TheTroubleshooters.com Home                   Catalog                   World War 2                   World War 1                  Links

Patton's Troubleshooters Book                        Patton's Troubleshooters DVD

"Same area.  Artillery batteries located near us, fire at enemy pockets all night and day, send up flares.  7:00am-Sgt. Mrozek and Sgt. Olson took breakfast to Division H.Q..  10:00am-overlays received on S-2 situation.  2:00pm-map received(1/50,000)-18 sections-one per company, staff and Recon..  S-2 Periodic Report out to companies.  3:20pm-message #XX-11th Armored Division(British), attacked at 1266 for Hill 186 and 182, and high ground north from 182 to Hill 231.  Objective between (24 & 28 vertical)and(21 & 254 horizontal).  6:00pm-enemy resisting all advances.  Midnight-weather cloudy, rain spasmodic, no mail."

At "A" Co., the anonymous keeper of the Company Journal wrote: 

"Company rode through Juvigny sur Orne for attack with 317th Combat Team at 5:30 P.M.  Lt. Stevens was wounded during the attack and later died in the hospital.  S/Sgt. Larkins took command of his tank, Larkins' vehicle  being bogged down in mud at the time.  It was foggy and raining during the night and visibility was extremely poor so tanks remained in the field all night long."

Destroyed German Self-Propelled “SP” Gun

The Hendricks Diary  of "B" Company which had been so badly mauled the day before, contained a much more light-hearted entry for the nineteenth: 

"St.  Gemmes - We are awake early.  'C' rations are on the menu today.  All the men are talking about the battle we were in yesterday.  Despite our losses, we are in good spirits.  We received word to the effect to be on guard for a counter-attack.  We deployed in a defensive position.  We received our first quota of Army PX Rations.  Our maintenance men are busy giving their usual checks.  Some of them went for a dip in a nearby creek.  We took it easy for the remainder of the day."

Retired Col. "Bull" Miller stated: 

"After the 18th, the fight for Argentan continued and later the rest of the battalion and the division concluded it by meeting the British at the little village of Falaise.  Immediately after the battle, we had drawn into our shell, and had time to discuss on the past, we realized it was necessary for the 702nd Tank Battalion to take time to train with the infantry or we'd never be a success.  We did train before we left the area, successfully.  The officers and enlisted men of the four echelons of battalions and regiments realized that they had much to learn about the use of tanks and that it should be left to the Tank Commanding Officer to advise the Infantry Commanding Officer as to how they should be deployed and get along."

At Argentan, huge amounts of Nazi equipment and supplies were destroyed and a like amount captured.  The 80th Infantry Division captured a kraut ammo dump, containing 27,000 tons of ammunition that the Wehrmacht would never use against the Allies. 

A large map depot was also captured that contained maps from each theater of operations, including some used for coordination of air and submarines in the Atlantic Ocean, along with a complete annotated aerial photo coverage of Great Britain.