This is an add-on for my previous post about the tanker helmet . I got the helmet in today's mail, and along with it the photo you see in that last post. With it came a hand written letter that I would like to share with all of you. Some of the writing I can't read, so I'll leave a blank..
My first introduction to battle was at a small town in France called_______. It was just a couple of buildings and a mill. I shot at and destroyed a Panzer Mark IV and a staff car. This was on June 11, 1944. We later pushed on to the hedgerow country where we deployed into battle with several MG positions and destroyed them all. Most of our fights was with small elements of the German army, but the big battle that I remember most was with a German Tiger Tank which was hid away behind some trees in a wooded area. We came around a ____curve in the road and it shot once at us ...just missing our left side. We back up past a long building and called in an air strike, but none was available and we were ordered to take out the Tiger, so we came around the back of a building and shot two rounds at it, hitting it once between the gun and body of the tank. The only thing that happened was the turret was stuck in a side 30 degree angle, so in effect he could not rotate his gun. We only understood that when at 800 yards we was trying to maneuver a shot at us by moving his whole vehicle. Our tank was faster, so we closed the range to 400 yards and moved around to the rear of the Tiger and shot directly into the engine area. The tank exploded from which everyone was killed.
We fought in Bastogne with the 101rst Airborne where we destroyed 11 armoured vehicles. Later we pushed on into Germany. In total my crew destroyed 27 armoured vehicles including 9 tanks (1 Tiger), 11 armoured cars, 6 other vehicles of different sizes.
This picture shows me standing on our tank (destroyer)right after it rained. We had just got her re-supplied with tank shells and I was loading them into the main gun area.
Mark Daveson* (Name added on May 22, 2010)
705th Tank Destroyer Battalion
Sergeant attached to the 101rst airborne
506 P____n
April 2009
I don't know about you, but that letter made me feel like I was right there watching all this as it was happening. What tremendous courage these men displayed in battle.