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The Commander:
Lt. Colonel
Wm. B. Lovelady |
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The
Exploits of
Task Force Lovelady
2nd Bn. (Reinfored)
33rd Armored Regiment
3rd Armored Division
U. S. Army
in the
War Against Germany
1944 - 1945
By A. Eaton Roberts
Published By
Atlas Printing
Birmingham, Alabama
1949 |
The Author:
Captain
A. Eaton Roberts, M.D. |
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Note: A Medical Corps doctor
and the Battalion Surgeon, Capt. Roberts administered to the
sick and wounded of the Task Force throughout the five European
campaigns. |
THE BOOK'S DEDICATION
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This brief tribute can only be dedicated to those
who will never wear five bronze stars on their European Theater
of Operations ribbon, indicating that they had fought in five
major campaigns; for they are dead or crippled. It was their
blood which traced a sanguine trail from the beaches of Normandy
to the banks of the River Mulde. Their shattered bodies make
the friendly soil of France and Belgium priceless to the few
who remain alive and unmaimed to wear their decorations in memory
of these, the fallen comrades of Task Force Lovelady. |
PREFACE
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The newest reinforcement soldier is proud, if
not a trifle terrified, to be assigned to the Third Armored Division.
Those who have been with it since its inception at Camp Beauregard
in April of 1941 are scarce indeed. Theirs is a fathomless pride
no less than love, born of watching and helping the division
grow from infancy in Louisiana to puberty on the hot sands of
the Western deserts; to adolescence among the fertile green hills
of Virginia and Pennsylvania; to young manhood on the Salisbury
Plains of England; to strong, courageous maturity in Hitler's
Festung Europe. It is of this last phase of metamorphosis
that the present account is written.
Any division is great or mediocre depending upon the calibre
of its fighting elements. We believe that Task Force Lovelady
is the finest combat unit in the division. We do not offend you
in Task Forces Hogan, King, Richardson, Kane, and all the rest,
because we realize that you think yours, too, is the greatest
and has done the most towards attaining victory in Europe. That
is as it should be and we are glad. Every soldier and every officer,
believing that he is in the best outfit in the American army,
has made the Third Armored a truly great division.
Nor do we wish to belittle the many infantry divisions who have
been attached to us. Their brilliant work has often gone unnoticed
by the more glamorous spectacle of tanks. We willingly acknowledge
their tireless efforts.
This just happens to be a story about the tanks of Task Force
Lovelady. It is written for the men who fought in them for ten
months, for the men who were wounded, and the men who died in
them.
A. Eaton Roberts
118 Monument Avenue
Malvern, Pennsylvania |
ADDENDA
[from last page of book]
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Task Force Lovelady wishes to acknowledge the
complete cooperation, the sacrifice, the unswerving devotion
to duty, and the superb combat behavior of the many units from
within and from without the Third Armored Division, who were
attached to it for greater or lesser periods of time throughout
the five great campaigns in Europe.
Although the nucleus of the task force was the 2nd Battalion,
33rd Armored Regiment, it is fully appreciated that oftimes this
was only the nucleus, and but for its attached units of infantry,
especially the 3rd Armored's 36th Regiment, Tank Destroyers,
engineers, reconnaissance forces, artillery and anti-aircraft
battalions, and other special groups, it could never have been
an extraordinary fighting team.
We like to think that the spirit of the Task Force was the 2nd
Battalion, its Commander, William B. Lovelady, its other officers,
and the fine group of men who loved it, worked and fought for
it, cheered for it and died for it; that the units who became
attached to it brought their own and often equally high esprit
with them, adding to it by absorption of the qualities which
made Task Force Lovelady extraordinary.
May each of these units know that we are most grateful. May they
be as proud to have been with us as Task Force Lovelady is to
have had such elite attachments with them. |
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