Bob is President of Americans Remembered Inc. A project encouraging veterans to record their experiences for posterity and for the benefit of future generations that they may appreciate the true nature of service, in peace time as well as at war. If you have a story and wish to share it with the project either follow the link, or mail it to the group at 4idenquiries@tiscali.co.uk and we will pass it on to Bob.
Company H, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.
later, I went back to observe the situation and found direct hits on one gun emplacement and direct hits on two foxholes that would have been occupied by four men, including my own. Seven lives had been saved from serious injury or death.
I received by second Bronze Star medal for my efforts. That night while discussing it with my close friend Sergeant Bert Smith, I remembered that it was November 18th, my 21st birthday.
Footnote: In November 1944 the 22nd Infantry Regiment was in action in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest.
Footnotes:
The Ball cap pictured was presented to Irving by Brigadier General "Big Ben" Allen, when he was a colonel
in command of the 4ID Artillery. The cap is personalisd with Irving's name and unit and Irving
tells me that the two are inseparable. It is with sadness that we have to report that Brigadier General Allen
was killed along side six other 4ID men in a Helicopter crash at Fort Hood, Texas in November 2004. General Allen
has been serving as Assitant Divisional Commander following promotion. Our thoughts go out to
Mrs. Allen and the families of all those lost in the accident.
Finally the period picture shows Irving on May 7, 1945, south of Munich, about six miles from the Austrian border.
The German surrender ending the war in Europe was signed the following day.
Irving Smolens, Melrose, MA
Battery B, 29th Field Artillery Battalion.
They were lined up on the deck of a LCT, two in front and two in back. Their mission was to fire high
trajectory shells onto the invaded beaches in close support of our infantry.
We could do this because the tank treads on the M-7's could cushion the recoil, whereas the
conventional artillery pieces could not do this. the trails could not be dug into a steel deck. The
LCT carrying Battery B hit a mine in the water. My entire gun crew was lost. Only two members of
the battery who had been on board ever returned to active duty.
The reason I am still here to tell this story is that, in anticipation of casualties, the gun crews
were stripped down to six men and the remaining six men were kept in reserve on a larger ship.
subsequently, we had to clamber down rope ladders into an LCT with all our equipment for transport
to the beach in the later afternoon.
Our three-quarter-ton truck (weapons carrier) flooded immediately as it drove down the ramp of the LCT.
the skipper had dropped his ramp too far from the shore. It was getting dark and the tide was coming in
and weighed us down. As it were, we might have drowned had not a DUKW (amphibious truck, affectionately
dubbed by the GIs as a DUCK) driver seen our plight and drove into the surf, came along side and rescued us.
When we learned of the fate of our battery mates we were dismayed, to say the least. Until the battery
was reformed about two weeks later, I was assigned to ride shotgun for a battalion messenger. We
sometimes lost our way and became great sniper targets. One other time, we suffered through a head-on
collision because of driving in almost total blackout conditions.
LCT = Landing Craft Tank, the 29th FA Bn. suffered the greatest number of casualties of
all the assault units on the morning of 6th June 1944 at Utah Beach; some 60 of the 180 or
so killed in action during the assault phase.
Jesse Stadler, Mt. Morris, MI
Battery B, 29th Field Artillery Battalion.
