Hellcat News, (Godfrey, Ill.), Vol. 36, No. 5, Ed. 1, January 1983 Page: 2 of 26
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Abilene Library Consortium and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum.
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Page 2 HELLCAT NEWS Jan. 1983 spending 4 weeks there again
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• entrained to Camp Livingston,
HELLCAT NEWS Louisiana. It was POE next,
PUBLISHED BY THE 12th ARMORED DIVISION ASSOCIATION reaching Camp Shanks, New York
Official Publication of the 12th Armored Division Association on 27 August. A short hop to New
1913 Jerome Drive, Godfrey, IL 62035 York City» Shanks was a series of
Writers submitting articles for this publication are solely responsible sPeed hikes by day to overcome
for their contents, not this Association nor it's Editor. the s of n,ght',fe ™ the bl«
city. After a month of it, every-
OFFICERS k0(*y ka(* borrowed from every-
one else and no one knew when
PRESIDENT Robert E. Head (Hq-714) the "Usual 3 day wait" would end.
2000 W. Roberta Ave., Fullerton, CA 92633, (714) 526-6964 It ended on 28 September when
1st VICE-PRESIDENT Gilbert Heine (C-66) the Battalion boarded the HMS
1706 North 2nd Street, Seward, NE 68434, (402) 643-4625 • Chitral, a one time East India
2nd VICE-PRESIDENT Forrest Smith (Hq-23) freighter, which sailed on 29
16929 LeClaire Ave., Oak Forest, IL 60452 (312) 560-0284 September. Eleven days later, the
TREASURER Allen S. Horowitz (C-82) Chitral brought the battalion up
86 E. Hampton Rd., Marlborough, CT 06447 (203) 295-9191 the River Clyde to disembark at
PAST PRESIDENT Clinton E. Seitz (B-495) Greenock, Scotland and entrain
6274 Rapid Run Road, Cincinnati, OH 45238 (513) 941-1379 for the trip to Poole, Dorset,
England. A march through dismal
DIRECTORS AT LARGE rajn br0Ught them to suburban
Elected for Three Year Terms - listed by term of office Parkestone for billeting. After six
weeks and two Thanksgiving din-
Jack Miller 2535 175th NE, Redmond, WA 98052, (206) 885-7515 ne he bogey-wheels screeched
George G. Moss 1017 W. Wash. St., Springfield, IL 62702, (217)787-1513 their way £ Veymouth and a
Earl W. Norris-4323 Meadowview Dr. NW, Canton, OH 44718, 494-2445 fleet of hSTs at anchor At 0800
^ ^ wt on 26 November the LST'S weigh-
UNIT DIRECTORS ON COUNCIL ed anchor and moved across the
ARTILLERY BATTALIONS English Channel to Le Havre,
Paul Gosser-RRl, Box 1974, Leechburg, PA 15656, (412) 845-1225-Sum France. Disembarking the next
504 Windsor PI., North Port, FL 33596, (813) 426-5900-Winter day> the Helltracks were soon on
INFANTRY BATTALIONS their wa^ to billets at Pavilly,
Dan Leacy (A-56) Box 112BB, Hereford, AZ 85615, (602) 378-6469 near Rouen, France. After six
TANK BATTALIONS days in pup tents, mud and cold,
Elmer T. Vallie . 25114 Oxford, Woodhaven, MI 48123 (313) 782-5091 march orders came at 2230« 1
ENGINEERS - MEDIC - RECON December, starting a breath-
Earnest M. Akaiwa 82 N. Bishop Lane, Southampton, L.I., NY 11968 taking convoy across the breadth
ASSIGNED UNITS - ORDNANCE-SIGNAL-DIVISION GROUPS of northern France in a single
Cono Sideri 526 Elton St., Riverhead, NY 11901 (516) 727-5336 day. At Luneville the combat
history of the Helltracks began.
APPOINTED POSITIONS During the swift convoy across
France to Luneville they knew,
Executive Secretary and Editor Norbert H. Bruemmer (D-43) then, what they had just been
1913 Jerome Drive, Godfrey, IL 62035 (618) 466-3949 guessing at in the times before.
Chaplain Rev. Robert A. Miller Lacerated cities, rubbled cross-
5323 SW 89th Avenue, Miami, FL 33165, (305) 271-4530 roads towns, broken bridges,
Historian Ken Bradstreet (494) warnings, burned tanks, trucks
1018 Prairie St., Emporia, KS 66801 (316) 342-8373 and cars, hinted at their fighting
Service Officer Jerry McCarthry (B-66) future. Then a spoken order
12 Rivera Lane, W. Sayville, L.I., NY 11796 (516) 567-1798 linked the 572nd AAA Battalion,
Reunion Chairman J. W. "Bill" Arbuckle (493) Self Propelled, with the 12th
1404 Jewell Drive, Columbia, TN 37840 (615) 381-4737 Armored Division, also newly
Membership Chairman Forrest Smith (Hq-23) arrived, whose dangerous destiny
16929 LeClaire Ave., Oak Forest, IL 60452 (312) 560-0284 ^ was share, and whose high
Accociate Historian Harold E. Durst (A/17) reputation it was to help create
1114 Congress, Emporia, KS 66801 from then on to the end of the
<••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• war.
572nd AAA Battalion. The "Hell- AA Battalion in the European Dingy Luneville Barracks still
tracks" were with the 12th Arm- Theatre of Operations. bore the arrogant script, "Today
ored Division from the first day of The story of the 572nd AAA Germany, Tomorrow, the World",
combat to the last, sharing our Battalion began on Cape Cod at upon it's walls. From the high
time in hell and downing more Camp Edwards, Mass. being act- walled compound where war had
planes than any other 7th Army ivated on 10 June 1943. After 3 dwelt so long, the integral parts
months training of cadre, the unit of the 572nd went forth on 5
published monrmrfoMhe^ubscMpUon was filIed with about 95% Penn" December to go their separate
rate of $6.00 per year by the 12th sylvania recruits. During 49 ways and do their individual tasks
tpmm!dnrDLViSr0Hf ASS^.Ci I913 weeks training the battalion spent which were all to add up to a
Jerome Drive, Godfrey, IL 62035. Sec- -. ,, , , , , K
ond Class postage is paid at Godfrey, 40 days in the tield and marched grand tradition and a great vic-
Illinois and additional mailing offices. 134 miles. On 8 June 1944 the tory. Many times batteries, pla-
change* wMthAeSHTELLCATSNnEwsddi,9?3 572nd was .entrained 10 CamP toons, sections and vehicles were
Jerome Drive, Godfrey, IL 62035. McCain, Mississippi and after switched around to meet changing
emergencies, but here is the
line-up as it stood through most of
the hostilities:
Headquarters Battery moved
with Division Headquarters, the
Second Platoon of B Battery
furnishing anti aircraft protection
for them, and for the observation
plane airstrips.
First Platoon of B Battery was
assigned to Division Trains and
Ordnance Dump.
A Battery's First Platoon trav-
eled with CCR Headquarters,
while it's Second Platoon was
ack-ack for the 495th Armored
Field Artillery.
C Battery's First Platoon was
with CCA, it's Second Platoon
with the 493rd Armored Field
Artillery. (They changed missions
at St. Avoid, before the Saar
drive.)
D Battery's First Platoon was
with CCB, it's Second Platoon
with the 494th Armored Field
Artillery.
The winds of war scattered
them afar. Their oneness as a
fighting unit was in the manual's
phrase, "mental attitude and state
of training", and in something
much deeper than that, was to
give them the official high score in
enemy planes destroyed among all
7th Army AAA Battalions in the
ETO.
It was 7 December 1944 when
the battalion saw it's first dead
Germans, out beyond Kirrberg.
Two days later their own first
man to die, killed by shell frag-
ments and concussion as A Bat-
tery dug in grimly north of
Rahling. It was a position which
was to become a custom for the
outfit, showing on the map as a
long finger thrust out ahead of the
fist of the 7th Army lines. The
first night under fire for Head-
quarters men brought long range
artillery, neatly bracketing the
town of Domfessel with heavy
stuff and showering down dirt and
rooftiles on the sleeping sacks.
The next two weeks of mud and
cold, of death and the futility of
waiting for the next shell with the
knowledge that you had nothing
with which to shoot back, left
branded deep in every man's
memory such Alsation village
names as Bining with it's bar-
racks, Singling, Hilbesheim, Rohr-
bach, Oermingen, Lorentzen,
Goerlingen, Dehlingen, Rederch-
ing, and Rimsdorf where there
was a disappointingly emply dis-
tillery, an acrobatic cat and a
corner where the tanks gouged
ruts as deep as slit trenches.
Every battered, fieldstone house
had it's front yard manure pile,
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Twelfth Armored Division Association (U.S.). Hellcat News, (Godfrey, Ill.), Vol. 36, No. 5, Ed. 1, January 1983, newspaper, January 1983; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth410032/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum.