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Posted on 10/01/2003 12:00:05 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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Son of a famous American entertainer, Lieutenant Will Rogers, Jr., distinguished himself on the battlefields of Europe. Will Rogers was a man for all seasons -- a Cherokee Indian and a cowboy, a champion roper, a leading master of ceremonies and raconteur, a top box office draw and the writer of a daily newspaper column. Born in the Cherokee Nation in 1879, he traveled far and earned the affection of audiences worldwide before his untimely death in a plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, in 1935. To this day, he remains a household name.  Following in the footsteps of his famous humorist father proved challenging for Will Rogers, Jr. Nonetheless, the young Rogers strove mightily to match his father's accomplishments. The eldest of four children, he was born in 1911 in New York City while his father was performing with the Ziegfeld Follies. After graduating from Beverly Hills High School, Rogers attended Stanford University, where he edited an off-campus newspaper, captained the polo team, served on the debating team and set a backstroke swimming record. At college graduation in 1935, Rogers was commissioned a second lieutenant of field artillery. Letting his commission lapse, he purchased The Beverly Hill Citizen newspaper and covered the Spanish Civil War as a correspondent during 1936 and 1937. Rogers' response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was twofold. First, as a Democrat he filed for a seat in the 78th Congress, representing the 16th Congressional District of California. Second, he enlisted as a private in the Army. After Officer Candidate School training at Camp Roberts, Calif., Rogers was again commissioned a second lieutenant of field artillery. He was posted to Camp Hood, Texas, where tank-destroying weapons were being developed and units trained.  Congressman Will Rogers, Jr., ca. 1943-1944 Election to Congress required Rogers to leave active service. While in Congress he served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, visited England during the Blitz and helped write the Soldier Voting Bill. Once again seeking military service, however, he resigned from Congress in May 1944 and received reinstatement to active duty and his third commissioning as a second lieutenant. Pressing for combat duty, Rogers was attached to the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, which had reached England in mid-February 1944. Activated on May 22, 1942, at Camp Polk, La., under the command of Colonel Severen T. Wallace, the battalion had moved to Camp Bowie, Texas, then to Camp Hood, where specialized individual and unit training prepared the soldiers to "seek, strike and destroy." At Camp Hood the 750-man battalion came under the command of Lt. Col. Robert Bruce Jones, a Georgia attorney and reserve officer. The 814th completed maneuvers in Louisiana in late 1943. When it reached England, the 814th, equipped with 36 M10 tank destroyers, constituted a powerful anti-tank force. The M10 was diesel-powered and thinly armored, with an open-topped turret based on a standard Sherman M4A3 medium tank chassis. It was highly mobile and sported a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun. The Reconnaissance Company's main weapon was the Greyhound M8 light armored car, equipped with a 37mm gun and a coaxially mounted .30-caliber machine gun, while Headquarters Company had the M20 armored car, equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun.  M10 with 3" Gun 3in GMC M10 - Over 6000 were built in the USA. The British version was called the Wolverine. The basis was the M2A3/4 tank chasis. The hull was sloped and the turrent was partially counter-balanced. The M7 gun had a flat trajectory and was extremely accurate. This exceptional fighting vehicle saw action throughout the ETO. Second Lieutenant Will Rogers, Jr., arrived shortly before the 814th moved from the English Midlands to a marshaling area on England's southern coast. Word spread that Will Rogers' son had joined the battalion, and many of the 814th gathered to watch him take command of 1st Platoon, Reconnaissance Company. The troops had a deep respect for Will Rogers, although they wondered whether his son could handle a combat leadership role. The 814th acted as service troops in England during the Normandy invasion in June 1944, but their time came in August, when they loaded up on LSTs (landing ships, tank). On August 8, 1944, the 814th landed at Utah Beach, and on August 11 the battalion was attached to the 7th Armored Division, part of General George Patton's Third Army. Major General Lindsay MacDonald Silvester, commander of the 7th Armored, split the 814th among his three combat commands, and the division began its advance across France. On numerous occasions, Rogers' 1st Platoon was assigned to lead the armor in the breakout from the hedgerows of Normandy  The M8 light armored car was the only armored car used by the US Army in combat during World War II. Originally developed for the Tank Destroyer force. Approx. 420 M8 armored cars were used primarily by Bn Recon Co. A command and utility version of the M8, the M20 armored utility car, also saw extensive use during the war. When the artillery of the 7th Armored fired on the city of Chartres, the order was passed down to spare its historic sites. Many former members of the 814th believe that the word to spare the Chartres cathedral came from none other than Lieutenant Rogers. After reaching the World War I battlefields of Château-Thierry and Verdun, Patton's Third Army ran out of fuel. Members of the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion later related how, encouraged by Rogers, some soldiers took advantage of this interlude to tour the historic site. They first visited the American Cemetery at St. Mihiel, then moved on to La Tranchée des Batonettes, where a trench cave-in during the Battle of Verdun had left no trace of the French soldiers in it save for their bayonets. Leading his reconnaissance platoon on patrol over a road through the World War I battlefield, replete with shell-pocks, trenches and barbed wire, Rogers conducted an impromptu history lesson over his radio. As he was explaining how a million men fell in the conflict between the French and the Germans, the sharp bark of his task force commander interrupted him: "Lieutenant Rogers -- let's fight one war at a time!"  Lieutenant Rogers and one of his noncommissioned officers, Sergeant Dwayne Deutcher, survey the French countryside. (Courtesy of Michael Deutcher) When it was once again able to advance, the 7th Armored Division, including the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, suffered heavy losses in its attempts to take the fortress city of Metz on the Moselle River. Relieved by the 5th Infantry Division, the 7th Armored was attached to the First Army and, on September 25, began convoying to an assembly area near Maastricht, Holland.
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Assigned to plug the gap between British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Twenty-First Army Group and General Omar N. Bradley's Twelfth Army Group, the 7th Armored shuttled among the First Army, the British Second Army and the Ninth Army, all the time fighting against a stronger enemy force than Allied Intelligence had estimated. Two months after the 7th Armored began trying to clear the Germans west of the Maas River, two full British corps finally overcame the stubborn enemy holdouts. Casualties in the gun companies ran high in the peat bogs of the Peel Marshes because equipment had to stay on the roads, allowing no chance to maneuver. In later years Rogers recalled the sporadic enemy shelling and the patrols along the Asten-Nederweert road, even at night, to counter enemy mine-laying attempts. Nederweert, he said, was his platoon's town, and he spent three nights in the church tower observing the Germans across the canal before they put a shell through the tower on the fourth night.
Major General Robert W. Hasbrouck, having assumed command of the 7th Armored, ordered Brig. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke's Combat Command B to defend the French town of St. Vith. Bolstered by elements of the 9th Armored Division and remnants of the 106th Infantry, Clarke formed a horseshoe defense, with reconnaissance elements patrolling the flanks. According to battalion supply officer J. William Goodwin, after a hurried briefing by Colonel Jones, Reconnaissance Company Captain John P. Reed issued an urgent call: "Get me Lieutenant Rogers!"
A hard freeze on the night of December 22 made withdrawal possible, since the tanks were able to pull out of the mud and snow. By dusk on December 23, most of the 7th Armored had passed over the Salm River and through the lines of the 82nd Airborne Division. Task Force Jones, commanded by the 814th's Colonel Jones, fought the rear-guard action that had allowed the successful daylight withdrawal.
Rogers later jotted down a few cryptic notes about Task Force Jones' withdrawal: "[We] joined a column going down to the Salm River, and went into a deep canyon. Road block ahead [the burning light tanks], and being shot at in the rear. Beautiful moonlight night. Took out a patrol to find out what the roadblock was, and a trigger-happy G.I. shot Sgt. Simmons; however [he] didn't flinch, and merely yelled to have the shooting stopped. Also ran across a German SS soldier leaning up against a tree, and took him prisoner. Finally got back to vehicles after finding out the roadblock couldn't be passed, and took winding 'glorified cowpath' out of the valley. Then came up to a quiet small stream, but only tanks could make it across. Lost all [my] vehicles, and destroyed them with grenades....After crossing the stream jumped on a tank and hung on like a bunch of monkeys while the tank rolled towards and through the 82nd Airborne lines, and that was a very great relief."
Lieutenant Rogers received a Bronze Star for this action, and his citation reads in part, "...for heroism in leading his patrol against an enemy force threatening to cut off part of an armored column retreating from St. Vith." During this withdrawal, 20 men of Task Force Jones went missing and were later reported captured.
bhhs.beverlyhills.k12.ca.us
www.pbs.org
lib.lmu.edu
www.armourinfocus.co.uk
freefrench.free.fr
iquebec.ifrance.com
www.probertencyclopaedia.com
ardennes44.free.fr
www.lakemartin.net
www.dean.usma.edu
www.army.mil
users.pandora.be/dave.depickere
 Late on the night of December 23rd, Sergeant John Banister of the 14th Cavalry Group found himself meandering through the village of Provedroux, southwest of Vielsalm. He'd been separated from his unit during the wild retreat of the first days and joined up with Task Force Jones, defending the southern side of the Fortified Goose Egg. Now they were in retreat again. The Germans were closing in on the village from three sides. American vehicles were pulling out, and Banister was once again separated from his new unit, with no ride out. A tank destroyer rolled by; somebody waved him aboard and Banister eagerly climbed on. They roared out of the burning town. Somebody told Banister that he was riding with Lieutenant Bill Rogers. "Who's he?" Banister wanted to know. "Will Rogers' son," came the answer. It was a hell of a way to meet a celebrity.  An hour later they reached the main highway running west from Vielsalm. There they found a lone soldier digging a foxhole. Armed with bazooka and rifle, unshaven and filthy, he went about his business with a stoic nonchalance. They pulled up to him and stopped. He didn't seem to care about the refugees. "If yer lookin for a safe place," he said, "just pull that vehicle behind me. I'm the 82nd Airborne. This is as far as the bastards are going."  The men on the tank destroyer hesitated. After the constant retreats of the last week, they didn't have much fight left in them. But the paratrooper's determination was infectious. "You heard the man," declared Rogers. "Let's set up for business!" Twenty minutes later, two truckloads of GIs joined their little roadblock. All through the night, men trickled in, and their defenses grew stronger. Around that single paratrooper was formed the nucleus of a major strongpoint. |
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