Page 27 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

world war ii

army

in combat, from July 17,1944 (six weeks after

D-Day) until the end of the war in May 1945.
The unit suffered over 10,000 casualties,
with nearly 6,000 troops killed, wounded or
MIA (Missing in Action). After the war, one
of their commanders said their record spoke
for itself, and the 4 Armored was “Name
th
Enough.” The inadvertent nickname stuck.
In March 1945, the 4 Armored headed
th
south to Worms, Germany and crossed the
Rhine River March 24-25. Regarding their
trek across Germany, Garland said, “We met
some resistance as we went from town to
town. I carried an M-1 rifle. Later, I became
a .30 caliber machine gunner. I had an ammo
carrier with me. The squad leader and his
assistant took me in, kind of like a brother
watching over me; they sure felt like my
brothers. We used to ride on the tanks a lot
and then get off to fight when we ran into
Germans. Once, I got pinned down by a Kincaid Roofing
sniper behind a hedge. Every time I would
try to see where he was, he shot at me. I
was trapped. The rest of the squad spotted Proudly Salutes
the sniper, so they started laying down
fire at him, and I was able to get away
from that hedge. I usually only got scared our Veterans
after it was all over.” Garland also recalled
the so-called “Task Force Baum” going
through a town that his unit had cleared
out for their advance. “I remember seeing
them go through the town on their way
to liberate the POW camp (Hammelburg)
where General Patton’s son-in-law was
being held prisoner. My buddy Lon Colvin
was in on that.* Lon and some of my other
buddies were captured on the failed camp
liberation raid. I got letters from their
folks, and they asked me about them. I
didn’t want to tell them that I thought
they had been killed.” The “Task Force
Baum” prisoners were liberated by the 14
th
Armored on April 6, 1945.

Lubbock Senior Link 27