Tigersblog

I have slacked off a bit since the weather turned warm, but 10th Armored Division Historian, Klaus Feindler certainly has not! I received the following attachment from Klaus with a request to put it up on the webpage. Thanks for all of the hard work you do all year round, Klaus!

10^th AD in My Backyard

I live within a mile and a half of the Long Island National Cemetery (aka Pinelawn), located in Farmingdale, New York.  While doing further research for the Honor Roll of the 10^th Armored Division, we came across the fact that there are thirteen (13) members who are buried there.  In order to check this out, we visited Pinelawn over the Memorial Day weekend.  Thus far, we were able to find twelve (12) of the thirteen (13) graves which had been adorned with American flags by volunteers for the occasion. 

We took photographs of these graves and are prepared to furnish copies to the next of kin or friends upon request.  These veterans are listed in the table below, and we hope to hear from anyone who has information on them.  Contact us either by e-mail (compklaus@optonline.net) or regular mail (Klaus Feindler, 31 Beaumont Dr., Melville, NY 11747). 

Memorial Day is approaching all too quickly. The day of the year that most people consider the first “unofficial” day of Summer, while forgetting why we celebrate it.

I have decided to donate a flag (2 flags actually…an American flag and a P.O.W. flag) to my borough to be hoisted in memory of my father, the 10th Armored Division and every veteran who has payed in blood for the freedoms we enjoy.  The municipal flagpole always has a nice flag flying, albeit usually a small one, but the one I will have run up is 8 x 12 feet. Large in comparison.  Hopefully it will last all Summer and well into next Winter as a reminder to those that see it that freedom is not free.

Pictures of the ceremonies of the day will be posted.

In the process of poking around “YouTube” I came across a nice little video that was taken at the Mardasson Memorial near Bastogne, Belgium. There is no narrative…just some nice pans of the structure, mostly paying attention to the names of the states whose sons died defending the besieged city during the Ardennes Offensive. The video ends with an upward pan of a column in the memorial which features the emblems of the 101st Airborne, 82nd Airborne, 17th Airborne, 11th Armored and…at the very top of the column…the 10th Armored Division. Below is a link to the video.
Mardasson Video

 The complete version of the 10th Armored Division Honor Roll is now available online in .pdf and .html formats.

Thanks to Klaus Feindler, 10th Armored Division historian,  and his assisstant, Maureen Consiglio, the complete version of the Honor Roll is now posted on the front page of OldTigerCub.com. Here are the links: pdf version     html version

Note that both versions are relatively large files (1.4mb) so they may take a couple of minutes to load if the user has a slow internet connection, but the wait is worth it.

My thanks again to Klaus for all of the hard work that he put into this document, and my thanks especially for sending me the complete version in digital format and permitting me to share it with the internet community.

Actually, I have aquired, courtesy of Gerry Koren by way of Howard Liddic, 10th Armored Division historian, several issues of  “The Tiger’s Tale”, the official newsletter of the 10th AD, in digital format. They are fascinating reading, and bring a whole new perspective to life in the army, and what it was like to be part of the Tiger Division, both in training and in combat. in pdf format and some are very large (18meg  plus) so it may take some time to upload them all to the server. Here is the December 24, 1942 issue (note: the picture below is of the March 17,1943 issue. It was in jpg format and easier to resize and present on the page. The pdf link below leads to the Dec. 24,1942 issue)  It is one of the smaller files, but a good representation of the Division’s official publication. It is obvious that Gerry put a lot of time and care into scanning the original papers to digital form, as most of them are very high resolution. My thanks to Gerry Koren for all the hard work, and for allowing me to share them with the internet community.

the-tigers-tale_1942_12_24.pdf

I hope all will enjoy reading it as much as I did. The entire collection that I have will be posted on the OldTigerCub.com website as time permits, so watch for updates.

 Since this blog and website are dedicated to the memory of the men of the 10th Armored Division, it goes without saying that the names of the officers and enlisted men who were killed in action, died of wounds received in battle, or otherwise perished while serving overseas, should hold a special place of honor here. Accordingly I have posted a copy of the Honor Roll, as compiled by Klaus Feindler, on the front page of the oldtigercub.com website.

The current copy of the Honor Roll is a scanned copy from a printed book, but I am hoping to work with Klaus to publish a much more presentable and updated version sometime in the near future. For the time being, though, the scanned version can be found here in .pdf format.

Jim Talt, a regular poster at the Tigerdivision website message board, posted some nice pictures taken by his father while serving with the 10th Armored Division in Germany. With his permission, I have added them to the photo galleries on my website. My thanks to Jim for sharing them with us!

The gallery can be found at: http://www.oldtigercub.com/pictures/jimtaltphotos/

In an earlier article I posted the account of Capt. John “Jack” Prior, M.D. regarding Christmas eve in Bastogne, the bombing of the town by the Luftwaffe and the death of a Belgian nurse, Renée LeMaire, who had volunteered to work in the 10th AD aid station. I had promised that we would meet Renée LeMaire, and here we will, through the eyes of other veterans who recall this remarkable young lady.

Don Addor included a chapter at the end of his book, “Noville outpost to Bastogne, My Last Battle” in which he pays tribute to the young nurse who stayed behind in Bastogne to tend to wounded American soldiers.

The following is an article written by a sergeant who had met Nurse Renee Lemaire and witnessed the bombing of the aid station from his post across the street. It was written to “Tiger Tales” after he read the article by Dr. Prior. More on Nurse Renee Lemaire By William Kerby, 20th AIB

When we pulled back from Noville to Bastogne, Captain Geiger informed me that we were now attached to the Airborne Division. He stated that we were going into reserve and would be used when needed. He said to look for a billet for your men and to notify him of our whereabouts. I found a nice three-story building with a big basement. The first floor was a 5 and 10 cent store with a large kitchen at the rear. The second and third floors were living quarters. While in the basement, we started a small fire with what we thought was play money that we found in the corner of the basement along with a broken chair. (About a month later, we found out that it was real money). Down the stairs came Dr. Naftulin and Nurse Renee Lemaire. He introduced her to me and said they were looking for a building that would serve as an aid station. They left for about fifteen minutes. When they returned, Dr. Naftulin said, “Sergeant, this basement would make an excellent aid station.” I told him that was fine, and he could have it. I stated that I would take my men elsewhere to find another billet. We moved down and across the street about forty yards. The house was on the side of a hill. You could walk in the door from the roadside and go down a flight of stairs, walk in and out into the backyard. There we dug foxholes and a latrine. On Christmas Eve, we were told that the Germans had parachuted men in white uniforms around Bastogne. I posted guards at each corner of the building. My post was facing the aid station about thirty-five or forty yards away. All of a sudden the night sky was brighter than the Las Vegas strip from the magnesium flares that the German bomber pilots had dropped. A few seconds later, the first German bomber dropped his first bomb on the aid station, a direct hit. The second bomb landed in our backyard and wiped out all our empty foxholes, leaving only the latrine … Thanks God!!!! The second German bomber dropped down to strafe us with machine gun fire. All the GI’s started to shoot at the plane with machine guns, rifles and carbines. He dropped a bomb that was a direct hit on a building two doors from ours. That building just happened to be a distillery. The bottles flew all over, and some were found two weeks later in the snow banks. I faced toward the aid station and Renee Lemaire was helping some wounded GI’s out of the building. She went back in the building and came out helping more wounded yelling, “Help, help, water, water.” The flames from the fire were intensifying. She was safe and sound out of the building but decide to go back in and help. Renee Lamaire never returned. The woman was a heroine and a saint. I am an eyewitness to these above facts. In 1994, the 50th anniversary of Renee Lemaire’s death a ceremony was held in Bastogne, Belgium, and a memorial plaque in her honor was placed on the building that now stands where the aid station had been. Dr. Prior was responsible for having this plaque placed in her honor where his hospital once stood. He and many other members of the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion will never forget this fine young lady. Note: Renee Lemaire and the nurse from the Congo only served at the aid station of the 20th Infantry Battalion and not at the aid station of the 101st Airborne as shown on television.

I have decided to share some of the letters that my father wrote home during the war.

The subject of this post is a letter written on the 9th of December, 1944. Although it is not specific about location (due to security concerns) I believe the 10th AD was in the area of Metz, or further into Germany when Dad wrote this particular letter.

He writes of the action in combat, and the circumstances under which he received a Purple Heart Medal. He states that the captain presented it to him and others, with instructions not to earn any clusters for it. I believe it may have been presented by Capt. William Ryerson, as he would have been the Company C commander at that time.

He also enclosed a letter from Gen. William H. H. Morris and an excerpt from a news reporter’s article about the 10th Armored division being the first unit of General George Patton’s 3rd Army to enter Germany.

I hope that his letters will give readers some insight into the life of an infantry soldier engaging the enemy in the late autumn of 1944.

Here is the letter in it’s entirety in .pdf format

dec_9_44.pdf

Since the file is in .pdf format, an Adobe reader will need to load to read it. For anyone who does not already have it, the Adobe reader may be downloaded free from here: Adobe.com