Conversation with Weyman Simpson on September 23, 2003
By Ralph Simpson
Weyman was a tank driver in WW2 and
passed along some of his experiences in the war. He said he was only
scared once during the entire time he was in the war. It started when he
stepped onto the ship when he was sent to Europe and ended when he arrived home.
He was in 5 major battles in Europe and was never shot. He had every
position in a tank at one time or another, but was mainly a tank driver.
His tank was number 13 which he viewed as a lucky number, since the tank was
never completely disabled in battle.
My father (Alexander H. Simpson
Jr.) was also in Europe during the end of the war and was in a few minor
skirmishes, but not any of the same battles as Weyman. After the Germans
were defeated, my father was sent to be part of the invasion of Japan.
The atomic bombs on Japan eliminated any need for an invasion, so he was sent
to the Philippines. Later he went to Takaoka, Japan where he met my
mother.
Two of the battles Weyman fought in
were the infamous D-Day Landing and the Battle of the Bulge. He also
fought in 2 battles in Belgium. On D-Day, he was due to land several
hours earlier than the main landing force, but was delayed due to choppy
seas. He was part of the group that put their tanks on floats and arrived
at the beach just 10 minutes ahead of the main force. The only group to
beat them to the beach were the paratroopers who had arrived the night
before. This happened at daybreak and he remained in his tank until 11pm,
at which time they were able to make a break in the German lines and make an
advance. During the battle, he saw the devastating carnage first
hand. He saw single cannon shots take out entire landing boats with 20-25
men so that there was nothing remaining.
Conversation with Weyman Simpson on October 24, 2003
By Ralph Simpson
Weyman was in Europe for exactly 11
months, from 6/6/1944-5/6/1945. While there he earned the Bronze
Star but does not remember the circumstances around that award. His Tank
Battalion was also awarded unit citations for being the first American tanks to
enter Belgium and Holland. He was the driver of Tank #13 in the 743rd
Tank Battalion.
While going across the channel for
D-Day, Weyman recalled a conversation he had with the commanding officer of his
unit. He was on a boat which held 4 tanks and a couple of jeeps.
His officer asked how he was doing, and he replied not too well (he was
seasick). The officer said, I wasn't asking about the seasickness but how
you felt about the invasion. Weyman said he was ok with that because he
felt the odds were against the Germans. The officer said we are the
invasion force and the Germans were defending a territory they already had, so
how did he figure that the odds were against them? Weyman replied that he
felt he could take out 4 or 5 Germans before they could kill him, and there was
only one of him to kill, so the odds were in his favor. The officer
repeated this story to everyone on board the boat.
In France, Weyman spotted a group
of 12-15 American prisoners walking in single file with a German guard in the
front and the rear. Weyman and another soldier hid in a ditch which ran
along the side of the field and waited for the prisoners to come past.
This ditch had bushes along the side of it, so they were hidden from
view. Weyman was to give a signal and take down the front guard while the
other soldier had his tommy gun ready to take down the rear guard. On
Weyman's signal, they both opened fire from about 25-30 yards away and the
whole episode was over in seconds. The freed prisoners headed to safety
and Weyman and the other soldier got in their tank to continue to the front
lines.
Weyman was part of a force that
overtook a small city in France. While going in he noticed a German tank
that had been knocked out of service. On the way out of town that same
day, they were surprised by a counterattack of Germans. He was just
passing this knocked out tank at the time he started taking small arms
fire. He immediately closed the hatch of his tank and saw the German tank
was occupied and about to engage in battle. Unfortunately, he was too
close to the tank to fire his gun and the German tank had an even longer gun on
it. So, Weyman backed up just enough to fire on the German tank and take
it out before the German tank could fire on him with its longer gun. The
German tank caught on fire and was burned out.
The Battle of the Bulge was fought
in Dec. 1944 - Feb. 1945 and was one of the bloodiest in WW2. The famous
German Panzer tanks attacked several times. These were far superior to
the US tanks and had considerably more armor protection and firepower.
The US found their weakness, however, which was under one side of the turret
near the driver and co-driver. If they could get a tank to position their
turret in a certain way and they were able to make a direct hit on this
weakness, they could knock out the tank. The metal in this spot was
relatively brittle and was the only spot the guns on the US tanks could
penetrate. Weyman participated in several Panzer take downs where one or
more US tanks would take fire while another tank would be in position to fire
at this weak spot on the Panzer.
After the Battle of the Bulge, he
rode in a truck for 75 miles with a small group of soldiers to take a shower
and get issued new clothes. This was his first shower in months.
The tents for showers and clothes were quite a way apart and this was in the
middle of the winter, so they were naked and freezing by the time they got
under the shower. Weyman said the water was not really warm but after
freezing for so long it felt warm. They then got their new clothes.
On his return to the rest of his company, he apologized to those he accused of
stealing his long underwear. He found out he had been wearing all three
sets of them and didn't know it.
Weyman never lost a day of service
due to sickness, injury or leave. He found out that he and one other
person in his company had the same number of combat days. That meant that
the next pass to return home would go to one of them. At about this time,
they had crossed over the Rhine River and Weyman's commanding officer offered
him a 3-day pass to Paris. He declined, offering it to anyone in his
company. No one understood why he would turn down a 3-day pass, and
he did not tell anyone he just wanted to get home sooner rather than have 3
days off.
Email to Mary Simpson Crosby on January 20, 2006
By Ralph Simpson
743rd Tank Battalion on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944,
preparing to advance on the enemy line that evening.
Hello Mary,
I hope all is well with you and your family this new year.
You have mentioned
that your father did not say much about his experiences in WWII or even how he
earned the Bronze Star. Although I got a little bit of information from him over
the phone, I know that only touched the surface.
I have now done a
little reading on this topic and was surprised to hear there are 2 books written
about the 743rd Tank Battalion, one I just finished reading called "View from
the Turret: The 743rd Tank Battalion during WWII" which was written by the son
of one of the members of this battalion. The second book is called "Move Out,
Verify" and was written by a writer attached to this battalion during the war.
"Verify" was the code name of the 743rd Tank Battalion while they were in
training in Ft. Lewis, Washington. Both books are out of print now, so I was
lucky to find the first book and have placed an order for a used book from
Amazon for this second book. If you are interested, I would be happy to mail
you this first book. "Move Out, Verify" was given to each member of the 743rd,
so Weyman may have saved a copy.
Click here to read the book, "Move Out, Verify."
Random points of interest:
- The 743rd Tank
Battalion was made up of 4 companies and 52 tanks. During the war, the 743rd
lost 111 tanks and had 141 tankers killed, 22 missing and 316 injured. The
total casualty count was almost the size of the battalion and the number of
tanks lost was twice the number in service. So, the fact that Weyman was never
injured and his tank (#13) was never shot is nothing short of miraculous. His
tank must have been one of the very few to make it from D-Day to the end of the
war.
- On D-Day, the first Tank Battalion to land was the 741st. They were equipped with tanks that
had dual propellers and were launched from their ships about 6000 yards from
shore (3.5 miles). Of the 32 tanks in this battalion, 3 could not launch
because of a faulty ramp on the ship and of the other 29 that were launched,
only 2 made it to shore because of the rough seas. The rest sank, with many of
the crews in them. Someone from this battalion used their tank radio to let the
743rd know of their plight, so the ships carrying the 743rd tanks landed right
on the shore. The 743rd landed 5-10 minutes before the first wave of infantry,
about 6:20am. They stayed on the beach as sitting ducks until around 10:00pm
when they made an advance off the beach. In this first day of battle, the 743rd
lost 19 Sherman tanks.
- The Sherman tank was a much inferior tank compared to the German Tiger or especially the
Panther. The German tankers called the Sherman a "Ronson", which was the name
of their cigarette lighter because the Sherman was that easy to "light up".
They had gasoline engines and 70% of those that were lost in battle ignited in
seconds with disasterous results for the crew. The English also used our
Shermans and called them the "Tommy cookers". A German tank could easily shoot
through the thin armour of the Sherman, but the Sherman tanks guns could only
penetrate the German tanks in very specific vulnerable spots. Shots from the
Sherman would usually just bounce off the German tanks. Also, the German tanks
had a range of 2-3 times the Shermans. The resourceful tankers of the 743rd
welded on additional armour and hung sand bags on the front of the tanks for
protection. They also used the metal barriers on the beach from D-Day to weld a
"rake" on the front of the tanks to blast through the hedgerows used as hiding
spots by the Germans in the French countryside.
- The 743rd was engaged in 5 major campaigns of WWII:
- Normandy (or D-Day)
- Northern France
- Rhineland
- Ardennes-Alsace (Battle of the Bulge)
- Central Europe (my father was younger and joined the Army in time to see battle in this campaign)
- The 743rd destroyed 81 German tanks, 100 machine gun nests, 36 AT guns, 9 artillery
pieces, 4 armoured cars and 125 other vehicles.
- The book "View from the Turret" gives a blow-by-blow account of the fighting and even includes
a mention of tank #13. There are pictures that include tanks #14 and #15 and
others where the number is not visible.
