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| I Received my Third Tank During the Bulge |
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| The later part of December 1944 it was bitter cold and snowing. My buddy Ernest Stevens and I were on first watch. We turned in about 2400 hours in a German fox hole. Daybreak Stevens started punching me for my 45 pistol. I thought it was Germans. He saw a rabbit out side our fox hole thinking of rabbit for dinner. But found out it was froze stiff. When we talk over old times the story of the rabbit is always mentioned. |
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| Being a young man of 18 years, and leaving home for the first time, I didn't know what it was going to be like the next 3 years from Normandy to Baltic. In Camp Hood, Texas, they formed the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Company "C", which I was a part of. We got our first tank in England with a bulldozer and we could knock hedge rows down. I called it Calamity Jane. |
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| It was October 29, 1944 in Asteng, Holland, we were calling for some artillery help, but they only fired one round. Advancing against the concentrated fire of three German Tiger Tanks, our tank destroyer participated in an assault on the positions, destroying two German tanks, and damaging the remaining hostile vehicle. Although shells were bursting in close proximity we managed to do our job. |
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We assisted at the destruction of numerous targets, including a building occupied by 50 German soldiers when our tank was struck 5 times by enemy fire and burst into flames. I crawled over 1,000 yards to join another crew of my Battalion. We had a crew of 4, Dale Dykes and myself were the only ones to get out.I was hit with shrapnel and got my ears busted.
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After I got Calamity Jane 2 in early December 1944, we were near Metz. I was gunner and we got hit.Bob Shaffer was with me. They knocked our track out and caved in our ammunition departments. We had a crew of 4 and we all got out. A few days later we got our 3rd tank and again Calamity Jane got hit in the radiator, but it was repaired and we had this tank until the end of the war.
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| The later part of December 1944 I was bitter cold and snowing. My buddy Ernest Stevens and I were on first watch. We turned in about 2400 hours in a German fox hole. Daybreak, Stevens startd punching me for my 45 pistol. I thought It was Germans. He saw a rabbit outside our fox hole (thinking of a rabbit for dinner) but found out it was froze stiff. When we talk over old times the story of the rabbit is always mentioned. |
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| Source: Bulge Bugle August 1991 |
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By Sgt Marvin C. DRUM
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"C" Company,
814th Tank Destroyer
Battalion
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Campaigns
Battle of the Bulge,
Belgium
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