~/ L 1 c: /} I " ..at times the Spring flood of memory sets with force up the dark River of the Nine Bends." Joseph Conrad "Nigger of th~ Narcissus" " A MEMOIR B Company 37th Tank Battalion 4th Armored Division On the Eve of Combat in 1944 and To All who Served " ••to leave no room •.for anything but the old verities and truths of the ·heart•••love and honor and ~ity and pride and compassion and sacrifice." . William ,Faulkner Nobel Prize Speech COl.. JAMES H. lEACH, USA RET. President 4t~ Nmored Division Assoc. 6 Sussex Court ~ulQrt. SC 29902 '·M'\ ,?4..l't'VI; 4th Armored Division - 37th Tank Battalion B Company As it landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on July 11,1944 And Before and After Foreword , At the Pittsburgh Convention of the 4th Armored Division Associa- tion in 1979, Hoby Drew, while riffling the pages of "Patton's Third A~y at War",(&ee footnote) was leading a spirited discussion on who was driving and commanding tanks at Singling in France early in De- cember 1944. In the soil of rambling reminiscences, watered by fa- ding memories, sprouted the idea of reconstituting the whole company as it was the day it crossed the Channel to France. Knowing how we started out would then help sort out the rapid changes brought about by battle casualties. Everyone with the Company before and after the cros~ing must be included for all had a hand in the forging of the Company and many a humble crewman rose through the turrets to leader- ship in battle. Herein lies the source of our pride. We believe that the very essence and glory of every unit of our great Division was based on thorough training, outstanding leadership, mutual respect, and love for each other. Early on it became evident, since no one walked,that we had to e~tablish the T.O. for vehicles as well as for men. The Center of Military History (U.S.Army) kindly supplied TO&E 17-27 of le Novem- ber 1944 which included all the changes in manpower and vehicles from September 1943 (Regiments to Battalions) and thus covered the organization of B Company in July 1944. There was, however,one change that T.O. does not reflect;namely,the assignment of one me- dium tank each from A,B,and C Companies to then Colonel Abrams' Battalion Headquarters. Major (now Major-General Retired) Ed Bautz, Battalinn S-3,got our tank with four men. Thus,the actual T.O. on July 10-11,1944 reflects: Vehjcles: 16 Tanks-7~ guns (the 17th to Bn.Hq.) 1 Tahk-l05't-'!MHowitzer-The Assault Gun 1 Half-Track 2 Peeps 1 Kitchen Truck 1 VTR (Vehicle Tank Recovery) , Note: a second truck, perhaps borrowed'from Service Com- pany,can be postulated and would be convenient to reduce the ten man total assigned the Kitchen Truck and Half-Track. We do not think there was one. Personnel~ Enlisted-l08(4 from the official T.O. to Bn.Hq.) Officers- 5 l13(The T.O. counting the 4 above has 117) ,Since we ca~ count 117 names,it appears we were 4 overstrength. Footnote: British author It.-Col. George Forty R.T.R.(Royal Tank Regiment) included in his book pictures of B Co.'s 1st Platoon and of Drew, furnished by our Jimmie Leach. -2- This memoir is rlivide~ into 5 parts: Part 1 - A I'ab le of Or-garrl z.at.i.onby R;:nll{ Part 2 - 1he Calculation of the Actual Crossing 3trengt~ Part 3 - An Outline of the Company - Each man in his vehicle Pert 4 - Our Dead - Killed in Action Part 5 - An alphabetical list of men-all who could be remernbered- from Pine Camp in 1941 to Czechoslovakia jn 1945, together with ~ome to~ms and appropriate notations. As nore names are recalled they 'trillbe added in a future edition of the memoir. Of special interest jn Part 3 is the near perfect recall of the name of every vehicle except,alas, for that of the Half-Track. The author of this project is the Company itself. I am but the scribe, remembering little of B Co.'s days in England prior to cross- ing to France Bince I ~as then in Battalion Headquarters. Previous memoran~a on this endeavor have cited numerous comrades with remark- nble memories but it \vould now be necessary to list just about every- one. By word 0: mouth, photographs, letters, lists, local and long 0i~tance telephone calls, everyone approached has eagerly responded. We have even found long-lost comrades in the procese. Let us now all share in the work we all have produced. Francis N. Magliozzi Co. E 37th Armored Regiment Hoo Co. 2nd Bn. 37th A.R. Ho. Ce. 37th Tank Battalion / 3rrlEditton, reviRed November 1981 9th Edtt Lon , November 1990 4tl-tEdition, February 19E'2 5th Edition, July 1982 6th Edition, June 1985 7th ErJ:ition,July ] 9~6 8th Edjtion, August 1990 -)- Part 1 Table of Organization -- by rank, Enlisted and Commissioned TO&E 17-27 November, 1944 T~is table is t~e complete TO including the Company Clerk and the f0ur men who were taken in Engiand by Battalion 5-3 112 Men - 5 Officers Men Officer~ First Sgt. 1 Captain 1 rirst Lts. 2 T-8gt-r·~otor 1 Second Ltf.2 1 Platoon and Motor Staff Sgts 5 l~esf Officer were 1st Lts. 3 Platoon (B had 6) Supply Sergeant~ 12 C0m~unications Chief (Staff Sgt. in B) 11 Tank C0mm~nders 3 each platoon - 9 1 in Hq. Section-l (taken by 3n. S-3 1 ASA8ult Gun Cmrlr. 1 as were l:each ~/4,FFC, and Pvt) Corporals 20 H~ Gunners 1 C0mp;my Clerk 1 Agent Liaison 7/4 15 1 cook 9 ':'AnkDrivers- 2 tanks and 105;·-;'; of He. Section 2 in each plato0n . 1 Artillery MAchanic (~O assigns to Half-track) 3 Tank Mechanics (TO assigns 1 in Feep;2 in Half-track) 1 Radio ~epair ~an (in B started in Peepjlater in loader's seat in Command Tank) ~/5 14 1 Armorer 1 Cook 9 Tank Drivers (3 in each platoon) 1 Peep driver 2 Tank Nechanic~ (TO assigns as drivers of VTR and Half-track) PFC 19 Pvt 25 'l'hese44 include 18 Bow Gunners 18 Loaders 8 Unspecified To t a Ls 112 5 -/..;- Part 2 5 Officers If ~3n~~ 2. mo as ~~R~¢8rt by ~~. < err c ers 17 'I'an.c s 1_ ?;:, nk - 4. :':: P. n to'')-3 ]. ~~8 Sr~s2in5 m.~. 5 Officerc: Comra~y cJA~k to rs£r echel0n-cr~~~e~ Ipter 2.11:">~ 5 0fficere ...• 116 ~a] cuLa t ion of :'>-. ;_~Actual Sr0ssing 3tr'~nGth ~}le Snmpany ~icturA of April 1944 - 119 (including Officers) Four who crossed but not i.npicture: 4 Johnson Clark Ya r emchuk Fitzger31d 123 m\110 in picture who did not cross: 2 Pallamallo Hoclges 121 F0ur to Bn nil. L~ 117 8o~pimy Clerk 1 116 ' 116 8ro8sing T.O. ~-o. J above 112 Overstrength 4** Distribution of the Crossing Strength-Fersonnel in Vehicles Vehicle ~en Officer~ Command TAnk 4 1 5 Assault Gun 5 5 15 Ta~~s-3 platoons 72 J 75 1 Truck & Trailer (Mess) 10 10 1 VTR (Vehicle Tank ~ecovery4 4 1 Ha Lf's-Track ,T'~aintenance 10 10** 2 Peep:: 1.\: o. 1 r;otor Of'fic er 2 1 3 roo 2 First Sgt. 4 4 III -5 116** **cf. Page la Willard - Now read 5, 11, and 117 -5- Part 3 Outline of the Company-Each man in his vehicle (faces page 6) Abbreviations: TN-Tank NamejVN-Vehicle NamejTC-Tank Commander G-Gunner;L-Loader;D-Driver;B-Bow Gunner or Bog VTR-Vehicle Tank RecoverYiCMDR-Comrnander of Ve- hicleiOfficers and principal Sgts in parentheses) Company Headquarters and Headouarters Platoon Company Command COMmunications-Supply- !·~ess-Ma int enanc e TN - Buccaneer Peep-VN-Back-N-Forth TC - Tiegs (Capt.) G - 1.'1illiams D - Kilanowski L - Zynn Mixon (1st Lieut.) D Blume ; Jefferis B -Connelly 'l'r-u ck-Vlv-Bd scu it; Buggy TN - Target-for-Tonight D - Quinlan Crigger TC Bautz, 5-3, Bn.Hq. Ramey(Mess)Aulicino G Slifka Garrison Colasanti L - -;arling Scates Davis D - Brindle Cocchiara Tuchinsky B - Johnson VTR-VN-Black Panther TN - Ba ck Breaker (105 1'.'Jl.1) crvIDR- Cortese TC - Grirrun D - Debevc G Haywar-d Roberti L - Boyer Strulovitz D - Ba en f.ek B - Holland Half-track-VN- ___ Peep - VN':'Beulah CJvIDR- Mullen(Haintenancel D - Mercer D - Powell Mollo " Guffey (1st Sgt) Br-ooks(Communication) Kaplin (Supply) Goss Saxon DiGangi Salvaggio (displaced G from Bautz Tk) Note:Company Clerk Luthye Matheson crossed with rear Green echelon later Davenport -6- Part 3 Outline of the :onpany-Eac~ ~an in his vehicle (:aces pa~e 5) The T~ree Ta~~ Platoons -1st -2nd TN-Blockbuster TN-Boile!"'l!laker TN-Er'Jt::erTobv TC-Leac~ (1st Lt.) TC-Bo~~ (2nd Lt.) TC-Marston (2nd Lt.) G-Coffee G-Peskar C-Cueto L-Brown L-McVicker L-Niski D-Boggs D-Porter D-Chelmecki B-Popovitch B-Rhoads B-!·1.srtin TN-Bettv Boo'O TN-Bock Eeer TN-Br cok Lvn Bey . TC-FitzD~i~ick(Plat. TC-Lan~eier(?lat. TC-Farese(Flat.Sg~) G-Creviston Sgt) G-Haupt~an Sgt) G-Gi-noli L-Clark L-Ross L-Daly D-Baay D-Moe D-Farks B-Reynolds _.g-r~iller B-Ritland .- TN-Bulldozer TN-Ballantine TN-Blenheim ,.,C• -l·lorp,U' 'L...ew TC-Del".Vecchio TC-v.Thi tes ide G-Sandrock G-Wenrich G-Chernick L-Hale L-Gellman L-McGuire D-Kelley D-~rachen D-Paulus 'B-Tyler B-S Lmc i.k B-Ayotte TN-Berlin Bound TN-Budweiser TN-B1ondie TC-Grady TC-Lew·is TC-Heintz G-Litherland G-Checki G-Bordner L-Nelsen L-Grieb L-Graham ,.