter Guderian.)
5. Griess, 328.
6. Ibid., 331.
7. Houston, 215.
8. AAR, 702d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
9. AAR, 703d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
10. Houston, 219-221.
11. Ibid., 222.
12. Gill, 59.
13. Griess, 317.
&
nbsp; 14. See the S-3 Journal, 745th Tank Battalion, which records an order to this effect from Headquarters 1st Army, as does the S-3 Journal of the 747th Tank Battalion.
15. Allen, 71.
16. Houston, 226.
17. Richard D. Wissolik and Gary E.J. Smith, general editors, Reluctant Valor, The Oral History of Captain Thomas J. Evans (Latrobe, PA: Saint Vincent College Center for Northern Appalachian Studies, 1995), 3-4. (Hereinafter Wissolik and Smith.)
18. Buchanan, et al, 19.
19. Allen, 72-74.
20. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 5.
21. Oliver, 16.
22. History, 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
23. History, 603d Tank Destroyer Battalion, August 1944.
24. Capt Elmer V. Sparks, editor-in-chief, Victory TD (Göttingen, Germany: 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1945), 35. (Hereinafter Sparks, Victory TD.)
25. Wissilok and Smith, 20.
26. AAR, 703d Tank Destroyer Battalion, 30 July 1944.
27. Spearhead in the West (Frankfurt, Germany: 3d Armored Division, 1945), 28. (Hereinafter Spearhead in the West.)
28. Wissilok and Smith, 20-23.
29. Ibid., 22. Nat Frankel and Larry Smith, Patton’s Best, An Informal History of the 4th Armored Division (New York, NY: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1984), 27. (Hereinafter Frankel and Smith.)
30. Buchanan, et al, 23-24.
31. History, 603d Tank Destroyer Battalion, September 1944.
32. 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion (Göttingen, Germany: Muster-Schmidt, 1945), 22.
33. Houston, 232.
34. AAR, 702d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
35. History, 612th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
36. Spearhead in the West, 73.
37. Allen, 78.
38. History, 823d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
39. Griess, 334-335.
40. Mark J. Reardon, Victory at Mortain, Stopping Hitler’s Panzer Counteroffensive (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 46-64. (Hereinafter Reardon.)
41. Guderian, 273.
42. Griess, 335.
43. Michael Reynolds, Steel Inferno: 1st SS Panzer Corps in Normandy (New York: Dell Publishing, 1997), 260.
44. History, 823d Tank Destroyer Battalion.
45. History, 823d Tank Destroyer Battalion. “30th Inf Division, Mortain Counterattack, 6-12 Aug 1944,” combat interviews, NARA, box 24038.