Hellcat News (Garnet Valley, Pa.), Vol. 76, No. 11, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 1, 2023 Page: 4 of 32
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Page 4
HELLCAT NEWS
July 2023
I said sure, but only if I could have the flexibility to set my
own hours. They were agreeable, so off I go! If I can maintain
a balance between working and leisure time, everything will
be well.
I would like to welcome Dakota D. Biletnikoff [L] of
Helotes, TX, to our 17th AIB family. Dakota is the great-
grandson of Merle L. Phillips [B]. Thank you, Dakota, for
remembering and honoring your great-grandfather, and we
are glad to have you.
Earlier this month, I received an email from Dan
Wojciechowski [L] who asked if I might consider honoring
Purple Heart Recipients by company in future 17th AIB
columns. Dan’s uncle, Julius Wojciechowski [C], was
a Purple Heart recipient and was KIA on Jan. 16, 1945, in
Herrlisheim. I wasn’t aware of any list of Purple Heart
recipients, so I turned to our trusted 12th AD historian, Bob
Scherer [L/66-92].
Bob wasn’t aware of a consolidated list of Purple Heart
recipients either, although some unit histories list men who
were Wounded in Action. Bob said that tracking Purple Heart
by orders is very difficult since in most cases the order was
cut by the hospital in which the man was recovering. In a
perfect world, copies were supposed to go to his unit and his
personnel file, and a copy was probably given to him.
If anyone knows if such a list exists, please let me know!
Furthermore, if your relative was a Purple Heart recipient and
you’d like me to write about him, email or call me with his
details, and I will be happy to do so.
I’ll wrap this up now. I hope to see many of you at the
reunion in St. Louis later this month. Have a great Fourth of
July and enjoy the rest of the month. Send me any news or
questions you have and be happy, safe, and well.
25RD TANK BATTALION
Geoff Lackey
923 Crosby Court, Columbia, TN 38401
931-223-8554 galackey98@gmail.com
Happy Birthday America! You’re looking good at 247
years young! We’ll likely watch the local city fireworks show,
or the neighborhood show, if there is one. We have a few
neighbors who meet at the cul-de-sac at the end of our street
for a pretty massive show. But they don’t do this every year,
so sometimes we’re just hanging around, waiting for the show
to start. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not.
This month is also our reunion. I haven’t registered yet,
as I’m not sure if Angela and I can make it this year. I think
this might be a game-time decision. I hope we are able to see
everyone there. I haven’t heard from anyone who plans to
attend, so I really don’t have a count right now.
We celebrated our 25th anniversary in May. Our initial plan
was to visit Hawaii for our 25th, but instead we wound up at
the hospital. It seems Angela had been having an issue with
fluid build-up in her abdomen, which created a lot of pain and
nausea, so she had to be admitted for a Paracentesis. Or in my
native Alabama language, a fluid drain. But hey, at least we
spent the day together!
Last month I wrote about a documented history I found,
written by Andy Woods [C] about his time with Pete
Vickless [C]. This month is the conclusion, but be warned, it
is somewhat graphic, but needs to be told as Andy witnessed
it. There is no purpose in ‘sanitizing’ the brutal realties of war.
Here is the second part of Andy’s story...
“Trouble is everywhere. All directions. To the right of the
road is a flat field, the only place not thick with enemy. The
next village about 1,000 feet distant is teeming with soldiers
and our first interest is an anti-tank gun all set up and firing at
us. This being the greatest threat, we are firing the tank cannon
with high explosives to get it. After a few rounds, it is dead
and we turn to the next order of business. There is a German
infantryman with a panzerfaust in his hands in the ditch on our
right just ahead of the dead horse. The road is curving a little
where he is, so we can’t shoot up the ditch and hit him.
“All tankers hate Panzerfaust as it is a miserable way to
die. If this fellow gets a chance to fire, we are goners for sure,
so Conway is firing the co-axial furiously. Too fast, for it is
approaching full seizure, so I’m hollering at Conway to ease
up. Guess he gets the word as he lowers the tank cannon to
the bottom limit and gives him a high explosive, ending the
threat.
“Got a glimpse of other impending trouble and did not see
Conway lower the cannon so when our high explosive round
burst, it was so close, the front of the tank reared up and I
thought we'd taken a hit from some unseen large gun. Had a
larger problem at hand so ignored our imagined hit.
“Vick, since our halt, has been busy spotting targets and
directing Conway the gunner. He squats down so his head is
inside the tank and with his left hand is like swatting bees on
the back of his head and neck. Instantly I realize the German
soldiers on the embankment to the left side of our tank are
firing at his head and he is slapping off bullet splash, which is
similar to a yellow jacket attack.
“Let's digress here to look at other folks' troubles.
“When moving as rapidly as possible after a break through,
we traveled in column on the roadways, then fanned out into
the fields if we met stiff resistance. Usually, one tank company
and one armored infantry company moved together. Each
squad of infantry had a half-track to ride in. If we were on the
road there was first a lead tank (always Vick’s tank), then a
half-track of infantry, then another tank, etc.
“Often some of the infantry rode on the back deck of our
tank behind the turret. Some of them got a kick using the
50-caliber machine gun mounted on top of the turret for anti-
aircraft protection. The infantry would use it on targets of
opportunity.
“So it was on this Saturday, March 31,1945, when we were
racing down a country road chasing this team of horses. As we
came to a halt, the half-track behind us also had to halt, and in
doing so, it pulled up very close to our tail, for its occupants
likely saw the anti-tank gun that had commenced firing on our
tank.
“When in a melee like this, I constantly kept looking in all
directions for threats to us and for targets of opportunity, all
the while keeping both the co-axial machine gun and cannon
fed with ammunition. I saw the half-track pull up behind us.
Other C Company tanks in the column pulled off the road
and spaced themselves out across the field to help with all the
enemy fire that was coming our way. Up on the embankment
were many German infantry. A steady stream of armed
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Twelfth Armored Division Association (U.S.). Hellcat News (Garnet Valley, Pa.), Vol. 76, No. 11, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 1, 2023, newspaper, July 1, 2023; Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1663349/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum.