The 486th AAA Battalion
SAMPLES OF ACTION
Below: the first Allied gun crew to shoot down
a German plane from German soil.
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The M-16 half-track crew from Battery C (above)
gave the Spearhead Division another "'first" in its
assault on the Third Reich. On September 18th, 1944, a small
flight of enemy planes attacked the 67th Armored Field Artillery
positions southeast of Brand, Germany. Cpl. Stanley Zyza's crew,
with Tec 5 Russ Eick as the main gunner, opened up as one plane
broke through the clouds. Eick's aim with the quad-.50 's proved
dead on, as the FW-190 fighter-bomber, with smoke pouring from
the motor, took a sharp dive, crashed and burned, killing the
pilot. War had come home to the Luftwaffe. The First United States
Army awarded Battery C credit for (of all Allied units in Europe)
shooting down the first German plane with guns emplaced on German
soil. From left to right in above photo: Cpl. Stanley J. Zyza,
Pfc. Stephen J. Spirounias, Tec 5 Russell A. Eick, Pfc. Marcus
C. Palombi, and Tec 5 Donald M. Dean. |
A crew that stopped a moving German Army train in its tracks,
destroyed the cargo and forced surrender of its troops.
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On August 29th , 1944, near Braine, France, the
486th had been tipped off by the Free French Underground that
a trainload of Germans was due along a certain track. An M-15
half-track from Battery C commanded by Sgt. Hollis Butler was
hurridly moved into position, training its 37 mm cannon and two
.50 caliber's on the track Approximately fifteen minutes later
the train came puffing into view. A 37 mm high-explosive round
blew apart the locomtice engine, stopping the train dead. The
crew continued firing, including racking the train cars with
the .50's with devastating effect. One hundred and fifty prisoners
were taken, thirty were wounded, and much equipment including
a Mk IV tank and four medium tanks was destroyed. Twenty-five
Germans were killed. All crew members were rewarded with Bronze
Stars and Sgt. Butler, in addition, received the French Croix
de Guerre. From left to right in above photo: Sgt. Hollis B.
Butler, Cpl. James A. Cavanaugh, Jr., Tec 5 Raymond J. Nareau,
Pfc. Benjamin Santorello, Pfc. John W. DeGrasse, Pfc. Luc U.
Pomerleau, and Tec 5 Albert M. Riccio. |
The Story of "One Shot Webb"
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Just inside Belgium
near Mons on Sept. 2, 1944, a German vehicle towing a multiple
20 mm anti-aircraft mount was trying to escape by bypassing a
3rd Armored Div. column, and was covering its retreat with a
light machine gun. Cpl. Earle Webb's Battery A M-15 half-track
was the last vehicle in the column. Its 37 mm cannon was in a
horizontal position covering the rear as the enemy vehicle approached.
Webb waited until it was close enough so that he felt he could
not miss. He put one round of high explosive through the windshield,
killing one man outright and wounding the rest. Incredibly, the
enemy vehicle continued rolling forward and came to rest within
three feet of the muzzle of the 37 on Webb's track.
On October 18, 1944, Cpl. Webb was again the gunner of the
37 mm on his track in an area that was under intermittent German
artillery fire. Suddenly a German aircraft appeared and Webb
wheeled into action in his usual methodical but quick way. He
fired a single shot from his gun and there was instantly no doubt
about the result. The shell exploded in the fuselage just forward
of the tail and breaking the plane in two in a most dramatic
and spectacular way. Shouts of disbelief rang out from nearby
troops. This act, and the event of stopping the enemy vehicle
near Mons with one shot, gave Webb what was to be a life-long
nickname - "One Shot Webb."
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Luftwaffe Russian-front veteran is shot down
on his first attack against American troops.
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On
December 3, 1944, Luftwaffe planes came over 3rd Armored positions
in numbers during the grind toward the Roer River. It was one
of the few times that they dared to show themselves at low altitude.
It was a stormy day, and the clouds offered good cover at a low
ceiling. An M-16 half-track from Battery A, commanded by Cpl.
Joseph Makauska, was in position on a wooded strip between two
open valleys. Tec 5 Dominic Rizzo was manning the quad-.50's.
The majority of the enemy planes came down the valley to the
M-16's rear and out of the field of fire. Suddenly an ME-109
dropped out of the clouds and came directly toward their vehicle.
Rizzo opened fire just as the plane dropped its wing bombs and
banked away. The bombs caused no casualties, but the .50's had
found their mark, and the 109 was smoking. The pilot made a forced
landing in a field between 3rd Armored outposts and the German
lines, and the infantry captured him. He told interrogators that
he had made 268 missions over Russian lines without being shot
down, but this was his first and last trip over American territory.
Others on the M-16 crew were Tec 5 Albenie Dubay, Pfc. Thomas
Skidgel, and Pfc. Abraham Schiller. |
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ADDITIONAL SAMPLE ACTION
Attack on Enemy Tank Crew
During the night of July 31, 1944, in northern France, Capt.
Philip Shaw commanding Battery B discovered a Mark V tank while
on a reconnaissance. This tank was parked just over the hedgerow
from the battery's position. Crawling under the tank, Capt. Shaw
attempted to blow it up with a hedgerow breaching charge, but
this was thwarted when the tank started up and slowly began to
move away. Capt. Shaw and two men jumped onto the rear deck of
the tank and attacked the crew. An incendiary grenade was a good
enticement for the Germans to abandon the vehicle. One of the
Germans was killed with a hatchet, a traditional American weapon.
German Infantry's Worst Nightmare
In the city of Mons, Belgium, on Sept 3, 1944, Sgt. Stone's
M-16 squad from Battery A opened up its quad-.50's at a group
of thirty German foot soldiers who had refused to surrender and
were returning fire. Twenty-five were killed in less than a minute.
Trapped Behind German Lines
On the night of the Dec. 24, 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge,
a group of vehicles from Battery B became trapped behind German
lines. The order then came to destroy all equipment and prepare
to move out on foot. Since fire and noise were prohibited, everything
had to be destroyed as quietly as possible. Radios were crushed,
tires and tracks chopped up, transmissions were filled with water,
and ammunition buried in an old well. That included the destruction
of an M-15, M-16, and a one-quarter ton truck. Then out they
came on Christmas night. They walked for fourteen hours and covered
about twenty-three miles, passing through a German artillery
battery where they could hear the battery executive giving firing
orders. Sgt. Sawtelle was the only Battery B man missing at the
end of the march; he came out alone three days later.
Persuasion to Surrender
About one mile south of Paderborn, Germany, on March 30, 1945,
Sgt. Nevers and Sgt. Cunningham of Battery C cleaned out a woods
full of fanatical SS troopers who had been firing panzerfausts
and schmeiser pistols at the 67th Field Artillery's men. Approximately
three hundred of the German troops had been in this woods, but
repeated splintering of the trees with the quad-.50's changed
their minds about fighting, and there was a mass surrender.
486th Casualties - Never to be Forgotten
Ironically the 486th AAA Battalion suffered quite a few casualties
in the closing days of the war during April, 1945. Just before
reaching the Elbe and the Mulde Rivers the second platoon command
car and jeep of Battery D were hit by an 88 millimeter high explosive
shell from a concealed gun two hundred yards from the road. Miraculously
the only casualties resulting were some burns. But on April14,
Sgt. John Rogers' complete Battery D crew became casualties --
Tec 5 William Weaver and Tec 5 Cecil Howard were killed, and
three others wounded. The second platoon of Battery A under 1st
Lt. Clinton L. Harris was given the mission of protecting a bridging
operation across the Mulde. This operation met with heavy resistance,
and in the ensuing battle, an M-16 was hit by bazooka fire, causing
the death of S/Sgt. Elmer Smolinsky, Pfc. Clyde Smith, and Cpl.
William Bradley. In other combat, and within days of the formal
German surrender in May, several 486th men were killed or wounded
in action against marauding, die-hard German foot soldiers who
were themselves killed or captured.
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