December 2019,
75 years later.
Celebrating the 743rd Tank Battalion on the anniversary
of the Battle of the Bulge.
The monument to the 743rd Tank Battalion became a reality through the tireless efforts of Bill & Vivian Gast; John Warner; Denis Hambucken, the designer; and his brother, Gilles Hambucken, who oversaw the monument fabrication, siting and installation. Thanks to Gérard Dejardin of Melens Dejardin who fabricated the monument. Special thanks to Mayor Didier Gilkinet and the good people of Stoumont and La Gleize for providing the peaceful home for the memorial at Point de vue du Congo.
A closer look.
The bastard battalion that helped change the course of history.
Meet a couple of the men who served.
William E. Gast, Jr.
Tank Driver
Bill Gast left high school half-way through his senior year to enlist and go fight the Nazis. He was sent to the 743rd Tank Battalion because his mechanical aptitude testing was so strong. Part of Company A, Bill landed six minutes early on Omaha Beach in the first wave on D-Day; he never liked to be late for anything. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and ended the war with the liberation of Magdeburg. Awards and citations included the Silver Star, Purple Heart; Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Belgian Attestation and Fourragére. He is survived by his high school sweetheart and wife, Betty; his three sons, William, Bradley and Bruce; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Bill passed at the age of 94.
Speeches:
September 20-21, 2014
Eisenhower National Historic Site: 2014 World War II Weekend
September 09, 2009
Hudson Falls International Conference (part 1)
Hudson Falls International Conference (part 2)
Interviews:
The Sixth of June by Matthew Rozell
D-Day: the view from a tank on Omaha Beach by Mathieu Rabechault
Music, Not War:
The Sax4Pax tribute tenor saxophone
Peter Mark
Tank Driver & Gunner
Peter Mark was born in Canada and came to the U.S. as a teenager during the Depression. After being drafted into the U.S. Army, he served in Company A of the 743rd Tank Battalion. He was trained at Fort Lewis, Washington and Camp Laguna, Arizona. Combat served included D-Day, Normandy, St. Lo, Mortain, and the Battle of the Bulge. Of the Bulge he said, “He had never been so cold and vowed to not live where it was cold if he survived.” He received the Purple Heart after being injured and was in VA hospitals until 1946. He seldom spoke of the war but was affected by it for decades. He was married and had 5 children – Albert, Sallie, Toni, Michelle and Jonathon. Peter passed in January 1995 at the VA hospital in Decatur, Georgia.
John DuQuoin
Communications
In May, 1942, John Smoot DuQuoin was drafted at age 35 and became part of the initial cadre that formed the 743rd Tank Battalion. He was among many Midwesterners in the outfit. John specialized in radio and became Communications Chief for the Battalion. He landed in the assault wave on Omaha Beach and participated in the fighting across France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. All Battalion members were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. John’s decorations include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf and the Silver Star. John was discharged in August, 1945, and resumed civilian life. He died in 1960.
John Howard Froberg
Tank Dozer Driver
John Howard Froberg, known as Howard, grew up in the small town of Lindstrom, Minnesota. He served with the 743rd Tank Battalion as a tank dozer driver landing on Omaha Beach before H hour of D-Day. He remembered that “everything sounded totally silent before the tanks left the landing craft.” Clearly, he was focused. So much so that he named his son Ned after his captain, Ned S. Elder, who was responsible for getting the tanks to the beaches. Howard helped lead the way as his tank “dozed” through the hedgerows in Normandy, the mountains in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge and the heartland of Germany. He was awarded the Bronze Star from Major General Leland S. Hobbs in March of 1945. Starting in 1959, reunions of the 743rd were held at Howard’s family farm in Lindstrom with much help from his wife, Lucille, and their kids, Ned and Nora. Howard died in 1994 at the age of 72.
There are many stories to tell.
The German orders were clear, “Take no prisoners from the 743rd Panzer Division.”
Move out, Verify: The Combat Story of the 743rd Tank Battalion
by Wayne Robinson & Norman E. Hamilton
A Battalion truck was driven hundreds of miles through Germany to locate and haul a linotype machine so that type could be set for this book. This is just one of the sometimes fantastic difficulties overcome during the manufacture of these pages in the bomb-devastated city of Frankfurt-on-Main in July 1945. That the book did get printed at all is astonishing to its author. 1st Lt. John D. Hess, aided by German-speaking Tech Sergeant Frank Gartner, looked after the considerable details of publication. The 21 chapter illustrations are by Pfc. Norman E. Hamilton. The writing is by Pfc. Wayne Robinson, who here wishes to acknowledge the great help given by so many, from tank commanders to cooks to personnel clerks, in getting the facts for this combat story.
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A G.I. in The Ardennes: The Battle of the Bulge
by Denis Hambucken
A G.I. in the Ardennes focuses on the human experience during wartime. What was life like for a regular American soldier who gave his life to combat fascism?
By immersing himself in historical documents, hundreds of letters and several interviews from that period of time, Denis Hambucken managed to accurately reconstruct the daily life of an American soldier in impressive detail. The author takes a closer look at the weapons, equipment and personal belongings of the soldiers who fought at the Western front, while sharing numerous personal anecdotes and moving stories.
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These Things I Saw
by John Warner
From the Arizona deserts to Omaha Beach and all the way to the Elbe River, the story of the 743rd Tank Battalion and its bitter fight across war-torn Europe. Through the words and letters of actual Battalion members, the author chronicles their remarkable story—induction to discharge, and afterwards.
Coming soon
The Fighting 30th Division: They Called Them Roosevelt's SS
by Martin King, David Hilborn & Michael Collins
The full story of the legendary US infantry division and their remarkable service in WWII, told through interviews with surviving servicemen.
The 30th Infantry Division earned more Medals of Honor than any other American division in World War I. In World War II, it spent more consecutive days in combat than almost any other outfit. Recruited mainly from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee, they were some of the hardest-fighting soldiers in Europe. They possessed an intrinsic zeal to engage the enemy that often left their adversaries in awe. Their US Army nickname was the “Old Hickory” Division. But after encountering them on the battlefield, the Germans called them “Roosevelt’s SS.”
The Fighting 30th Division chronicles the exploits of this illustrious unit through the eyes of those who were actually there. From Normandy to the Westwall and the Battle of the Bulge, each chapter is meticulously researched with accurate timelines and after-action reports. The last remaining veterans of the 30th to see action firsthand relate their experiences here for the first time, including previously untold accounts from survivors.
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Steel Victory: The Heroic Story of America's Independent Tank Battalions at War in Europe
by Harry Yeide
Advancing at the speed of the infantry, the U.S. Army independent tank battalions ground slowly across the continent during World War II, from the bloody beaches of Normandy; through forests, villages, and cities in France, Belgium, and Germany; and into Czechoslovakia at the war’s end. Greater in number than the battalions in the vaunted armor divisions, the infantry tanks were doled out to a platoon here and a company there to undertake the war’s dirtiest mission–prying enemy troops from every position across the breadth of the great Allied offensive line of 1944-45. The bold American tank infantry teams of WWII’s European theater have become the stuff of legend. But the true details of their amazing missions have never been revealed in one comprehensive work of popular history . . . until now.
Using the words of the tank soldiers themselves, and the radio logs of their real-time communications, Harry Yeide vividly brings back all the men and machines of this crucial method of combat–one that, in the end, may have won the war. Here are startling revelations of the treacherous fighting, and the challenges and dangers of battling a better-equipped enemy in outmoded, slow-moving “death traps...”
The View from the Turret: The 743rd Battalion During World War II
by William B. Folkestad
The View from the Turret recounts the frontline combat experiences of the 743rd Tank Battalion, beginning with June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy and concluding with the taking of Magdeburg on the Elbe River in 1945. The author has combined numerous personal interviews with original research into a useful and penetrating account detailing one unit’s contribution to World War II battalion-level tank warfare in the European Theater of operations.
This is the first time the 743rd Tank Battalion has received full credit for its decisive day-long battle on Omaha Beach, where it was the only full-strength tank battalion supporting two infantry divisions. Also, this is the first time the 743rd has been recognized for its pivotal role alongside the 30th Infantry Division (Old Hickory) in the Battle of Mortain, the Battle of Aachen, and the Battle of the Bulge. Throughout this book, special attention has been given to understanding how the 743rd used the Sherman M4’s design and firepower…
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Hell Has No Heroes
(Original Title: “BARBARA”)
by Wayne Robinson
She was big, bold and beautiful as she rumbled down the streets toward Portland harbor on that rainy Saturday morning, the fourth of June, 1944. She was 34 tons of M-4 Sherman medium tank and her initial task was to hit Omaha Beach, Normandy, France. They called her a secret weapon because she had been rebuilt to leave an LCT in deep water and propel herself to shore ahead of the infantry. She was not alone; she was one of thirty-two—and her name was Barbara.
It took guts and brains to get onto the beaches at Normandy, and it took lives to get off. This is the story of the men of the Lance Battalion who fought their way through France, Holland, Belgium and Germany—leaving milestones of death along the bloody road to victory. Barbara is a tank that became a symbol to the whole battalion: to Colonel Crandal she epitomized man’s ability to endure; for Sergeant Walter Barska, Barbara was a whole new world of combat and survival; to the men she became a source of inspiration and pride in the lonely, black hours of war.
Amid the chaos of battle there is a poignantly impermanent love affair between a widowed French girl and Sergeant Barska which shows that life, however brief, is for the living and that in love, as in war, there can be no turning back…
A Train Near Magdeburg: A Teacher's Journey into the Holocaust, and the Reuniting of the Survivors and Liberators, 70 Years on
by Matthew Rozell
In this book, Matthew Rozell reconstructs a lost chapter—the liberation of a ‘death train’ deep in the heart of Nazi Germany in the closing days of the World War II. Drawing on never-before published eye-witness accounts, survivor testimony and memoirs, and wartime reports and letters, Rozell brings to life the incredible true stories behind the iconic 1945 liberation photographs taken by the soldiers who were there. He weaves together a chronology of the Holocaust as it unfolds across Europe, and goes back to literally retrace the steps of the survivors and the American soldiers who freed them. Rozell’s work results in joyful reunions on three continents, seven decades later. He offers his unique perspective on the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations, and the impact that one person, a teacher, can make. Featuring testimony from 15 American liberators and over 30 Holocaust survivors; 10 custom maps; 72 photographs and illustrations, many never before published.
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II
by Adam Makos
When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner’s seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He’s a natural-born shooter.
At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division - “Spearhead” - thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit.
After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art “super tank,” one of 20 in the European theater.
But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That’s how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the US Army into its largest urban battle of the European war...
Walking in their footsteps.
Preserving the past to give us a glimpse into some
of what they saw and felt.
Les Beolles 4,
Thimister-Clermont
4890
Belgium
+32 87 44 61 81
Rue de l'église, 7b
B-4987 La Gleize
Belgium
+32 80 78.51.91
Battle of the Bulge Historical Center
Route de Luxembourg 10
4960 Malmedy
Belgium
+32 80 44 04 82
Diekirch National Museum of Military History
10, Bamertal L-9209
Diekirch
Luxembourg
(+352) 80 89 08
Bastogne War Museum
Colline du Mardasson, 5
6600 Bastogne
Belgium
+32 (0) 61 210 220
Bastogne Barracks & Vehicle Restoration Center: Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History
Quartier Slt Heintz
Rue de La Roche 40
6600 Bastogne
Belgium
+32 (0) 61 24 21 24
101st Airborne Museum
Avenue de la Gare 11
6600 Bastogne
Belgium
+32 (0) 61 50 12 00
Rue Chamont 5
6980 La Roche-en-Ardenne
Belgium
+32 84 41 17 25
Tank Monuments in the Ardennes
Battle of the Bulge Monuments
Bastogne / Vielsalm / Houffalize / Grandmenil / Beffe / La Roche-en-Ardenne / Wibrin / La Gleize
Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery
159, rue du Mémorial Américain
4852
Hombourg
Belgium
+32 (0)87 68 71 73
The monument is situated at the 5-point intersection of Route de Waimes (N632), Route du Monument, Route de Luxembourg (N62) & Chemin du Périru at the edge of the historic town of Baugnez just outside Malmedy, the heart of the Ardennes. N 50° 24.216 E 006° 04.014 32U E 291575 N 5587618
A.S.B.L. MAISON SAINT-EDOUARD
I.M.P. L’HORIZON
Route de l'Amblève, 88
B-4987 Stoumont
Belgium
+32 (0)80785720
See my Normandy : : Guided Tours by Karine Poullard
Teaching History Matters : : Matthew Rozell
Battle of the Bulge Memories : : 1st Lt Donald J. Strand, "D" Company, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division
Battle of the Bulge Association : : Honoring the Veterans, Preserving Their Legacy
743rd Tank Battalion : : Facebook Group
Move Out, Verify – Honoring the 743rd Tank Battalion : : Facebook Group
743rd Tank Battalion : : Brad Reynolds
Together We Served : : U.S. Army
