At Fromentel, Pool's tank headed the task force Y column as usual which closed the gap. During the closing, Pool's second tank was destroied by enemy bombers, which only made Pool more mad at the Germans. Again the crew survived intact. At Colombrier, France, Pool's tank leading the column almost collided with a Panther. The Panther fired twice and missed. Ollier, the gunner, fired a single shot which penetrated the turret and internal explosions blew the turret clean off the hull of the Panther.
At Namur, Belgium, "In The Mood's" crew destroyed sixteen enemy vehicles, including assault guns, self propelled anti-tank guns, plus several armored personnel carriers in one day. At Dison, Belgium, Pool distinguished himself while acting as a platoon leader. He decided to use his own tank to clean out an annoying pocket of resistance on the left flank of the route they were traveling. After finding and destroying six armored personnel carriers Pool discovered that the head of his column had been fired upon by a German Panther. Quickly he ordered his driver to regain the column. Upon arriving upon the scene of the action he spotted the enemy tank, gave a single estimated range to Oller. The gunner fired an A.P. projectile at 1500 yards to destroy the Panther. The column then moved on with Pool again in his customary place in the lead. Although Pool had two tanks knocked out from under him, he had nerves of steel. His crew added confidence from his bearing and as a result they moved as a single unit, like clockwork.
Pool's one problem was that he was claustrophobic and preferred to remain, as much as possible, on the outside of his tank. Col. Richardson said that Pool rode that tank like a "bucking bronco." He was always exposed in the turret or on top of it.
His driver, Richards, shared his commander's condition in that he always drove with his overhead hatch open, having been trapped once with a jammed hatch. Corporal Richards said "Pool hated the Germans and thought he could lick them all. The men would draw straws to see who would lead the spearhead the next day. Pool would just say, 'Ah'm leading this time' and stand there grinning while we cussed him out."
Pool's luck ran out at the town of Munsterbusch, south of Aachen, Germany, on September 19, 1944, while leading the breakthrough through the Westwall. The crew was due to rotate home in a few days for a war bond tour. "In The Mood" was not leading this time but was flank guard for the task force that day. Pool spotted a heavy anti-tank gun hidden in a house. They had a substitute loader that day as Boggs was sent back for a hearing check-up prior to rotating to the states. The new guy shoved a round in the breech of the 76mm gun and jammed it.
Unable to fire, Pool yelled "Back up baby!" as the first shell hit the turret blowing Pool off the tank onto the ground. He landed running and his right leg folded up like an accordion. He quickly gave himself a morphine injection, sat down and tried to cut his shattered leg off with his pocket knife. Meanwhile, a second shell hit the tank well forward as Richards backed the tank up slowly. To Richards, Oller, the loader and Close, there was only the bell sound of the hit, the stench of powder and shower of sparks. Richards didn't know that Pool had been thrown clear of the turret and kept on backing up. Col. Richardson saw "In The Mood" slowly reach a cut bank and, as if in slow motion, topple over, almost upside down.
Oller felt the blood on his leg and knew that he had been wounded. The others were unhurt and all four crawled out of the overturned tank.
Col. Richardson came up to Pool and gave him another shot of morphine. Aid men then reached Pool who was bleeding badly from the splinter wound. They gave him a third shot of morphine. Two of them quickly attended to Oller. Pool cursed the Germans bitterly as the aid men bandaged his wound. As they put him in the litter he twisted suddenly and said, "Somebody take care of my tank."
The war was over for Lafayette G. Pool. He knew that he and his crew could beat the Germans. He proved it so often that his record is almost an unbelievable document of total victory. The amazing score by the Texan and his crew is fully authenticated by the 3d Armored Division.
Pool was twice nominated for the Medal of Honor. The first time the papers were lost,the second time it was turned down as the higher-ups felt that it was a crew, not an individual effort. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, French Croix de Guerre with Bronze Star, Belgium Fourragere and Order of St. George Medal.
Pool's career was far from over though, but first he had an ordeal he had to go through with his wounded right leg. After three shots of morphine he awoke nineteen days later in a hospital in Belgium. Due to rain and exposure he contracted double pneumonia. He did not get back to the states until January, 1945. When he was wounded he weighed 196 pounds and when he returned to the United States he weighed 85 pounds! The bone in his leg from the knee to the ankle was gone but his toenail would still grow so doctors hesitated to amputate. Later they amputated it eight inches above the knee at Temple, Texas Army Hospital. He was discharged in June of 1946, and went home with an artificial leg, later to farm and run a gas station. In 1948 he was called back to active duty along with seven other amputees because of their technical skills as specialists.

"The Tanks Are Coming" lobby card (1951)
He returned as a staff sergeant and taught tank mechanics as a master mechanic. After a promotion to Warrant Officer in 1952, he worked as an ordnance inspector. He was classified as "Z.I." (no duty out of zone interior).
While at Fort Knox, he was offered the job as technical advisor for the movie "The Tanks Are Coming" (released in 1951). He refused and decided to sue Warner Brothers for one million dollars. He was under contract to Universal Studios for his life's story and he felt that Warner Brothers plagiarized his script. The judge ruled that Warner Brothers had changed the names and scenario in their version enough that it was not an infringement. Pool thought that actor Steve Cochran, in the Warner Brothers version, did a good portrayal of himself, although the name in this movie was changed to "Sgt. Sullivan."
Pool retired from the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer Second Class, at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas on September 19, 1960. Afterwards he went to business college, followed by a job as a preacher for $25.00 a week. He also coached little league.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 28:
---- Lu Pan Hong Kong
1165 Ibn al-'Arabi Muslim mystic/philosopher
1746 Thomas Heyward soldier, signed Declaration of Independence
1809 Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, astronomer/Major General (Union volunteers)
1825 William Duncan Smith, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1862
1833 James Henry Lane, Brig General (Confederate Army) [or Jun 22 1814]
1859 Balington Booth founded Volunteers of America
1866 Beatrix Potter England, children's author (Tale of Peter Rabbit)
1874 Ernst Cassirer Germany, philosopher/educator (Essay on Man)
1887 Marcel Duchamp painter (Nude Descending a Staircase)
1892 Joe E Brown Holgate Ohio, comedian (Buck Circus Hour)
1901 Rudy Vallee Vt, singer (Vagabond Dreams, My Time Is Your Time)
1907 Earl S Tupper invented Tupperware
1907 Vivian Vance Cherryvale Ks, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy)
1909 Malcolm Lowry novelist (Under the Volcano)
1916 David Brown NYC, director (Jaws, Planet of the Apes)
1922 Jacques Piccard Switzerland, undersea explorer (bathyscaph Trieste)
1923 Kent L Lee, US vice-admiral (WW II-Marianas/Palau)
1929 Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis 1st lady (1961-63)
1938 Robert Hughes [Studley Forrest], Australia, writer/critic
1940 Phil Proctor comedian (Firesign Theater)
1943 Mike Bloomfield blues musician (Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, Super Sessions)
1945 Jim Davis cartoonist (Garfield)
1945 Richard Wright rocker (Pink Floyd-The Wall)
1947 Sally Struther Portland Oregon, actress (Gloria-All in the Family)
1948 Georgia Engel Wash DC, actress (Georgette-Mary Tyler Moore Show)
1949 Marilyn Quayle wife of vice president Dan Quayle
1949 Vida Blue major-league pitcher (Cy Young & AL MVP 1971)
1961 Scott E Parazynski Little Rock Ark, MD/astronaut
1967 Lori Loughlin NY, actress (Edge of Night, New Kids, Secret Admirer)
1979 Kimberly Whiting, Miss Idaho Teen USA (1997)
Deaths which occurred on July 28:
0450 Theodosius II de Jongere, emperor Austrian Empire, dies
1057 Victor II, [Gebhard], Pope (1055-57), dies
1101 Su Tung-p'o, Chinese poet/essayist/painter/calligrapher, dies at 64
1540 Thomas Cromwell King Henry VIII's chief minister, executed
1655 Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist/novelist, dies at 36 in Paris
1655 Suzuki Shosan, Samurai/monk/propagator of Zen Buddhism, dies at 76
1746 John Peter Zenger journalist, involved in 1st admendment fight, dies
1750 Johann Sebastian Bach German composer (Art of the Fugue), dies at 65
1794 Robespierre & 22 other terrorists executed to thunderous cheers
1863 James Deshler, US Confederate brig-general, dies in battle at 30
1864 Samuel Benton, US Confederate brig-general, dies in battle at about 44
1915 Vilbrun G Sam, rebellion leader/president of Haiti, lynched
1937 Joseph Lee father of Playgrounds movement, dies
1968 Otto Hahn, German physicist/chemist (Nobel 1944), dies at 89
1971 Diane Arbus photographer, commits suicide at 48 (shocking news)
1985 Grant Williams actor, dies of toxic poisoning at 54
1987 James Burnham philosopher (Coming Defeat of Communism), dies at 81
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 MC SWAIN GEORGE P. MONTROSE CA.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0388 Battle at Aquileja: Emperor Theodosius beats emperor Magnus Maximis
0754 Pope Stephen II, [III] makes Pippin de Korte, King of France
1148 Crusaders attack Damascus
1540 Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Howard.
1586 Sir Thomas Harriot introduces potatoes to Europe
1588 Spanish Armada sails to overthrow England's Queen Elizabeth I
1609 Admiral George Somers settles in Bermuda
1615 French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovers Lake Huron on his seventh voyage to the New World.
1717 Prussian king Frederik Willem I gives compulsory education to 5-12 yrs
1741 Capt Bering discovers Mount St Elias, Alaska
1808 Sultan Mustapha of the Ottoman Empire is deposed and his cousin Mahmud II gains the throne.
1821 Peru declares independence from Spain (National Day)
1849 Memmon is 1st clipper to reach SF, 120 days out of NY
1851 Total solar eclipse captured on a daguerreotype photograph
1858 1st use of fingerprints as a means of identification
1862 Confederate forces defeated at More's Hill, Mo
1864 Atlanta Campaign-Battle of Ezra Church
1866 Metric system becomes a legal measurement system in US
1868 The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to all those born or naturalized in the United States, is adopted.
1882 The opera "Parsifal" is produced (Bayreuth)
1883 Shocks triggered by the volcano Epomeo (Isle of Ischia, Italy) destroyed 1,200 houses at Casamicciola killing 2,000
1896 City of Miami incorporated
1898 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of the Retired Colourman"(BG)
1900 Hamburger created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut
1914 Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia-WW I begins
1914 Foxtrot 1st danced at New Amsterdam Roof Garden (NYC, by Harry Fox)
1915 10,000 blacks march on 5th Ave (NYC) protesting lynchings
1915 US forces invade Haiti, stays until 1924
1929 Chicago Cardinals become 1st NFL team to train out of state (Mich)
1930 114ø F (46ø C), Greensburg, Kentucky (state record)
1931 Congress makes "The Star-Spangled Banner" our 2nd national anthem
1932 Pres Hoover evicts bonus marchers from their encampment
1933 1st singing telegram delivered (to Rudy Vallee), NYC
1933 NFL divides into 2, 5 team divisions
1934 118ø F (48ø C), Orofino, Idaho (state record)
1938 K Reinmuth discovers asteroid #1485 Isa
1942 Nazis liquidate 10,000 Jews in Minsk Russia
1943 Italian Facist dictator Benito Mussolini resigns
1943 Pres FDR announces end of coffee rationing in US
1945 Japanese premier Suzuki disregards US ultimatum to surrender
1945 US Army bomber crashes into 79th floor of Empire State Bldg, 14 die
1945 US Senate ratifies UN charter 89-2
1951 Walt Disney's "Alice In Wonderland" released
1959 Hawaii's 1st US election sends 1st Asian-Americans to Congress
1962 Mariner I launched to Mars falls into Atlantic Ocean
1964 Ranger 7 launched toward the Moon; sent back 4308 TV pictures
1965 LBJ sends 50,000 more soldiers to Vietnam (total of 125,000)
1973 Skylab 3's astronauts (Bean, Garriott & Lousma) launched
1976 242,000 die in Tientsin-Tangshan (China) 8.2 earthquake
1976 Eldon Joersz & Geo Morgan set world air speed record of 3,530 kph
1977 1st oil flow through the Alaska pipeline
1977 Roy Wilkins turn over NAACP leadership to Benjamin L Hooks
1978 600,000 attend Watkins Glen Summer Jam in NY
1978 At Old Timer's Game it's announced Martin will again manage Yankees
1978 Perth Observatory discovers asteroid #3188 & #3422
1978 Price of gold tops $200-an-oz level for 1st time
1983 AL Pres Lee MacPhail threw out umpire's decision & allows George Brett's 2 run HR against Yanks on July 24 (pine tar game)
1983 NASA launches Telstar-3A
1986 NASA releases transcript from doomed Challenger, pilot Michael Smith could be heard saying, "Uh-oh!" as spacecraft disintegrated
1987 Angel Cordero Jr becomes the 4th jockey to win 6,000 races
1988 IBM announces price hike on older models
1988 Jordan cancels $1.3 billion development plan in West Bank
1988 Winnie Mandella's home in Soweto, South Africa destroyed by arson
1989 Braves Dale Murphy, hits 2 3-run HRs in an inning, 14th man to hit 2 HRs in an inning. Also ties record of 6 RBIs in an inning
1989 NASA's Lewis Research Center, Cleve, announce new high-temperature superconductors able to operate at 33 to 37 Gigahertz
1990 Blackout hits Chicago
1991 Miguel Indurain of Spain wins the Tour de France bicycle race
1994 Texas Ranger Kenny Rogers pitches baseball's 12th perfect game
1995 Art Modell's rep begins secrets talks to move team to Baltimore
2002 Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France, an international 2,036-mile cycling race, for the fourth consecutive year.
2061 31st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Bermuda : Adm George Somers Day (1609)
San Marino : Fall of Facism Day (1943)
US : Joseph Lee Day-honors playgrounds (1937)
US : Volunteers of America founders day (1859)
Virgin Islands : Hurricane Supplication Day ( Monday )
Gilroy, California : Garlic Festival ( Friday )
Peru : Independence Day (1824)
Marry a Millionaire Day
National Ice Cream Month
Religious Observances
Luth : Commemoration of JS Bach, Heinrich Schtz, GF Handel
RC : Comm of SS Nazarius, Celsus, martyrs & Innocent I, pope
RC : Commemoration of St Victor I, 14th pope (189-199)
Religious History
1675 Death of Bulstrode Whitelocke 69, an influential English lawyer during theCommonwealth of Oliver Cromwell. Among Whitelocke's last words: 'There has been one true religion in the world; and that is the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts and soulsof men.'
1881 Birth of J. Gresham Machen, an American Presbyterian theologian who taught atPrinceton and Westminster seminaries. Two of his writings still endure: 'New Testament Greekfor Beginners' (1923) and 'The Virgin Birth of Christ' (1932).
1889 The first Divine Liturgy (worship service) of the Armenian Church in America wascelebrated in Worcester, MA. It was led by Rev. Hovsep Sarajian, himself the first Armenianclergyman to come to America.
1942 Death of W.M. Flinders Petrie, 89, English archaeologist. He was regarded bycolleague William Foxwell Albright as 'the greatest genius among biblical archaeologists.'
1960 American Trappist Thomas Merton wrote in a letter: 'I can depend less and lesson my own power and sense of direction... It is so strange to advance backwards and getwhere you are going in a totally unexpected way.'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
Things To Do If You Ever Became An Evil Overlord...
DO NOT use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."
Letters To God From The Dog...
Dear God,
Is it true that in Heaven, dining room tables have on-ramps?
Dumb Laws...
Massachusetts:
Snoring is prohibited unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked.
How To Annoy Osama bin Laden If You're Invited To A Dinner Party At His Secret Afghan Lair...
Claim you once saw him at a Hooter's in Muncie wearing a yarmulke.