JUN 6, 23 (1/2) .. D-DAY .. JUNE 6, 1944

On D-Day, June the 6th, 1944, I was seven years and 9 months old. While I could not fully grasp what was happening, I knew it was something very important. At the time, the D-Day invasion was the largest naval, air and land operation in history, and within a few days about 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed!

But up until this past March the 9th 2023, almost seventy nine (79) years after D-Day, absolutely nothing of any real significance had happened to suddenly cause me to have a completely new connection to D-Day. 

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Camp Bouse, Bouse, Arizona

On this past March the 9th 2023, I suddenly became aware of Camp Bouse, a WWII top secret camp of the US Army, Desert Training Center in Mohave County, Arizona. 

I did a series of three Posts about Camp Bouse on blogspot in case you are interested in looking back at them.

https://bobbacaps.blogspot.com/search/label/Camp%20Bouse

One of the memorial monuments (you can clearly read what it says following below the photo).

748th Tank Battalion – “The Rhinos” – The 748th Tank Battalion, Medium was activated on 20 August 1942 at Camp Rucker, Alabama. The Rhinos headed for Fort Knox on the 15th of April 1943 for training and on 20 April 1943 were reorganized as a special battalion equipped with CDL spotlights. They departed Fort Knox on 15 July 1943 for Camp Bouse, AZ. On 30 August 1943 they were attached to the 9th Armored Tank Group and arrived at Camp Bouse 1 September 1943 as a Canal Defense Light (CDL) unit. The Rhinos landed at Glasgow, Scotland on the 6th of April, and then proceeded to South Wales. They landed in Normandy on Utah Beach on June 6th, 1944, D-Day under the command of General Bradley who was in charge of the Third Army. Shortly after D-Day, General George S. Patton took over the Third Army and the 748th was reorganized as standard tank battalion after 23 October. The Rhinos moved to the front on 20 January 1945 near Butzdorf, Germany, attached to the 94th Infantry Division near the Siegfried Line to protect an area known as the Saat-Moselle Triangle. On the 16th of March, the Rhinos moved to Saarlautern area to support 65th Infantry Division operations to break through the Siegfried Line defenses. Attached to 5th Infantry Division near Bad Kreuznach, Germany, they crossed the Rhine on 23 March 1945 near Oppenheim just south of the Rhine bend at Mainz and became the first Third Army tanks to fight on the East bank of the river. A note of extreme interest that during a period from 23rd to the 30th of March elements of the Battalion were attached to three Corps, the VIII, XII, and XX and 5 Divisions, the 5th, 26th, 80th, 87th, and 89th. Advancing with 65th Infantry Division to Danube at Gundelhausen the 748th entered Regensburg on the 27th of April. On the 1st of May along with the 261st Regiment took Passau and crossed the Inn River into Austria on the 4th of May. The Battalion gathered at the small community of Haag outside Linz, Austria and on the 5th of May the 748th ended the war.

This memorial is dedicated to the fighting men of the 748th Tank Battalion

Monument erected by the Citizens of Bouse, the Lost Dutchman Chapter, the Billy Holcomb Chapter and John P. Squibob Chapter of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus. October 3rd, 2015.

This memorial is dedicated to the fighting men of the 748th Tank Battalion by their brother in arms, Henry Leintz, a member of the service company. Erected 2015 by Citizens of Bouse, Lost Dutchman Chapter No. 5917, No. 1853, E Clampus Vitus.

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The Memorial Cemetery is what suddenly connected me to D-Day in a personal way. Some (I have no idea of how many) of the men honored in the below memorial cemetery lost their lives on D-Day. Just looking at the cemetery made D-Day a very personal event.

Whew! If the below photo doesn’t “deeply touch you” I would be surprised. It sure “deeply touched” me!

In humble honor of D–Day, I salute all of those who took part in this enormous invasion, many of whom gave up their lives on those blood-stained beaches of the Normandy Coast of France.

To you who served and to you who died that we may live free, please know that we honor and that we remember you all!

I SALUTE YOU!  WE ALL SALUTE AND HONOR YOU!   Cap   

I hope you will please continue down to read Part 2 of this 2 Part set of Posts.

• ← JUN 6, 23 (2/2) .. A LOOK-BACK AT YESTERDAY, JUN 5, 2023
• JUN 7, 23 .. A GUEST POST FROM MICHAEL 86403 →