Post by connie on Jul 25, 2011 10:10:11 GMT -5
This note is not just about a type of military vehicle.
If anyone in Division Reconnaissance ever wondered about what happened to the vehicle he drove before capture I may have an answer...
I sat for a long time earlier this week chatting with a local acquaintance who was a Lt. in an attached unit in one of the 3 divisions General Patton brought north into the Bulge. After the bulge was pinched off his unit (the 735th Tank Battalion) was reassigned to the 87th Infantry Division and stationed in the vicinity of Auw as they prepared to tackle the Siegfreid Line. He said that during this time he acquired use of a former 106th vehicle (and continued to have the vehicle "off and on through the end of the war").
The vehicle was an M-8 Armored car. He noted it was a 6 wheeled vehicle powered on all wheels with a tank-like turret and a 37 mm. cannon as well as a 30 caliber machine gun in the open turret. It had obviously been used by the Germans. When he acquired it it had one tire blown out and the batteries were shot. But these problems were quickly repaired. The Germans had painted out the star and put crosses on the turrets, but the 106th Division Reconnaissance logo was still clearly noted on the front of the vehicle.
My source (who became career military, ending his career as a Colonel) said that it was likely that Division Reconnaissance may have had up to 5 of this type of vehicle along with a flock of jeeps at the onset of the Bulge. But I know now that at least one of these made it back into American hands before the war was over.
Anyone else have experience with, memories of, or info on the M-8?
If anyone in Division Reconnaissance ever wondered about what happened to the vehicle he drove before capture I may have an answer...
I sat for a long time earlier this week chatting with a local acquaintance who was a Lt. in an attached unit in one of the 3 divisions General Patton brought north into the Bulge. After the bulge was pinched off his unit (the 735th Tank Battalion) was reassigned to the 87th Infantry Division and stationed in the vicinity of Auw as they prepared to tackle the Siegfreid Line. He said that during this time he acquired use of a former 106th vehicle (and continued to have the vehicle "off and on through the end of the war").
The vehicle was an M-8 Armored car. He noted it was a 6 wheeled vehicle powered on all wheels with a tank-like turret and a 37 mm. cannon as well as a 30 caliber machine gun in the open turret. It had obviously been used by the Germans. When he acquired it it had one tire blown out and the batteries were shot. But these problems were quickly repaired. The Germans had painted out the star and put crosses on the turrets, but the 106th Division Reconnaissance logo was still clearly noted on the front of the vehicle.
My source (who became career military, ending his career as a Colonel) said that it was likely that Division Reconnaissance may have had up to 5 of this type of vehicle along with a flock of jeeps at the onset of the Bulge. But I know now that at least one of these made it back into American hands before the war was over.
Anyone else have experience with, memories of, or info on the M-8?