Its been a long search for 67th AR

Hello All, What a great forum & thanks for having me!

I began searching for info on my Father-in-Laws brother about a year ago... As a Vet myself, I was fairly interested finding information in the beginning but now its a small obsession I've just found this forum and am going to read through it in full tomorrow, but I'm on a time crunch for a Christmas Present (info Ive gathered)...I've been able to discover the following: In the beginning I only knew his birth name and what state he enlisted,

Houston, Samuel L, CPL - 2nd Armored Division, 67 AR - Enlisted Ft. Ogelthorpe, GA 8OCT1943
#3488623
DOB: 19OCT1924
DOD: 3JAN1945
Buried: American War Cemetery Ardennes, Purple Heart w/ Oak Leaves

After tracking down the above I was able to get some info from his brother who recalled a letter from his Tank Commander 1st Robert E Lee..I searched for Lee and that led me to a book by Donald E. Houston "Hell On Wheels".. On page 279 it mentions 1st LT Lee was in 'D' Company in Puffedorf... On page 358 it reads "Near the village of Carole, an enemy Panzerfaust hit Capt Lee's tank instantly killing the Gallant Captain and his crew instantly". Cpl Sam Houston was a crew member...

Unfortunately, my search has come to a standstill after that (which believe me so far it has been fantastic to search.. I'm a 'Rookie, new guy' at searching...Ive searched & searched Google etc. trying to find: Company Rosters, Company Photos or really anything that Sam may be in... I desperately would like to hear any tips that any of you may have to help me acquire more info, any at all.... On a side-note: Everything that Ive collected I'm presenting to his brother to help give him some closure on Christmas Day next week... Along with a flag & certificate that a Col. friend of mine flew over his base on Veterans day 2015 in the UAE, Middle East on deployment in his memory.... Agian any suggestions would be greatly appreciated to find 'deeper' info....

Thank you for your time & Thank this site for keeping memories alive for many!
Bryan McCann
USN 93-96'

 

Welcome to the Forum, Bryan, and thank you for your service.

If you haven't already, you should request his IDPF (see post #7 in the link Lou provided above). You won't get it for this Christmas, but it may have some interesting info that you can give him next Christmas.

 

Welcome Aboard Bryan!

 

Welcome, Bryan. If you're on Facebook, there are two 2nd Armored groups: 2nd US Armored Division in WWII and 2nd Armored Division/Benning to Berlin. There are lots of photos and they would be good places to leave a note. Both pages seem to be very active.

 

Thank you for all the excellent suggestions. I'll get cracking on the AARs today, thanks for the links... while I'm going through AARs, does anyone have any idea how to find out what Lt. / Capt. Lee's tank # was which would be easy to locate painted on the side in photos... possibly crew assignment records? After all there's paperwork for everything in the service when I was in...

I hope Buten42 can chime in with the 67th records he has and shed any light..

 

I just finished reading the AAR's http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll8/id/3719/rec/2 page 1 thru 120.. they almost make me want to get a map and draw the routes out lol.

January 3rd AAR (the day Sam's tank was hit) clearly shows that they were in densely wooded area with large number bazooka / panzerfaust teams operating effectively...

January 6th AAR lists 4 enlisted men, company D, KIA on January 3rd...BINGO!!

I'm going to read the last 100 pages now, see if there's a roster or something deeper, but I doubt it..

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

I almost forgot that I had a copy of the 67th Armored Regiment unit history (old age is hell). Due to Christmas and this being a very busy time at work, I was only able to get a few relevant pages for you. Cpl. Houston is listed in the Regimental roster. I also have attached 2 pages of photos from the book.

 

I also have 4 pages from Chapter VII which covers the period in which Cpl. Houston and Capt. Lee were killed. It doesn't mention Cpl. Houston by name, but it does give a fairly good account of what happened.

 

Tommy, thanks for posting those pages. there's a picture of Capt. Lee in that history also that you might add. My brother was in Lt. Oliver Lewis's platoon in A Company that is mentioned on page 127. Letters from some of the "A" Comany guys said that was one battle they didn't expect to make it out of.

 

Fantastic! Tommy / Dave, seriously... I hope I can help other searchers / people in the future as my collection builds and repay the kindness forward...

 

Oh, BTW Tommy, I got the Houston, Hell on Wheels book because the 67th Regiment History was $1245.00USD on Amazon... I was looking for a specific memory my father in law had about 3 German prisoners and luckily found it in 'Hell on Wheels' $15USD before I had to see about finding your book

Ive printed your pages, Cant thank you enough!

 

Bryan - You can take the info from this page: http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-67th-armored-regiment/oclc/3468610&referer=brief_results
to your local library and they can have a copy of the book sent to them for you to check out. Provided the copy is in good shape (you don't want to damage it) you can then scan it. I've done this several times and it works well.

Steve

 

Natman! Incredible! My office is next to the University of SC, where its showing they have a copy, which I believe is Tommy's book! You guys are something else! I'm there tomorrow no doubt

 

welcome aboard, mccann2nd!

 

For the record, I didn't pay anywhere near the "scalper" price on Amazon. I understand asking even a few hundred dollars, but that's ridiculous. Anyway, I'm happy to help. I'll see if I can find that photo of Capt. Lee that Dave mentioned if I have time tonight.

 

$1245?? Holy crap, that must be that special edition with gold pages. They come up on EBay for around $120/$150 but they are pretty scarce. Looks like Steve solved your problem concerning the book.
Have a great Holiday
Dave

 

I'm just leaving the library now with some fantastic little tidbit from the history of 67the AR.... thanks so much!