At the company level it is very much like a filling station / tow truck work.....… Minor repairs that can be done with simple hand tools....fix tires... points & plugs....lube & oil......retrieve vehicles that are repairable....not repairable vehicles were abandoned......
In combat, it was mainly fixing tires.......... The M-10's (Tank Destroyers) had twin Jimmy diesels which occasionally had to be synchronized which was done by a diesel trained mechanic.......Vehicle Maintenance had a half track and a tank retriever… There were 3 or 4 men in Company Vehicle Maintenance..… Anything not driveable would be left for Battalion Vehicle Maintenance..… And if they didn't have parts they left it behind for Army Maintenance to retrieve.…
When I was made 3rd platoon jeep driver, I was either at the Company C command post (CP) or with the platoon itself.
The company was organized........
Headquarters Platoon….. C P......cooks..... vehicle maintenance... radio repair
Reconnaissance Platoon...They had a couple 'M-8's and jeeps...
Three platoons of gun crews........ 4 M-10's in each platoon........There is detailed information on the internet about the M-10 Tank Destroyer. Note.... we always referred to the M-10's as Guns - not Tanks.....
.
Vicar Charley was the radio code name.... Vicar for the 893rd Battalion.....Charley for "C" company...... then the next number would be the platoon and the last number the gun....
The platoon leader was platoon # plus Zero..... The jeep driver was "chariot"…. So when I was driving a jeep I was.... Vicar Charley Three Zero Chariot..........
On the gun crew it was....... Vicar Charley Three Two (3rd platoon, 2nd gun)....…
One time the only jeep available was at Battalion and was waiting for a new muffler but since it was immediately needed, I got a jeep without a muffler.....That was bad because the loud noise would give away position or alert any German observers would/could call in artillery or mortar fire........They had good maps so they could figure the correct range to any road intersection so we always went thru road junctions fast..... a number of jeeps were wrecked taking corners too fast.......Anyway, we happened upon 3 or 4 German civilian cars that were in apparent good condition but they had no gas and also no batteries so they could not be used.....We turned the jeep on its side and measured the exhaust pipe, then started turning the German cars on their sides till we found a muffler that we could put on the jeep.....It was a good fit, so we put it on the jeep and put the jeep and the cars back on their wheels........
On about the 2nd day, the platoon leader, who I was driving, (he had a map...I hardly ever saw a map) directed me down a road that would be safe but when we drove down the road, it turned out to be an abandoned farm lane overgrown with briars...... The briars tore out the right front brake line so when we got to the end of this road, I had no brakes....I made the turn OK and used the parking brake..... When I got back to the C P, I checked and no brake line parts were available so I took a pair of pliers..... crimped the brake line at the right front wheel..... put in brake fluid and had a jeep with 3 wheel brakes for a few days.... finally got in a new brake line and later made a proper repair.......…
The windshield and top for all jeeps in the Battalion were in the supply truck so that the jeeps were completely open..... It did have a wire hook on the front bumper to protect against wires strung across the roads and also had a basket welded on the rear that would hold 2 jerry cans and a bedroll ..........
When the Germans lost the Battle of the Bulge, we advanced on the Rhine River with the entire company advancing about 8 or 10 miles a day.....I rode in the vehicle maintenance half track.......When the Remagen Bridge was captured.... on the 2nd day the entire Battalion formed up and drove to Remagen at high speed 20 to 27 mph........arriving the 2nd afternoon.....We waited overnight on the bridge approach and crossed early the 3rd morning....Had incoming shells all night but no shells or planes during our crossing the 3rd morning....We moved into the town of Oncle just across the Rhine and on the 3rd afternoon, we adjusted all the tracks on the guns then the guns moved up..........C Co vehicle maintenance stayed in Oncle for just over a week till 2 or 3 days after the bridge finally fell........We fired at the German planes with the 50 cal. on the half track.....…
The capture of the bridge really caught the Germans off guard as their plan was to blow all the bridges and set up their defense at the river…… Going was slow at first but in a few days the German defense collapsed and they were retreating. Many were surrounded in the Ruhr Pocket and were mostly home guard…...This was a rural area and were were then moving in small units… usually a platoon of infantry and 2 Shermans/ 2 Tank Destroyers….. We were on ‘farm to market’ roads and many of the roads were horse and wagon…. country roads…..
.The Germans were moving so we didn't know where they were....and WE were moving so we didn't know where WE were....... So there were times I didn’t know who owned the roads I was driving on...... And the driver that I replaced had run over a land mine.......and I got my purple heart at least a mile behind that point...…I would take hot food to the guns for lunch each day and the way I would find them would be to “follow the wire”……. Meaning the infantry would put out a wire for a field telephone and I would pick up the wire at the CP and follow it to the guns….. sometime they would run out of wire and continue on…… so that may help you understand my comment that nobody knew where anybody was at…… Small enemy units would be cut off and trying to get back to their German lines or just trying to hide so it was not a safe occupation.
A couple weeks before the Germans surrendered I was put on a gun crew and I felt better to be in an M-10 with some armor around me instead of an open jeep.…
Let’s go back and remember that before the war, it was ‘anti-tank’ with 37mm or 57mm towed mount guns…… Then when the Tank Destroyer Battalions were formed, they put 75 mm howitzers on half tracks which was used in Africa….. The M-10’s came in time for Europe and were classified as ‘Self Propelled Artillery… not tanks… The M10’s could be used as artillery (indirect fire), as anti-tank with the 3 inch Navy rifle that was a much better gun than the 75…… The 893rd did have some artillery missions in France….. but they were also used with tanks and as tanks, especially in the Ruhr…...
The M10 had an open turret but had a steel plate across the front quarter or a third of the turret.....A 30 cal machine gun tripod was welded on this plate so that we had a forward firing machine gun when standing in the turret.... There was a 50 cal machine gun on a post mount but you had to be up on top to fire the 50........We also had a bow machine gun fired by the assistant driver and a co-axial machine gun fired by the gunner moving it with a power turret.
The M-10's had a manual crank turret and the one 30 cal. MG on the front of the turret ....
We also kept a sub machine gun on the top of the turret....
One advantage of the open top turret was that the gunner, the loader, and the gun commander could all look around........ And I think that gave us a little extra room.....We did have a tarp but never used it........…
Each M-10 was supposed to have a 5 man crew but in the Ruhr Pocket there were 3 or 4 men on each gun.... The 5th man was not necessary and we could operate OK with a 3 man crew.....It was better with a 4th man for someone to always be on watch at night.…
The Germans surrendered after another few weeks. Company C was then stationed in Gottstrue until Japan surrendered and we were finally sent home in December 1945.
Stateside training of Charlie Company, 893rd TD Battalion prior to WWII
Check my 2015 post for pics of the M10 Tank Destroyer
