Hellcat News, (Tennessee.), Vol. 1, No. 7, Ed. 1, October 29, 1943 Page: 3 of 4
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Radio Crew Drives
Red Paratroopers
From Airplane Base
Add unusual jobs in the Blue
Armored Division for Sgt William
Maloney, T/4 Melvin Hainer, T/5
Elwood Hughes, T/5 Daniel Kap-
lan, Pfc Joseph Dunning, and Pfc
George Hower, who man a Signal
Co radio half-track.
Sgt Maloney and his crew travel
to many unexpected places for all
kinds of assignments, but most
often they're sent out to work with
one of the Division's observation
planes.
Go to Base
Wbp" +u' happens, they go to a
\e plane's tem-
e they open up
ent and estab-
te Division C.P.
the C.P. are
jservation pilot,
pped from the
5ion back to the
—_ .. regular work is
enough to keep them busy, but
now and then they find themselves
with other tasks to perform. The
plane is naturally considered a
pretty good prize by the Red
Forces, who sometimes locate the
plane's temporary base and at-
tempt to capture it, along with the
radio half-track.
Red Troops Attack
The most dangerous of these at-
tempts, say Sgt Maloney and his
men, occurred when they found
themselves under attack by Red
paratroops. The crew leaped into
the half-track and "fired" their
two machine guns, driving off
their attackers.
Gen. Devers Awarded
A report from Europe received
by International News Service re-
veals that Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Dev-
ers, Commander in Chief of U. S.
forces in the European theatre of
operations and former Chief of Ar-
mored Command, was awarded
the Distinguished Service Medal.
Male
Call
By
Milton
Caniff,
Creator of
Terry and
the Pirates
It Was
Rank
Set American, All
Old Speed Marks
For Leaving Tank
Four tank crewmen of the Hell-
cat Division broke all American
and European records for tank
evacuation one Monday afternoon,
when the M-5 light tank in which
they were riding suddenly burst
into flames on Route 10, south of
Payne's Store.
The tank was standing by the
side of the road, motor idling,
when Staff Sgt Walter D. Angelo
of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, picked
up his radio transmitter- micro-
phone and ordered "move out."
Spark Goes Off
At that moment a spark in
the engine compartment went into
action. A sheet of flame spurted
through into the fighting compart-
ment and shot up through the tur-
ret some six feet in the air.
Sgt Angelo dropped the micro-
phone like a hot potato. With the
hair already singed off his wrist,
he made one of those split-second
decisions for which Armoraiders
are famous. He left the tank. He
is prepared to swear that he
reached the top of the turret be-
fore the flames did—only to find
that his three crewmen had broken
even his record. They were al-
ready manning the fire extinguish-
ers as he dropped down to the
road.
Crew Stands By
When the six fire extinguishers
had been emptied in a vain at-
tempt to check the fire, there was
nothing further to do but stand by
and watch their tank burn. The
engine was completely burned out.
The rubber on the track and bogie
wheels on the left side of the tank
burned to a crisp, the fighting
compartment was a shambles, and
the radio a total loss.
Oddly enough, the 37-mm gun
and the .30-caliber turret machine
gun were still in working condi-
tion when the fire had died.
News from the Units . . .
COL. BOON'S MEN
With the maneuvers coming to a
close, the men in the 2nd Bn have
won, by popular approval, the title
of "Regimental Death Dodgers."
Everyone has to agree that they
could give stiff competition to Hol-
lywood stunt men. Just to clinch
their new title, they rushed a new
tale this week from D Co. It
seems a tank turned over in an icy
stream. The men inside stood for
four hours with their feet on the
hatches and their heads near the
floor with freezing, black water up
to their ears! Wow! Pass the hot
toddies, Mirandy!
Problems the first part of every
week are not enough for the boys
in 1st Bn. According to Lucille
La Seur, Nashville's dirt-dishing
Queen, there is a lot of 1st Bn
maneuvering going on at the
Southern Turf. We regret the re-
porter was unable to get any state-
ments from Siren La Seur. She
threw a bump in his direction and
dashed away in a cloud of "Amor
Paree" for some "night problems"
when she saw Cpl Albough enter.
Hats off to Sgt Merkel and Cpl
Kobylecki of Major Wills' Fuel
and Lub section. Single-handed,
they supplied the entire Regt with
fuel.
COL. WOOD'S BN
Co B is proud to announce that
one of their former men, T/4 Mich-
ael A. Stefanoc, who recently
joined the Army Air Corps and
is now taking the C.T.D. Course at
Western College, Bowling Green,
Kentucky, was elected "Soldier of
the Week." This honor was given
for being outstanding in appear-
ance, studies, and, as B Co says,
"Being Always on the Ball."
Capt. Rastetter's Company is
about to throw a "welcome home"
affair for T/4 Charles H. Dicker-
son, lately of Yale and points East
—ASTP. "School was fine," he said,
"but trying to savvy the Jap lan-
guage was too much." We cannot
figure out how the wandering
scholar could prefer "somewhere
in Tennessee" to Yale's green
campus, but then it must have
been rather dull. If it weren't for
his 250 pounds of avoirdupois, you
might mistake him for a "jibbering
Jap" as he occasionally bursts
forth with his Jap lingo.
Sentry, Cpl of Guard
Call OD to Seize "Foe"
One private in Col. Carter's Reg-
iment stirred up considerable com-
motion on a recent midnight when
he began seeing things while on
sentry duty.
Our hero had been pacing up
and down in the dark for some
time when he spied a vague form
advancing menacingly. "Halt!" he
shouted, but the threatening shape
kept coming.
Twice more he shouted "Halt!"
When there was still no answer,
he began hollering for the cor-
poral of the guard.
The corporal came up, took a
cautious look at the approaching
enemy, and then went to get the
O.D., Lt. Charles Woodward.
A patrol was hastily formed and
brought up and soon the prowler
was completely surrounded.
It was a cow.
LIFE SAVERS
Don't invite enemy fire by poking your
head out of concealment and breaking
the natural outline. Exposed metal
parts and careless movements will also
give away your position.
Strip for action and carry only essen-
tials when going on a-scouting mission.
Unnecessary equipment will weigh you
down and reduce your soeed.
Felix AWOL-Found
In Red Army Camp,
Happy—the Dog
The dog may be man's best
friend, but one pooch attached to
a company in Col. Evans' Blue
Armored Infantry Regiment figu-
ratively bit the hands that fed it a
few days ago and went A.W.O.L.
in an enemy camp, while his
friends grieved over his absence.
Felix is small and sort of brown
and white in color. Some of his
soldier friends say he is a terror,
while others, disgusted over his
treachery, question whether he has
any breeding at all.
Felix on Maneuvers
Felix decided to accompany Lt.
Robert Carrol on maneuvers. Dur-
ing the first few weeks he stuck
to the men in the company like
glue. When a move was made,
Felix simply jumped onto the near-
est half-track and traveled along.
Everyone thought he was happy.
But one day Felix apparently de-
cided he was leading a dog's life
and determined to go over the hill.
His Hellcat friends combed the
surrounding woods, but there was
no sign of their mascot.
Reds Capture G I's
Time marched on and one day
the Red Forces captured four G I's
from the hound's old company.
The captives, Lt. Milton Wolf,
S/Sgt James Davis, Sgt Victor
Carter and Pvt James MacDonald,
were taken to a Red C P. There
they were slightly astounded to see
their erstwhile pet frolicking about,
looking at least as happy as he had
seemed with the Blue Infantry.
Now back in the Armoraiders'
camp, Felix appeared entirely un-
moved by the sadness he had
caused. He would have been put
in the doghouse, if such a thing
had been brought along.
Save for Your Future
Sign Up for War Bonds!
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Copyright 1943 by Milton Ciniff, distributed by damp Newspaper Service
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United States. Army. Armored Division, 12th. Hellcat News, (Tennessee.), Vol. 1, No. 7, Ed. 1, October 29, 1943, newspaper, October 29, 1943; Tennessee. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth410560/m1/3/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum.