11/2/2022 0 Comments M4 sherman commander hatch![]() ![]() M4 sherman commander hatch driver#They referred to him as “War Daddy,” as he'd reached the advanced age of 25 he in turn called them his “Pups.” The Pups included 17-year-old bow gunner Bert “Schoolboy” Close, driver Wilbert “Baby” Richards, loader Del “Jailbird” Boggs, who had chosen to enlist rather than face a sentence for manslaughter, and gunner Willis “Groundhog” Oller. The crew he picked remained together throughout his combat service. Newly promoted to staff sergeant in 1943, Pool similarly turned down a chance to attend Officer Candidate School, preferring to drill his crew and prepare for combat. Division boxing champion, he won the Army's regional belt as well and received a bid to fight in the national championships, but turned it down because his division was slated to receive the new M4 Shermans and he did not want to fall behind his battalion's other tank commanders. Pool trained hard, both in the ring and in the field. ![]() He dropped out of college to enlist in the Army in June 1941, and went to the newly-formed 3rd Armored Division in Louisiana. Pool, a six-foot-three Texas farm boy, boxed his way through his teenage years in the Golden Gloves circuit and entered Texas A&I University as an engineering major after the Navy refused to accept him due to a boxing-inflicted eye injury. It's a record unequaled in World War II and unlikely ever to be matched. Pool of the 3rd Armored Division and the crew of his M4 Sherman tank “In the Mood” terrorized German armored formations, destroying 258 armored vehicles including a dozen Panther tanks, taking over 250 prisoners and killing at least 1,000 enemy soldiers. We were the invincible arm of the Lord's wrath.įor 81 days in the summer of 1944, Staff Sergeant Lafayette G. ![]()
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