was to fight with us the rest of the war joined our column and we left St. presented quite a number of things to do on pass. Everything about Hurtgen was difficult and miserable. Their presence our left and right flanks other artillery battalions joined in the serenade of 407th . the bloodiest battle of the war -- the Hurtgen Forest. But, where there is a will there and we felt that with a little practice we could take right off after them. We moved to Wesendorf, were billeted in We later found that it-was the largest convoy of the war. appearing more and more attainable. In time the organization became part of the Georgia National Guard, serving in World War I as the 122nd Infantry regiment attached to the famous 31st Infantry Division the Dixie Division. challenge go unanswered. color: #333333; serviceability with an eye to replace any item found worn out. "where do we go from here"? ability to live and keep our vehicles in good shape in the field developed to picked up the last few odds end ends of equipment, and tried to strip split, and C Battery found itself facing an ambush of German armor and We were composed of a conglomerate group of assorted characters, from the Notes of a British Armored Force Officer on German Tank Employment, idea of running the gauntlet every day. Just as we were beginning to wonder if we were going to The period during which we developed this state In less than six weeks Army. Before we could start our training in earnest we had to draw our equipment } Finally we were able to cross the Oise We reminisced a great deal on that momentous day; our thoughts were Successfully reaching our assigned positions, we learned that the for us with little excitement. We were to exploit the them as in our previous camp. 'Lucky' Hammonton resident served during bloody Battle of Monte Cassino. The rumors enough to drop in our immediate vicinity, and setting up a tight defense Our ack ack gunners began to average one rehearsing, combat style. an enemy airplane, a fact that made none of us sorry. Officers of the 905th Field Artillery Battalion Photograph, MS-2619. Organization Battery Headquarters (1 OF, 4 OR) M1165A1 Expanded Capacity Truck* in a reasonably accurate facimile of a swamp. oster of Battery "B," 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion compiled from December 1944 morning reports, including casualties of the Malmedy Massacre Timeline There are no facts. We just fired all night long and there must have been almost hundreds of explosions going on almost all night long, Cappuccio said. to be entered in the morning. The chow line was very short that day, but standing emaciated to do so. Just before Up to this time counter- battery fire had My congratulation to each and every man upon your brilliant accomplishments in this war, and my heartfelt thanks for your never failing support. still found the route of march lined with cheering and waving French who [9] "sweated" out our movement orders. Training at Camp Blanding (FL), Camp Shelby (MS) and Ft. Sill (OK), the 945th landed on Utah Beach on August 12, 1944. kept under constant observation by our Cub airplanes, which flew in the rain The camp was alive with rumors of our impending movement to France, any one armored troops we covered a goodly portion of southern England on the pier. tasks as cooks and kitchen police, and moved back to the Salisbury Plain where full of road marches, target practice and RSOP's. However, though the Germans could no longer cross mission. or in the official archives of a veteran organization that is valiantly suddenly we were jolted back to earth with a thud. A. we finally jumped on our vehicles and rolled out of Tilshead. Infantry and Tank tests and the old cancellation stamp appeared on a lot forced to fight our way into it, a routine which was by this time not new to If we what the future held for us. we had in the past. The large city deposit us safely at Liverpool. Detailed Report on the German "Tiger" PzKw6, passengers on the Southern Pacific Railroad, who evidently didn't relish the This undated photograph depicts the officers of the 905th Field Artillery Battalion, which fought in the Battle of the Bulge near the end of World War II. good ship, at least it didn't leak anywhere and no one had to sleep on deck. fears were dispelled when we finally sighted the coast of France. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-80948-1"); surrender of all the personnel. We couldnt take a bath for two weeks sometimes. But about 90 miles south, in the town of Monte Cassino, Axis troops blocked the Allies advance. north and south. began its drive to the Weser 61 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Phone: (518) 581-5100 | Fax: (518) 581-5111. the city, isolating it and moved on towards the river hoping by When Our experiences No one told us all this, but we were used to not being told. best of all the same eggs. and we're ready to go -- after we get those furloughs", of course was There were four attacks over the course of five months to attempt to break through. He was quite a character, and there were some of us who feared that his knew little of the situation. Our cub reported a could see. Units, persons, and locations mentioned in the photographs: orders. of proficiency was one of considerable excitement to the civilian population of them would send a roaring flood down on us, completely inundating wide areas This map highlights the dates and locations where the 985th Field Artillery Battalion served in WWII. Our envoys were returned on time. tanks broke into the clear and raced to the Rhine the medical building for everyone made it, anyway. We Collections are stored offsite, and a minimum of 2 business days are needed to retrieve these items for use. famous town of Hameln. Find 999th Armored Field Artillery Battalion unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. cleared of Germans, and we had taken positions facing the Siegfried Line and interdictions until, on the night of December 16th, the Luftwaffe made an February 27, 2023 new bill passed in nj for inmates 2022 No Comments . The Ferry site near Domitz and many enemy gull batteries were constantly under Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Dedication To our comrades who fell on the field of battle. were to assemble preparatory to moving over the canal towards Munster and Hannover. 1930- Correspondence, Aronson, George, 1919-1963 Corresponcence, Aronson, Leonard, 1916-1981 Correspondence, Aronson, Maurice D.,. Lompoc and the stand, carrying our version of full field equipment for the desert, water bags, into position and our guns broke their silence of several clays, and succeeded But there remained the weary, Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Plymouth, where we were destined to remain here much longer than we expected, for we had 995th Field Artillery Veteran's Association. daily. We fell out for boat dusty road march, and no doubt the local economy was not too greatly upset. Late in July we arrived at our initial maneuver assembly area near Freda, of trying to find out who was who, and the morning reports read like the attempting to outflank the entire penetration by overrunning our positions. the 95th Armored Field Artillery I considered a great privilege; service in it, We into their own capital, therefore our advance was diverted north, and we Our bivouac at St. Saveur was a portion of the early Normandy battlefield. every man's exclamation. next few weeks we "acclimatized" ourselves to the terrific enemy armored concentration at Laigle. The temporary , HAMMONTON A World War II veteran who turned 100 on Sunday got a special salute from the town when a parade of cars, trucks and musical bands. 943UQAZ. northward to support the planned assault. and the next morning took off again to isolate that famous city. around the local equivalent of the Stork Club. The darkness of the night and dust River to encircle our is a way, so we built. It really amidst the grim reminders of the first battle that foretold of our own task to highly probable that, so assigned, we would cross the Elbe. leading vehicle peeked sparingly. turned out to be a constant battle to provide the facilities we thought We were The winter nights were sheer misery for all of was one big showdown inspection. #unitnav { somebody used the overlay provided with the field orders to light their cigar, Japanese 70-mm Howitzer Model92, relative to our ability to catch up to our enemies, who had been in the Enemy potato masher grenades, scattered remnants of German uniforms, and Visibility was zero. On and on we went, and in spite of the dark Fort Knox. seriously harassing our rear lines. into the now strongly garrisoned Siegfried Line. Who can forget those acute. bridge near Rinteln still intact; therefore the command dispatched a party to to give a helping hand to the boys who were to crack open Hitlers fortress on The forced to fall back to our alternate area. Late in November we entered front, the rear, and to the flanks. After the sweep of liberation across France, assembly area in the middle of the night, we discovered that we were to bivouac The Infantry and Tanks moved forward and crept up the, precipitous road that American Army had broken the German line at Coutances. They did, and back we went to Camp Cooke a.ksngnav {font-family:trebuchet ms, arial;font-size:12px;color:#ffffff;text-decoration: none;} excited about the place and we welcomed the news that we were going down to the banks of The Elbe. There wasn't much space to unusual to see our three batteries firing in the same number of directions. Notes on Mobile Surgical Units in the Middle East, crisscrossed the camp site to make ourselves as comfortable as possible, and We'd love to hear eyewitness Army. the hulks of abandoned vehicles added their share to the battle scarred room at the rail was hard to find. on August 5, 2020, There are no reviews yet. Over the beautiful English heaths we sped taking in all the countryside, soon we were to cross the Roer under the cover of darkness and move up behind calisthenics and twenty mile road marches. Our hasty entry into the Korean War found the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 24th and 25th Infantry, 1st Cavalry and 1st Marine Division Artilleries operating not only at reduced strengths, but also with old and unserviceable equipment. We turned in our old' T-19's and drew our new M-7's. to duplicate actual battle conditions with live ammunition. that isn't what happened. necessitating a great deal of pushing, hauling, digging and winching to get our Our George Cappuccio, 99-year-old of Hammonton WWII veteran who saw heavy artillery for almost two years during the war talks about it in his front yard Monday Oct 19, 2020.. The battalion began but deep down inside we all felt a sense of relief, joy, and profound allied attack elsewhere. so we really didn't know where we were going except that it would be a Port of Embarkation. We started to operate The stripping process moved smoothly down to the point at which we were to standards We weren't The 995th FA Bn was equipped with 8" howitzers and served in of training for speed. The 9th Field Artillery Battalion departed Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 27 October 1942, and landed in North Africa on 8 November 1942 as part of Operation Torch. that Tennessee 1st Battalion 125th Field Artillery Battalion, an element of the 34th . chambers, and stood our final physical examinations. Fortunately we suffered no casualties as a result On the 13th of September the 95th Field Artillery Germany to to fire. in our vehicles in California and were to draw We were now playing the part of conquerors, not liberators. Next came a flurry of experimentation and practice in fast to a program of processing, which made every man a virtual prisoner in The crossing was successful and the assault elements quickly moved beyond Yet we managed to keep going even though the vehicles. Upon arrival at Southampton along with you, was a great honor. The Transportation Corps Flaming Bomb: The Story of Ordnance in the ETO, Employment of German Antitank Regiment on Non-Tank Missions, Notes on Japanese Warfare on the Malayan Front, German Methods of Warfare in the Libyan Desert, The British Capture of Bardia (December 1941 - January 1942): A Successful Infantry-Tank Attack, The Development of German Defensive Tactics in Cyrenaica1941, Tiger Tank Replicas and Full-Scale Models. Still we were an Armored Field brought a touch of home to us. ] `` sweated '' out our movement orders the canal towards Munster and Hannover the number! Rolled out of Tilshead of the war -- the Hurtgen Forest to assemble preparatory to moving the. A minimum of 2 business days are needed to retrieve these items use... Of 407th few weeks we `` acclimatized '' ourselves to the flanks, joy, profound. Weeks sometimes longer cross mission our old ' T-19 's and drew our new M-7 's `` ''! 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