Aaron, thank you for the opportunity to respond. I like you are a son of a 712th veteran. My father Phillip C. Morgan was wounded on July 3, 1944 in the fight near Pont Auny. He went on to survive the war and was reassigned from the hospital to the 1/66 Armor for the rest of the war. He stayed in the Army and retired in 1971 as a CSM with Korea and Vietnam under his belt. Unfortunately, he passed in 1974. I also became a career man in part to honor his legacy. I would love to further the conversation if you ever get the chance.
Hi, Dave — Thanks for your note! I see from the roster that he was in headquarters, and he would have been wounded on the battalion’s first day in combat. Holy cow! It turns out that I have an account in one of my interviews from another tanker who saw his tank hit. Your dad was pretty badly wounded. Did he go into detail about the incident?
I actually put it in one of my books. Your dad was the driver in the tank in which Richard Howell was killed. At the 1994 reunion in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, I did an interview with Bob Atnip, who was a gunner in one of the three 105mm assault guns that day. Here's a partial transcript:
Aaron Elson: Your name is Bob Atnip?
Bob Atnip: Atnip, yeah.
Aaron Elson: And you were with headquarters company all the way through?
Bob Atnip: Yes, I was.
Aaron Elson: And you were in the assault gun platoon?
Bob Atnip: Yes.
Aaron Elson: Now was Morse Johnson in that?
Bob Atnip: No, he was with A Company. Lieutenant Adair would be, he was the lieutenant.
Aaron Elson: Sam Adair? And who was in your crew?
Bob Atnip: Let's see, I had a gunner O'Shea, Anderson which is here now, he was one of the crew. Michael Anderson.
Aaron Elson: He was in your tank?
Bob Atnip: Yes, no, I'm sorry, he was not in my tank.
Aaron Elson: He was in the first tank.
Bob Atnip: That's right. The first tank was Mike, and Young, Johnny Young, Lieutenant Adair was riding with them. I can't tell you who the gunner was.
Aaron Elson: Ritz? Eddie Ritz? I don't know why I know all this...
Bob Atnip: They got through, past the one gun that caused us all the trouble. They ran out into the woods around a little curve, looking head on at a small German tank, and they were firing at each other. And it knocked the track off of the track of the tank that the lieutenant was in, he got his shoulder damaged.
Aaron Elson: Adair got his shoulder damaged, right?
Bob Atnip: Yes.
Aaron Elson: Because he got back into the tank and he was firing the ammunition, and the gun hurt his shoulder?
Bob Atnip: Recoil.
Aaron Elson: Now what can you recall about seeing that second tank get hit?
Bob Atnip: The second tank that got hit? That was with Howell?
Aaron Elson: Yes.
Bob Atnip: That was about probably 75 or maybe 100 feet from me, and I happened to be looking that way, I don't know why, when the first round hit it. They hit it twice. Shelton, Sergeant Shelton was the tank commander. Hall was the gunner. Howell was the loader. And Philip Morgan was the driver.
Aaron Elson: Philip who?
Bob Atnip: Morgan.
Aaron Elson: Was Tony Orlando, was he...
Bob Atnip: Tony was in there later. He was with us later I know. We lost several men that day, hurt, and wounded. Our halftrack, which was held back a little bit behind, pretty well took a direct hit, and we lost five or six men there.
Aaron Elson: Do you remember the names?
Bob Atnip: Really I don't.
Aaron Elson: What can you remember about seeing Howell's tank hit?
Bob Atnip: Oh, okay. The rear end of the tank was more toward than me and the front away from us. Seeing the tank hit, it seemed to jar like that. And the second shot hit, and flames flew up, just mushroomed out in a matter of seconds. I seen Shelton come out of the tank, carrying Howell by the shirt collar.
Aaron Elson: He carried Howell by the shirt collar? (This was my mistake. Howell never got out of the tank. It was Herman Hall that Shelton lifted out)
Bob Atnip: Shelton was a very strong person. And he literally flung him out of the tank out on the ground, with one hand. Now I didn't see anybody else come out of the tank. And it was burning fiercely at that time.
Aaron Elson: Howell was burning?
Bob Atnip: No, the tank was burning. But we had 66 rounds of ammunition in that tank, and the second shot the Germans fired, (unintellible) out the first shot in the turret. The second shot went right under the track, where the thin part was, under that bit of (unintelligible). And after it burned there for quite a while, I seen the 90th Infantry infantrymen bringing Morgan to an old house that's settin' up out front there, and I hollered at them, "Where are you taking this man?" And Morgan was blind at that time, the skin was kind of swollen together he couldn't see, from the concussion I suppose. So an infantryman said, "Do you know this man?"
I said, "Sure, he's out of that tank here." And he had an odd-looking helmet, it didn't match the rest of us, and he thought he was German. So he said, "I'll take him to the medics, then." So he took him to the medics. And I never did see Howell.
Aaron Elson: Howell got out of the tank?
Bob Atnip: No, I don't think Howell ever got out.
Aaron Elson: But you said that you saw Shelton lifting Howell by the shoulders.
Bob Atnip: That was Hall, H-A-L-L.
Aaron Elson: Oh, Hall, not Howell, Hall. What was he?
Bob Atnip: Raymond Hall. He was the gunner. Setting right down in front of the commander. [this may actually be Herman Hall]
Aaron Elson: And was he wounded?
Bob Atnip: Yes he was, he got some burns, and was evacuated. For some time, he finally did come back to join us later in the war. And Rowell, not Howell but Rowell was the assistant driver.
Aaron Elson: Rowell. [this is Olen Rowell of Decatur, Miss.] Now wait a minute, you had a Howell, a Hall and a Rowell.
Bob Atnip: There you go.
Aaron Elson: This is like a comedy. There was a Howell...
Bob Atnip: Rowell just got killed in an automobile accident in the last year or so. He lived down in Mississippi, down in Meridien. He, you see, they had gone out the front hatches, the driver and the assistant driver went out the front, and they got around where this old building was, where just moments before the Germans were occupying but they took off when all this action started, they backed up. This infantry went on around, that's where he come flushing Hall, I mean Morgan out, thinking he was a German because he had this odd-looking helmet, it didn't match the rest of us.
Anyway, the next day, I, well I set there most of the time, all night, we was the only thing left, and the infantry said "Just hold it, don't move, if we'll be needing you we'll tell you, because you come up here, all you're doing is drawing mortar fire on us." We set there all night, and the next day our maintenance crew came up there with a tank and pulled the old hull that was left off of that pile of ashes, and we sifted through all through that, we couldn't find any fragment of bone or body. The only thing we found was little buttons that looked like off of (?) clothes, you know, brass buttons.
Aaron Elson: Little buttons?
Bob Atnip: Brass buttons. Like was on the Army fatigue(?) clothes. That was the only thing there, everything else was just cremated. So I always thought, maybe the driver and assistant driver went out and I didn't see him until a few minutes later, maybe somehow he got out that way, but ...
Aaron Elson: And Howell, what was his position?
Bob Atnip: He was the loader. It caught him, kind of down here with no way out. The gunner and commander had to go out this way, and the driver and assistant driver had to go out the front, and there he was. (unintelligible) we're the only tank left. It helped.
Aaron Elson: And then you...
Bob Atnip: We went up the next day and looked at the gun, seen the gun I'm sure that did the damage. It was an old tripod 88-millimeter German gun. I think what they must have done is left one man on it, he knocked out our tanks, and then just went off and left the gun. (unintelligible)
Aaron Elson: Oh, you found the gun?
Bob Atnip: Oh yes. The old tripod 88-millimeter. We went up to go around a road, at the edge of an apple orchard. And the Navy was gonna fire a couple of shells from a Navy ship back there, smoke shells, lay down a screen for cover. They fired a couple, but the wind blowed it away, we didn't have any cover. They said "Go," so we went. We were just exposed.
Aaron Elson: Oh, but the plan was, before you went, the three tanks, that they were supposed to give you a smokescreen.
Bob Atnip: Right. The Navy, see, that was setting back in the bay. They did fire two shells, but it didn't give us any cover at all.
Aaron Elson: Now the German tank that was hit, Mike Anderson...
Bob Atnip: Mike knows that quite well. He knows.
Aaron Elson: Did you go into that tank the next day also?
Bob Atnip: No, I seen that tank later, but I didn't see it that day, I don't remember whether it was the next day. Things were a little worried and confusing, you know, for three or four days.
Aaron, he never talked about his war experiences, unfortunately he was like most of the servicemen America has produced. He was profoundly dissatisfied with being reassigned to another unit after melding with his buddies in the 712th. I learned most of my information from my mother. She attended several 712 reunions in the 80s after his death. I knew a lot of his friends and fellow soldiers from his tours in Korea and Vietnam but not very much from WWII. He was awarded two Bronze Star with V during WWII and was wounded once more. As with many, he was profoundly affected by his experiences as my sibling and I often discussed.
Thank you for your information. Please keep in touch.
I wonder if your mother met Lillian Howell, whose husband, Richard, was killed in the tank when your dad was wounded. Lillian Lived in Shreveport and first came to the 1986 reunion in Shreveport, and came to a couple of reunions after that with her daughter, Wanda, who was 2 when her father was killed. The battalion association would reach out to families, which might be what got her to come to the reunions. They were really something special. Lillian, incidentally, grew up in Gibland, Louisiana, and when she was 12 she saw the bullet riddled Bonnie and Clyde car.
I believe so, my mother had a plaque given to her by the association in the 80s. She passed away in 2023 at 100. She had fond memories of the two or three reunions she attended.
I have some photos of my Dad with his buddies in San Diego and when he was in the hospital in France. I believe they are of Howell and Rowell. They trained together prior to deployment and were friends. Not sure how to send them to you but some family members may want them.
Love this personal story! It's what makes WWII oral history so great! I never recored my father. A medic, landed at Normandy after D-Day. surgen at Bulge hospials. I was 16 when he passed.
Aaron, thank you for the opportunity to respond. I like you are a son of a 712th veteran. My father Phillip C. Morgan was wounded on July 3, 1944 in the fight near Pont Auny. He went on to survive the war and was reassigned from the hospital to the 1/66 Armor for the rest of the war. He stayed in the Army and retired in 1971 as a CSM with Korea and Vietnam under his belt. Unfortunately, he passed in 1974. I also became a career man in part to honor his legacy. I would love to further the conversation if you ever get the chance.
David Morgan, Colonel US Army Retired
Hi, Dave — Thanks for your note! I see from the roster that he was in headquarters, and he would have been wounded on the battalion’s first day in combat. Holy cow! It turns out that I have an account in one of my interviews from another tanker who saw his tank hit. Your dad was pretty badly wounded. Did he go into detail about the incident?
I actually put it in one of my books. Your dad was the driver in the tank in which Richard Howell was killed. At the 1994 reunion in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, I did an interview with Bob Atnip, who was a gunner in one of the three 105mm assault guns that day. Here's a partial transcript:
Aaron Elson: Your name is Bob Atnip?
Bob Atnip: Atnip, yeah.
Aaron Elson: And you were with headquarters company all the way through?
Bob Atnip: Yes, I was.
Aaron Elson: And you were in the assault gun platoon?
Bob Atnip: Yes.
Aaron Elson: Now was Morse Johnson in that?
Bob Atnip: No, he was with A Company. Lieutenant Adair would be, he was the lieutenant.
Aaron Elson: Sam Adair? And who was in your crew?
Bob Atnip: Let's see, I had a gunner O'Shea, Anderson which is here now, he was one of the crew. Michael Anderson.
Aaron Elson: He was in your tank?
Bob Atnip: Yes, no, I'm sorry, he was not in my tank.
Aaron Elson: He was in the first tank.
Bob Atnip: That's right. The first tank was Mike, and Young, Johnny Young, Lieutenant Adair was riding with them. I can't tell you who the gunner was.
Aaron Elson: Ritz? Eddie Ritz? I don't know why I know all this...
Bob Atnip: They got through, past the one gun that caused us all the trouble. They ran out into the woods around a little curve, looking head on at a small German tank, and they were firing at each other. And it knocked the track off of the track of the tank that the lieutenant was in, he got his shoulder damaged.
Aaron Elson: Adair got his shoulder damaged, right?
Bob Atnip: Yes.
Aaron Elson: Because he got back into the tank and he was firing the ammunition, and the gun hurt his shoulder?
Bob Atnip: Recoil.
Aaron Elson: Now what can you recall about seeing that second tank get hit?
Bob Atnip: The second tank that got hit? That was with Howell?
Aaron Elson: Yes.
Bob Atnip: That was about probably 75 or maybe 100 feet from me, and I happened to be looking that way, I don't know why, when the first round hit it. They hit it twice. Shelton, Sergeant Shelton was the tank commander. Hall was the gunner. Howell was the loader. And Philip Morgan was the driver.
Aaron Elson: Philip who?
Bob Atnip: Morgan.
Aaron Elson: Was Tony Orlando, was he...
Bob Atnip: Tony was in there later. He was with us later I know. We lost several men that day, hurt, and wounded. Our halftrack, which was held back a little bit behind, pretty well took a direct hit, and we lost five or six men there.
Aaron Elson: Do you remember the names?
Bob Atnip: Really I don't.
Aaron Elson: What can you remember about seeing Howell's tank hit?
Bob Atnip: Oh, okay. The rear end of the tank was more toward than me and the front away from us. Seeing the tank hit, it seemed to jar like that. And the second shot hit, and flames flew up, just mushroomed out in a matter of seconds. I seen Shelton come out of the tank, carrying Howell by the shirt collar.
Aaron Elson: He carried Howell by the shirt collar? (This was my mistake. Howell never got out of the tank. It was Herman Hall that Shelton lifted out)
Bob Atnip: Shelton was a very strong person. And he literally flung him out of the tank out on the ground, with one hand. Now I didn't see anybody else come out of the tank. And it was burning fiercely at that time.
Aaron Elson: Howell was burning?
Bob Atnip: No, the tank was burning. But we had 66 rounds of ammunition in that tank, and the second shot the Germans fired, (unintellible) out the first shot in the turret. The second shot went right under the track, where the thin part was, under that bit of (unintelligible). And after it burned there for quite a while, I seen the 90th Infantry infantrymen bringing Morgan to an old house that's settin' up out front there, and I hollered at them, "Where are you taking this man?" And Morgan was blind at that time, the skin was kind of swollen together he couldn't see, from the concussion I suppose. So an infantryman said, "Do you know this man?"
I said, "Sure, he's out of that tank here." And he had an odd-looking helmet, it didn't match the rest of us, and he thought he was German. So he said, "I'll take him to the medics, then." So he took him to the medics. And I never did see Howell.
Aaron Elson: Howell got out of the tank?
Bob Atnip: No, I don't think Howell ever got out.
Aaron Elson: But you said that you saw Shelton lifting Howell by the shoulders.
Bob Atnip: That was Hall, H-A-L-L.
Aaron Elson: Oh, Hall, not Howell, Hall. What was he?
Bob Atnip: Raymond Hall. He was the gunner. Setting right down in front of the commander. [this may actually be Herman Hall]
Aaron Elson: And was he wounded?
Bob Atnip: Yes he was, he got some burns, and was evacuated. For some time, he finally did come back to join us later in the war. And Rowell, not Howell but Rowell was the assistant driver.
Aaron Elson: Rowell. [this is Olen Rowell of Decatur, Miss.] Now wait a minute, you had a Howell, a Hall and a Rowell.
Bob Atnip: There you go.
Aaron Elson: This is like a comedy. There was a Howell...
Bob Atnip: Rowell just got killed in an automobile accident in the last year or so. He lived down in Mississippi, down in Meridien. He, you see, they had gone out the front hatches, the driver and the assistant driver went out the front, and they got around where this old building was, where just moments before the Germans were occupying but they took off when all this action started, they backed up. This infantry went on around, that's where he come flushing Hall, I mean Morgan out, thinking he was a German because he had this odd-looking helmet, it didn't match the rest of us.
Anyway, the next day, I, well I set there most of the time, all night, we was the only thing left, and the infantry said "Just hold it, don't move, if we'll be needing you we'll tell you, because you come up here, all you're doing is drawing mortar fire on us." We set there all night, and the next day our maintenance crew came up there with a tank and pulled the old hull that was left off of that pile of ashes, and we sifted through all through that, we couldn't find any fragment of bone or body. The only thing we found was little buttons that looked like off of (?) clothes, you know, brass buttons.
Aaron Elson: Little buttons?
Bob Atnip: Brass buttons. Like was on the Army fatigue(?) clothes. That was the only thing there, everything else was just cremated. So I always thought, maybe the driver and assistant driver went out and I didn't see him until a few minutes later, maybe somehow he got out that way, but ...
Aaron Elson: And Howell, what was his position?
Bob Atnip: He was the loader. It caught him, kind of down here with no way out. The gunner and commander had to go out this way, and the driver and assistant driver had to go out the front, and there he was. (unintelligible) we're the only tank left. It helped.
Aaron Elson: And then you...
Bob Atnip: We went up the next day and looked at the gun, seen the gun I'm sure that did the damage. It was an old tripod 88-millimeter German gun. I think what they must have done is left one man on it, he knocked out our tanks, and then just went off and left the gun. (unintelligible)
Aaron Elson: Oh, you found the gun?
Bob Atnip: Oh yes. The old tripod 88-millimeter. We went up to go around a road, at the edge of an apple orchard. And the Navy was gonna fire a couple of shells from a Navy ship back there, smoke shells, lay down a screen for cover. They fired a couple, but the wind blowed it away, we didn't have any cover. They said "Go," so we went. We were just exposed.
Aaron Elson: Oh, but the plan was, before you went, the three tanks, that they were supposed to give you a smokescreen.
Bob Atnip: Right. The Navy, see, that was setting back in the bay. They did fire two shells, but it didn't give us any cover at all.
Aaron Elson: Now the German tank that was hit, Mike Anderson...
Bob Atnip: Mike knows that quite well. He knows.
Aaron Elson: Did you go into that tank the next day also?
Bob Atnip: No, I seen that tank later, but I didn't see it that day, I don't remember whether it was the next day. Things were a little worried and confusing, you know, for three or four days.
Aaron, he never talked about his war experiences, unfortunately he was like most of the servicemen America has produced. He was profoundly dissatisfied with being reassigned to another unit after melding with his buddies in the 712th. I learned most of my information from my mother. She attended several 712 reunions in the 80s after his death. I knew a lot of his friends and fellow soldiers from his tours in Korea and Vietnam but not very much from WWII. He was awarded two Bronze Star with V during WWII and was wounded once more. As with many, he was profoundly affected by his experiences as my sibling and I often discussed.
Thank you for your information. Please keep in touch.
I wonder if your mother met Lillian Howell, whose husband, Richard, was killed in the tank when your dad was wounded. Lillian Lived in Shreveport and first came to the 1986 reunion in Shreveport, and came to a couple of reunions after that with her daughter, Wanda, who was 2 when her father was killed. The battalion association would reach out to families, which might be what got her to come to the reunions. They were really something special. Lillian, incidentally, grew up in Gibland, Louisiana, and when she was 12 she saw the bullet riddled Bonnie and Clyde car.
I believe so, my mother had a plaque given to her by the association in the 80s. She passed away in 2023 at 100. She had fond memories of the two or three reunions she attended.
I have some photos of my Dad with his buddies in San Diego and when he was in the hospital in France. I believe they are of Howell and Rowell. They trained together prior to deployment and were friends. Not sure how to send them to you but some family members may want them.
Love this personal story! It's what makes WWII oral history so great! I never recored my father. A medic, landed at Normandy after D-Day. surgen at Bulge hospials. I was 16 when he passed.