Memorial Day 2024 (part 2)
Memorial Day 2024 (part 2)
Who were the fallen in my father's 712th Tank Battalion
In my previous Substack, I began to name the 99 members of the 712th Tank Battalion whose lives were lost in World War 2, with a brief comment on those I recognized. This consumed more time and space than I anticipated, so I’m continuing today and likely in the next issue as well. But first a correction — I misidentified Lt. Colonel George Randolph as Lt. George Randolph. And a discovery. I remarked that I knew nothing about Fred Becker, but I discovered a passage in Louis Gruntz Jr.’s book “A Tank Gunner’s Story.” Louis and his father traveled the combat route of the 712 and his dad, Louis Gruntz, told many stories along the way. The book also details the deaths of many of the B Company members with which I was not familiar.
Fred Becker: From “A Tank Gunner’s Story,” by Louis Gruntz Jr.
Tec 5 Fred Becker was an early casualty. He was killed on July 8, 1944 in Fortaire, France. Fred Becker was in the tank commanded by Sgt. Orin Bourdo, Becker had gotten out of the tank to get some fresh air. As he was sitting on the front of the tank, a German artillery shell landed nearby and he was killed by a piece of shrapnel. The driver of the tank, Cpl Richard Gosselin, who was half out of the driver’s hatch, had an arm blown off. Gosselin was evacuated to a field hospital, the 76th Evac. Hospital, where he succumbed to those wounds on July 16. Orin Bourdo, who was standing in the top hatch and witnessed this unfolding tragedy, was unharmed.
Harvey A. Fowler: The 712th Tank Battalion had two sets of brothers, one set in C Company and one in B Company. In both cases one of the brothers was killed. Harvey Fowler of B Company was mortally wounded in Pommerloch, Luxembourg, on January 10, 1945, according to “A Tank Gunner’s Story,” and died on January 12. He was survived by his brother, Leon; both were from Tabor City, North Carolina.
Louis’ book also sheds light on the deaths of Charles Cragg and Giacomo Caruso, about both of whom I knew little. Cragg was a replacement and a gunner, like Louis’ dad. “He wasn’t there that long, a nice little guy, his name was (Charles) Cragg, the elder Gruntz told his son.
When Dad’s tank was outside of Nothum [during the Battle of the Bulge], the flanking units had not kept pace with B Company’s advance on Berle and the Germans attacked the flanks of Berle in an attempt to capture it and also recapture Nothum. Lieutenant Mesker was standing in the turret of his tank while Cragg and the other tank crew members were inside the tank. Dad continued, “We were surrounded. They (a German sniper) shot at him, the lieutenant. The shot was fired as Mesker was turning in the turret and hit him laterally across his stomach, Being wounded, he either fell or dove back into the tank. “He says to the kid, ‘A sniper just shot at me, see if you can see him.’ And that poor kid stuck his head up (out of the turret) and he got shot right between the eyes.” ,,, Dad was angered, as it was one of those deaths that did not have to happen.
Caruso was killed on February 19, 1945, when his tank was knocked out by a panzerfaust in the town of Kesfeld, Germany.
James W. Gaither: On July 26, 1944, during the battle for Seves Island in Normandy, a B Company tank ran over an explosive device with the strength of 400 pounds of TNT, according to “A Tank Gunner’s Story.” Four members of B Company and an infantryman filling in for a missing crew member were killed. James Gaither was one of the casualties. More about this incident later.
Harold A. Gentle: Gentle was the gunner in the C Company tank commanded by Judd Wiley. Wiley was injured during the battle for Hill 122 and his place was taken by the platoon sergeant, Abe Taylor. When the platoon was ambushed, Taylor’s tank was one of three that went up in flames. All five members of the crew were killed
Robert L. Gerald: Bob Gerald of B Company was killed during the battle of the Falaise Gap in mid-August of 1944.
Richard Gosselin: Gosselin was mortally wounded on July 8, 1944, and died eight days later. See the description of Fred Becker above.
Larry Green: This is from my 1994 interview with Don Knapp, who was a tank commander in C Company.
Larry Green, he came up as a replacement, and they gave him to me. And I said, "Can you shoot a gun?"
And he said, "No, I haven't had any training."
I said, "Well, we're going into Germany today," first day, gray, misty day, and I said, "We may run into something, so I know about being a gunner. You be the tank commander."
We just go over into Germany and we got hit with the biggest artillery ever. Larry Green, he came down on top of me, and I thought he was dead. But all that dust and crap was thrown up into his eyes, and he was blinded. So there I am, I can't hear nothing, ears ringing, and I'm dizzy, and I have to pick Larry up, and he's a heavyset person, and when we got him out of the tank and brought him into a house, we come to find out it was just dirt in his eyes, but they evacuated him.
Some time went by, and we got Larry Green back, and they made him a sergeant, tank commander. Good person, he wanted to do the best, and he wasn't up too long and we were parked by the Moselle River. [This was early in March of 1945]. There were some nice little German inns. We're getting some artillery fire, once in a while we could see some Germans riding a bicycle, it was just like, not a bad time, and I thought I don't care if they ever get the bridge in. So the inns had some bottles of Moselle wine down in the cellar, and I remember finding spuds and having a glass of 1895 wine and saying, "Boy, this is pretty good." And Larry's up, we had to keep somebody in the tanks, he's up the road, and he's in the tank and a mortar came in and dropped down in the turret.
Glenn R. Halbert: Glen Halbert (Find-a-Grave spells his name with one ‘n’) was one of two B Company tankers killed on July 3, 1944, the battalion’s first day in combat, during the attack on St. Jores in Normandhy.
Russell J. Harris, Jr.: March 16, 1945, was Lieutenant Francis “Snuffy” Fuller’s “worst day in combat,” when four members of C Company’s second platoon were killed and three tanks were knocked out in the battle for Pfaffenheck, Germany, a picturesque village in the Rhine-Moselle Triangle. Harris, a tank commander, was struck in the head with a shell from a 40-millimeter antiaircraft gun.
Ira Hawk: According to Find-a-Grave, Major Ira Hawk “was a member of HQ Company of the 712th tank Battalion. … He was killed in action in Normandy near Periers, France” on July 23, 1944.
Lloyd W. Hayward: Lloyd Hayward was one of two tank commanders in the second platoon of Company C who were killed at Pfaffenheck on March 16, 1945. Badly injured in both legs, he managed to get out of his burning tank and was being helped by Lieutenant Francis Fuller and Sergeant Russell Loop when Hayward was killed by machine gun fire while between them.
Harold J. Heckler: Heckler, a tank commander in D Company, was killed by so-called friendly fire on July 14, 1944.
Sidney F. Henderson: Tank driver Sidney Henderson was killed in the battle for the Falaise Gap on August 18, 1944. One other crew member, Rex Smallwood, was killed when the tank was knocked out. His body was found the next day but Henderson was initially listed as missing in action. “I have a letter that was printed in the 712th bulletin from his aunt,” platoon-mate Don Knapp said when I interviewed him in 1994. “she wanted to know about her Sidney that she loved so much. Sidney was a truck driver and had been around, he was not your little ingenue, one old tough guy.”
Gerald E. Henehan: Like Harvey Fowler of B Company, Gerald Henehan was allowed to serve in the same company as his brother, Bob. Gerald was killed on Dec. 9, 1944 when he stepped on a mine in the battle for Dillingen, Germany.
(to be continued)
To read more, follow the link to Memorial Day, Part 1