the Lobo Tank Busters; Paulding County
The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
This is the first part of September and the war is going good for the allies. The Germans are falling back on all fronts. Col. Bainbridge drove in last night and brought us a new problem. General Patton called him and wants us to eliminate some 88mm guns that are holding up his columns. There is a place east of Le Mans called the Mowhatten Depression, actually it is a valley about 6 miles long and 4 miles wide. But, the hillsides are loading with 88mm cannons and they are controlling both highways that are on the valley floor. They are very well dug in and protected from ground fire, but maybe we can get them with our rockets.
We found the place because our tanks and half-tracks were sitting at the highway at the opening of the highway, if they had entered the valley, they would have been like sitting ducks. We had two planes on each side of the valley, but our targets on this first pass were the anti-aircraft units. We wanted to get them out of the way first, so we used our machine guns all we could and we saved our rockets for the big guns.
The anti-aircraft guns were more important than the big guns because they were more important to us. We had two planes on each side and we flew down along the high ground and shot up everything we saw. When we reached the end of the valley, we made a big, sweeping curve and we turned going the other way on the other side. The other planes did the same thing. We done a pretty good job of eliminating the anti-aircraft fixtures.
We cut our speed down a little and we were flying right close to the ground over the valley floor, and right into cannon positions on the hillsides. I lined up my sights on an 88mm outfit and touched off a rocket. Then, reached for some sky. When I passed over the hill, I could see parts of the cannon flying in all directions. I made a big turn and came in low and found a target on the other side of the valley. I touched off two rockets, as there were some other equipment besides the cannon there. The other pilots done about the same thing, and in just a few minutes, we eliminated the problem that was holding up General Patton’s armored force.
As we left the valley, we flew over Patton’s tanks and we did a barrel-roll to show them the way was clear to advance. We flew on back to our Lopshire Airbase at Brighton here in England for the last time.
See ya!
Paulding County
By: Stan Jordan
This following information was given to me by Kenny Hahn.
PAULDING COUNTY was formed from old Indian Territory, April 1, 1820. It was named from John PAULDING, a native of Peekskill, NY, and one of the three militia men who captured Major ANDRE in the war of the Revolution; he died in 1818. The surface is level and the county covered by the Black Swamp. This county is all within the Black Swamp tract and is almost everywhere to the eye a dead level. The country roads having no obstacles to surmount are laid out through the woods with which the county is mostly covered, straight as an arrow, and the traveller over them can see immense distances on almost any road over which he may be passing. This with the wilderness aspect of the country strikes one with peculiar emotions.
As an illustration of the general water-like flatness of the Black Swamp region, one on a clear night can stand near the depot in Defiance and see the head-light of the locomotive just after it emerges from the curve and is coming East and the west end of the straight line which is the water tank, two and-a-half miles west of Antwerp and twenty-three miles away. Other places in the country have longer stretches of railroad line; but inequalities of grade prevent such a long vision.
The county has no basins; every acre is drainable. There is no boggy or swampy land. Where drained it is solid and every acre can be drained and cultivated. They are beginning to tile extensively and many tile factories are scattered over the county; the tiles varying from two-and-a-half to ten inches.
The county is being ditched extensively under the State statues. An engineer appointed by the County Commissioners lays out the ditches and dictates the dimensions. They vary from to three to six feet deep and from seven to even sometimes twenty feet in width, and from size to nine feet width at bottom. These ditches are in the swales or the lowest places, often not discernible to the eye and which the engineer’s level alone can’t detect. Thousands of acres are now drained and in time the entire county will be so, when it will be one of the most level fertile tracts anywhere, producing enormous crops, especially grass.
Two great streams run through the county, the Maumee and Auglaize, which unite at Defiance and form what is termed on ancient maps “The Miami of the Lakes.” The Maumee runs very crooked, northeast through the northwest corner townships, Carryall and Crane.
In the narrow strip north of the Maumee, south of the Defiance County line, the streams empty into the Maumee. In this tract are Fountain Wells or Natural Springs, which by piping rise two or three feet above the surface. South of the river are no fountains anywhere.
South of the Maumee all the streams run into the Auglaize. The first of these is “Six-Mile Creek,” which runs the entire width of the county and is so-called because it empties into the Auglaize six miles from its mouth. On it is the “Six Miles Reservoir,” containing four and one-third square miles for the Maumee and Wabash canal, but it is now abandoned. Six Mile runs from one to three miles from the Maumee and parallel to it. The next considerable stream is “Crooked Creek,” called by the Indians Flat Rock, because the bed is a flat limestone for nearly a mile from its mouth. The streams show the county to be a plain, sloping towards the northeast, the highest parts being in the southwest.
Some Action Around the Train Site, Pt. 2
By: Stan Jordan
This information was given to me by Judy Jordan Copsey. It is a court document from 1945, about an atrocity on the prisoners’ war train.
For the War Crimes Office
Judge Advocate General’s Department—War Department
United States of America
* In the matter of the killing of Pvt. Cyril K. DeVay
*Perpetuation of Testimony of Bramwell G. Phillips, Sergeant, 12150041.
Taken at: Headquarters, Fort Benning, Georgia.
Date: 23, July 1945
In the Presence of: John B. Meriwether, Captain, CMP, 0-162729, Chief, Intelligence Branch, Security and Intelligence Division.
Questions by: Captain John B. Meriwether
Q. State your name, rank, serial number, and permanent home address.
A. Bramwell G. Phillips, Sergeant, 12150041, 126 South Main Street, South Norwalk, Conn.
Q. Have you recently been returned to the United States from overseas?
A. Yes Sir. I returned to this country on April 9th, 1945.
Q. Were you a prisoner of war?
A. Yes
Q. At what placed were you held and state the approximate dates?
A. I was taken prisoner on June 11th, 1944 in the vicinity of Rauville in Normandy, France. They took us to a little town called Brickerback, where we stayed about four days. From there we were taken to a monastery, eight miles from St. Lo, which was called Starvation Hill. We were held here for about ten days. We went from there to Rennes, where we spent about nine days. On July 5, 1944, we were put in box cars and arrived at Chalone on the 28th. From there, we went to Limberg, Germany, and spent approximately twelve days. From Limberg, we went to prisoner of war camp Stalag 3-C at Krustrin, Germany. We arrived there on 12th of September and were liberated on January 31st, 1945 by the Russians.
Q. Did you witness or have you been told of any atrocities or mistreatment of American citizens at any time?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you familiar with the circumstances of an American soldier who was killed by a German when the American prisoners were enroute from the prisoner of war camp at Rennes, France, to Limberg, Germany?
A. Yes, Sir.
Q. State what you know of your own knowledge about this incident.
A. Nothing, Sir.
Q. State what was told you and who told you.
A. I was told about this incident by Pvt. Williams R. Tumlin (ASN 14139805), 1st Academic Company, The Parachute School, Ft. Benning, who witnessed the incident. I met Pvt. Tumlin in September and it had occurred prior to the time that I ran into him. We were at Stalag 12-A at Limberg, Germany, together when he related the incident to me. It seems that while we were being moved in box cars from the prisoner of war camp at Rennes, France, to Limberg, American Planes strafed the train, causing the prisoners to leave the cars and scatter into the bushes at the side of the road. This particular prisoner, Pvt. Cyril K. DeVay, moved out into the bushes a little further than the other prisoners. The German guards brought him back, and a German Major ordered one of the German privates to shoot him. This private refused to do so, and the Major ordered another German to shoot DeVay and the other German private both. DeVay saw what was happening, so he made an attempt to grab the German’s gun and while struggling with him, another German gave him a butt stroke. They shot DeVay immediately afterwards.
