WWII Tank Gunner Describes Fierce Armored Combat Against Germans | Army | Walter Stitt Jr.

One of my friends described what it's like to go from being a loader to being a gunner in a tank. He and I had done the same thing. When you're loading, you don't know what you're shooting at, no idea what you're shooting at. All you do is just keep slamming shells in and putting the .30 caliber machine gun bullets in the machine gun. But then when you move from that seat over into the gunner's seat, you've got the crosshairs. And the first time you have to pull that trigger or step on the trigger in a Sherman, you knew you were going to kill somebody. And it wasn't easy. But after you've done that a few times and they shot back and I lost a tank, then it was a different story altogether. I'd been to a movie that day with a friend, my best friend, and we came home and his father, who was a doctor, had this look on his face that we wondered what was going on. And he said, well, Pearl Harbor had been attacked. And I said, we'll be in war. And at that point, we were still in high school. When we got out of school, we all got jobs right away. We were registered and waiting to be called, drafted. None of my friends had been drafted by January of the next year. And that's when I, being so smart, thought surely they would go in the next round. So I went down and volunteered, went down to the draft board, volunteered to go with the next bunch. And I did and they didn't. And so they all came later. Tell me about entering the military, going from a civilian to serving. I got a notice to report to the train station in Wheeling, West Virginia, was transported from there to Fort Hayes in Columbus, spent the first night in civilian clothes. And then the next day they took us over, gave us a box. We wrote our home address on it and put all of our clothes in the box and off they went. And there I stood with 100 or so naked men. And we started through the process of getting in the service. Had to give the usual urine sample. And then you got shots and then you had to get fitted for shoes and clothes. And so after that, I was really in the military. Well, when I went in the service, the job I'd gotten was driving a truck for Royal Crown. And so my father's advice to me was don't tell them you're a truck driver. Tell them you're a student. He said, maybe they'll send you to school. So I said, okay. So when I went in to be designated for where I was going to go, I said, I don't want anything with a steering wheel. And he said, okay. Because he had my record that I was a truck driver. So he gave me a ticket to where I was to go. I'll get out and got in the truck and they dropped me off. And the first person I ran into, I said, what kind of a unit is this? And he said, it's tanks. I said, oh boy. Well, I still think that officer that assigned me there is probably still laughing that he didn't give me something with steering wheels because the tanks had levers. So then at that point, I was assigned to headquarters company, second battalion, 80th armored regiment of the eighth armored division. Take me through a Sherman tank for someone who might not know what it is. And if you could also describe the various jobs, the number of crew. Well, there was the hull and then there was the turret. Down front on the left-hand side was the driver. And over here on the right-hand side, down there in the hull was, well, they called him the loader. He was bow gunner. He was usually an assistant driver, which he never could have done because he didn't have any of the driving stuff. But he was really the bow gunner because he had a 30 caliber machine gun. Then up in the turret on the left-hand side was the loader. And then on the right-hand side in the front was the gunner. And then standing behind the gunner was the tank commander. And those tanks all had five member crews. Well, it was crowded, that's for sure. There was a very minimum amount of space, but we were all young and agile and managed to do that. When we got into combat, of course, you couldn't get out of the tank at night. So we had a lot of blankets and you just run a blanket up against someplace on the side there and lean up against that. Again, as I said, we were very young and you finally get comfortable and asleep. But there wasn't much room to move around. I should say in the Sherman tank, all the ones that I was in, there was a hatch for the driver and one for the bow gunner. And on the turret, there was only one hatch over here on the right-hand side. And that's where the tank commander was standing up so he could look out and look for targets or whatever. And that was the only opening. So if you wanted to get out of the tank in a hurry, tank commander get out, the gunner get out, and the loader had to get underneath the recoil guard on the cannon. And then he was the third one out. Was there any other, was there like an emergency exit on this tank? There was, underneath the bow gunner, there was an exit. But one of my stories about that is that we decided one time that we were brought back to a rest area off the front line. And we drove back and forth a few times, made a good impression for the tank tracks, and we got out shovels and we dug down about 18 inches and put a tarp down there on the bottom and pulled the tank over. And we were going to have a place where we could get down here and play cards and smoke and have light and not have to worry about being shot at or hit with artillery or mortars. But when we went to open that escape hatch underneath the bow gunner's seat, it was frozen shut because it rusted out. It was old. We finally managed to get a hammer somewhere and busted it so we could get out. But that was the only other exit, was underneath the bow gunner's seat. And it was very close because it was just maybe 16, 18 inches from the bottom of that to the ground. Now, since we were young, we could slide out of there. I never did, but you could. How many rounds of ammunition could it carry for the main gun and for the machine guns? Oh boy, I should know the answer to that, but I really don't. The ammunition came in three categories. There was armor-piercing, high-explosive, and then we had one that they called a smoke shell, a phosphorus shell. But we only had, I think, one of those that I remember. But we had a lot of .30 caliber machine gun and those belts, you know, when you put them in and slam the lid, cock it once and it was ready to go. The bow gunner had ammunition down there that he could pass up into the turret. And that was one of the other side things that he did. In the tanks that I was in, in combat, the bow gunner never fired that .30 caliber because the .30 caliber for him was down low about belt level like this, but his periscope was up here. So now every fifth shell in the .30 caliber machine guns is a tracer. So you can see where you're shooting, but it's not terribly accurate to have you, you know, looking up here and shooting down here or so. And rarely did he have a target. Usually he was busy handing up ammunition to the loader. When did you get overseas? About what month and year? When I landed on D-Day, I went over on the Queen Elizabeth. On D-Day, we docked at the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. And so the next day then, I was down in Wells in Somerset County. And I was there in Wells for about three weeks. And then they took all of us replacements down to Portsmouth. And we waited there about another week. So when I got to France, it was about a month after D-Day. We had gone around Paris. And then that's when I got assigned into a tank as a loader. And now to emphasize that too, not only did the loader not have a hatch to get out, all I had to see outside the tank was this periscope that I could turn around this way and up and down. So my view of what was going on was very limited. Because usually I was busy. If we got into a battle, I had to be ready to grab whatever kind of ammunition the tank commander called for and that sort of thing. So the four people who were in this tank had been in combat for a while. They'd been through some stuff. How much, I don't know, because they never talked about it. Why they need a gunner or a loader, whatever happened to the other loader, I never found out. I never asked. They never said. It was just that that was my assignment. I was the loader and I would do the loader's job. And we'd gone off from there. We had a few short skirmishes. And then one night we drove all night, or most of the night. And the next morning, along with I think it was the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One and some others, we surrounded Mons, Belgium and captured a big flock of Germans there. Then after Mons, we went over to Hoi, Namur, Liege, and then headed for the Siegfried Line. The fighting at that point was relatively light, at least with the group that I was with. We'd gotten behind the Germans, which was an ideal that the Army had, because if we just left them there for the French underground, the French liberation people would take care of the Germans. And if we got back to the Siegfried Line before they did, they couldn't get in there to defend the homeland. What did I think about the Germans? The first German that I had any contact with was a young kid. He couldn't have been more than 14 or 15, just a few years younger than me. He was a prisoner and he was sitting on the front of a jeep. He had his crucifix and he was just sitting there shaking like this, just scared to death. And I wanted to tell him, you know, don't worry, we're not going to shoot you. We're going to feed you or put you in a prison camp, something like that. But I didn't speak a word of German. When we got into combat, it was a different story. They had had all these years of experience and we were still in some ways still learning how to do a war. But I think I disliked them intensely at that point. I was out to do my part of the job. And when I became a gunner, one of my friends described what it's like to go from being a loader to being a gunner in a tank. He and I had done the same thing. When you're loading, you don't know what you're shooting at, no idea what you're shooting at. All you do is just keep slamming shells in and putting the .30 caliber machine gun bullets in the machine gun, things like that. So you're not doing anything. But then when you move from that seat over into the gunner's seat, you've got the crosshairs. And the first time you had to pull that trigger or step on the trigger in a Sherman, you knew you were going to kill somebody. And it wasn't easy. But after you've done that a few times and they shot back and I lost the tank, then it was a different story altogether. Can you tell me about the first time you were wounded? Yes. In that first tank, when it was hit, the shell hit just about the level of the gunner standing here and the tank commander standing here. And it went right through the gunner's middle section and right on through the tank commander's middle section. So they were both instantly killed. And the gunner fell back and the tank commander fell this way. And here I am with no exit, no hatch. And I have to crawl underneath the recoil guard to get out. And they're blocking my exit. And I'm trying to get these two dead bodies apart, which I can't do. And so in peripheral vision, I saw daylight because the So I get out of the turret down in there, out of the tank, dove over the side. When I got out the tank, down on the ground, and I started to run to get away. Now, I should add in here that when these tanks were hit, there you are with no helmet, no gun, nothing, right smack dab in the front line. You're a target. And you don't want to be a standing target. So you're moving. So I jumped out and I started to run the driver and bow gunner up on the side of the bank there. And they yelled at me, what about the Lieutenant and Revy? And I shook my head. And then I started running in and my foot got on a root or something and tripped. And down I went, shoulder came out of the joint, put that back. But when I did, I noticed that my leg was bleeding. And so then there was a light tank there. And I ran over to that light tank and said, give me a bandage. And he said, come up and get it. His hand came out of the top of the bandage. And I climbed up the side of the tank. And there was a German shot at me with a submachine gun. And I turned real quick and spotted him. And I yelled at the tank commander in this light tank where he was. And he swung his gun around, bang, took care of him. And so then I put the bandage on my leg, looked for a place that I thought was better than just standing out there and he opened. And so I saw a half-dug foxhole when I ran for that. Then about that time, a medic came by and said, can you walk? And I said, yes. And he said, okay, go up through there, through that opening. And he said, there's a half-track back there. And I did that. And I got in the half-track. There were three of us sitting on this side and one really badly wounded infantryman over on this side. And they took us back to the field hospital. And they treated my leg, gave me the shot that they always do. And so your arm hurts worse than your leg does. Then went outside. They had a tent out there with cots and went out. And I stayed overnight there. And next day I came back, got a ride up to the company CP. And the first sergeant standing there said, what are you doing here? And I said, tank got lost, got hit. He said, anybody get hurt? And I said, yeah. I said, review, no lieutenant. And so, oh, Walter, he said, just take it easy. Just lie down, take it easy. Now this was September the 17th and 18th. And so I just laid down in the grass to take it easy. It was warm. And here comes the first sergeant again. He said, Walter, we got a chance to get another tank from ordnance. He said, I'm going to send you back. You'll be the tank commander. I'll get your driver and just bring the tank up here. And I said, OK. So went down in the jeep, got the tank. He drove. I stood up with his tank commander coming back, just the two of us. Got back up to the company headquarters, the CP. And the first sergeant came up and said, Walter, said, I hate to do this to you, but you know how badly they need tanks? And I said, yeah, I know. He said, OK, you're the gunner. And so I got the gunner and the driver and the bow gunner who had gotten out over there, Sergeant Jones, who had been ordered out before he was there. So the four of us who had been in that tank the day before, and then when it was shot and blown up, were right back the next day. Within 24 hours, we were back up on the front line again. So then when we got into the Battle of Bulge and we were fighting Colonel Piper's SS troopers, and they were under orders not to take prisoners because they couldn't feed them, they couldn't take care of them, it slowed them down. And so word came down that they were not taking prisoners. And so then it was really a fight, you know, it was them or us. So then my tank and task force, lovely, switched around and started around to relieve the Band of Brothers. And I was in the fifth tank. My tank commander was low level as far as rank was concerned. And so anyway, as we turned the corner and started down this road downhill, it was a T-intersection, and here's this German column going by. And so the tank commander, who was a lieutenant, Lieutenant Hope, ordered a gun, a high explosive shell in the cannon, and told the driver to speed up downhill. So the driver went downhill as fast as he could, turned the corner, and the last thing in this German column was a tank or a truck pulling an anti-tank gun. And with those German 88s, they could shoot at airplanes, they could shoot for artillery. Well, it took time for their crew to get out of that truck, back around, get the ammunition out of the truck, put it in the gun. And by that time, it was too late, because our first tank came around the corner, hit the gun and the people who were there, and then put another one into the truck. And that started the truck blowing up. It was like the 4th of July. And so we had to stop and wait. And we waited, and then they said, after, oh, it was like at least a half an hour, maybe 45 minutes or so, they said, let's try going around. So the first tank went up close to the truck and down in the ditch and up and away it went. Now, in the tank, you had two options as far as turning a turret. One, you could do it by hand, which was fairly fast. And the other one, you could flip this little switch and do it electronically, just switch a handle and the thing would go. Now, that was a little slower, but it worked. And so when we were going down the road, I had the electronic turned on. And when we stopped and waited, it was noisy. It was really noisy, so I shut it off. And then when we started and went down in the ditch to go around that truck, I forgot that I had it shut off. And that just, the gun was loose, so the gun came around stuck in the bank. So then we had to back up, get up on the road, and then we had to go out and look and make sure there was no dirt in the gun, in the barrel. And we did that. And then we took off to catch up to this German column. And it was well-read to catch up with our other four tanks. And when we got down into the village, the first four tanks had gone under a railroad underpass. And on the other side, when the Germans decided they'd had time to get set up, they were good fighters, like they'd been fighting for years. And so when they said, well, there's four tanks, that must have been all there was, they picked them all off and killed Lieutenant Hope. And this was his first day in combat, which was sad. So my tank then, we stopped. We didn't go under the underpass. We just joined the next four or five tanks that came along and got in their platoon. And that's when they decided, well, we would go south and meet General Patton's troops coming up the other way to get to Bastogne. So we started down, and we'd take like a different village every day. And so the last day that I was in combat, we pulled into this village of Friture, probably Frature or something like that. French, I don't know. But anyway, my tank again was the fifth tank in. And we came out of the woods, down the road, out of the woods, across this field. And the tank commander was listening on the radio to what was going on in town with the tanks ahead of us in our platoon. And he ordered me to put a shell in the upper story of that Belgian house, which I did. And then he told the driver to pull up right next to the house by this window, and he threw a hand grenade in the second story. Well, that chased the German out of the front, and we shot him. And we pulled away from the house, crossed the road, up over a little stone fence, and out in the field. And then we were getting fire. The infantry was getting smaller fire from another house. So he ordered me to put the gun around this way, and I did. And about that time, a German stood up with a Panzerfaust, a bazooka, and fired and missed our tank. But here were these infantrymen standing there, and a bunch of them got stuff in their legs. One guy had a piece of meat out of his nose, and bled like a stuffed pig. But anyway, then he, of course, called for a gun left, and I brought the gun around. And I'm looking through the periscope like this, and I could see the guy over here, but I couldn't get the X's over to him. And he fired that second shot, which hit, and I was leaning way forward to do the gunnery. And the shell hit right behind my head, and all the momentum went back this way, and it killed the tank commander instantly. He slammed his fist into my back, and it fell on me, and then slumped down into the tank. And one of my stories that I've told so many times, is I can still hear those infantrymen out there, howling, there he is, there he is, there he is, but they didn't shoot him. And, but I can relate to that, because I know how hard it was to shoot somebody, and know you're going to kill them. And all, they all had guns, loaded guns, but none of them shot at him. So anyway, with the tank commander gone, the driver was out, the gunner, the loader was out. And so I climbed out, and my loader came out behind me, and we jumped down, and we were still getting some small arm fire from these different houses down the road, down the way. And I screamed at these infantrymen, I said, get in the house. So we ran back in the house, and then I screamed at them again, to get away from the windows. And I've laughed about ever since, I said, here I was a corporal, and that's the only time I ever got to pull my rank on anybody, was to yell at those infantrymen, to get them in the house, and out of the, away from the window. And we passed each other up, and once we were done putting bandages on each other, I, my head felt cold, and I reached up like this, and came back, had blood. And so I asked the kid standing next to me, I said, what's the story with my head? No, I said, it doesn't look bad. And so I said, okay, but it's bleeding, so I probably ought to go to the medics. And so the one kid there, oh, his leg was bleeding bad. We, of course, bandaged him up. And so I, and we had this field to walk across, so I said, get on my back. So I carried him across the field, onto the road, up in the woods, wherever he couldn't get shot at. And we were standing there, and a jeep came up, and had a major in there who had been shot. And they stopped, picked us up, took us to the aid station, and then took off again. And we went in the aid station. The kid with the bleeding leg sat down in a chair, and I sat on the floor beside him. That first stop, that is a triage center, and the doctor decides if he can save anybody, what he can do for immediate care, that sort of thing. And about that time, the door opened, a guy yelled, doc, said, I got an ambulance driver, said, doc, got room for one more. And the doctor looked over at me and said, you go with him. And I said, sir, I said, he's bleeding real bad. He said, I said, you go with him. Okay, so I go out and get in the ambulance. They take me back to the field hospital. And they ran me in, sat down, and started pulling pieces of steel out of my head, and dropped them in a tin, probably a sputum tray. And I asked if I could have one, and the doctor said, sure. He gave it to me, and I stuck it in my pocket. And they finished up on pulling the pieces out of my head, and put medication of some kind on there. I said, okay. He said, go over to the other room. He said, there's cots over there. Just pick out a cot, lay down, take it easy. So that's what I did. And there were about, oh, I suppose four or five of us in that room, and the cots wounded, but still ambulatory. And they needed men so bad that, you know, if you were still ambulatory, you were going to get right back up again. And so we're all in there lying down, taking it easy, and thinking, oh boy, at least we get to stretch out in a nice place where it's warm, and not being shot at. And about that time, the sergeant came in and said, you know, out in the truck. So we go out and get in the truck, and he took us back up to our company. And I stayed that night. And then the next night, I was up all night with diarrhea. And the next morning, the company commander, or the first sergeant came up, said, Walter. He said, I'm going to send you up this time as a tank commander. And I said, I don't want to be a tank commander. And he said, well, you'll be a sergeant right away. And I said, I've had five tank commanders. I said, I want to be the gunner. He said, well, okay. And so then he said, anyway, breakfast is ready. And when I set up, I passed out. Dehydrated, I'm sure. And so anyway, then he stood there and looked at me and said, well, get up. And I said, okay, well, my knees, my legs were wobbly when I tried to get up. So he called the medics, and they hauled me across the street to a Belgian house. And dear elderly lady in there, I could have stayed there forever. She came upstairs with a warm brick off the stove and stuck it down by my feet. And there were no boulders. It was so cold and deep snow. Oh my goodness, that felt wonderful. But then the ambulance came, and they took me back to Liège. And there, somebody made the diagnosis that I'd had enough. And so they sent me on to Paris, and on back to the coast in a ship, and went back to England, and then spent the rest of my time over there with the 95th Bomb Group. What are you most proud of when you think about your military service? Oh golly, I never think about it from that angle. Well, proud, I don't know. I think I did what I was called to do. I guess I could be proud of that as a tank gunner. I performed what I was supposed to do.