75 years ago today

very cool

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At this place on August 29th 1944 Sgt Clarence P. Hughes of the 893rd Tank Destroyer Battalion gave his life for the liberation of France

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Your great uncle had one of the most dangerous jobs in the ETO. That vehicle he is on is a M10 tank destroyer. His job was to take on the German panzers. And he was doing it in a vehicle that had little to no armor to speak of. Unlike today, during WWII the Army doctrine for armored warfare was that tanks were not intended to destroy enemy armor. Instead tanks were intended to exploit breakthroughs into the enemy rear area. The job of destruction of enemy armor was given to the US Army Tank Destroyer Corps. Thus, during most of WWII our tanks had “decent” armor protection and a low velocity main gun suited for taking out fortified positions and bunkers. Our tank destroyers had little to no armor, to give them better speed and maneuverability, and a high velocity main gun suited to engaging enemy tanks. They relied on their speed an maneuverability to survive.

The M10 had an open top turret who’s armor was only capable of stopping small arms fire. The hull armor was little better. To survive the M10 relied on ambush tactics to engage enemy armor then relocate before the enemy could return fire. Here is a model I built a few months ago of the M10 that will give you an idea of how little armor protection it afforded the crew. Needless to say, your great uncle was a brave man.

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This is awesome. You can feel the appreciation the Allies had for one another.

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There is an American war cemetery in the Netherlands where each grave is adopted by a local family who keeps the grave of an American soldier decorated. They’ve been doing this for the past 75 years. I’ve read that there is a still today waiting list of people wanting their turn to adopt the grave of an American soldier who died to free their country from the Nazis.

I was pleased to see the American flags flying all around the Normandy cemetery. Not just in the cemetery but around the whole area. Those locals have not forgotten.

That’s pretty damn cool to have something like that in your family history.

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They were a different breed back then, One we will not see the likes of again soon I fear

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It’s their own fault, they were shite parents that brought about the boomers.

I think the influence of the media, especially though television was something that no other generation of parents had to deal with.
I mean how much influence could an idiot box have over their children? Turns out, a massive amount.

How old was he at the time and how long had he been in?

Here is a document, translated from French, detailing his death:

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SERGEANT CLARENCE P. HUGHES.

Tuesdays, August 29, it rains a good part of the night! In the morning the American troops cautiously resume their progress along the line of Chemin de Fer towards MORY under the fire of the Germans. Two tanks of the company of the 893th Tank Destroyer BATTALION went ahead in recognition. They reach the location of the current FOOTBALL field that the SNCF . puts at the disposal of the ASMC , near the school (missing today). The exchange of fire between the German batteries and the American parts located on the side of MITRY LE NEUF continues.

In the late morning, Sergeant Clarence P. HUGUES, accompanied by two MITRYENS who guide him, leaves his tank and continues on foot to the limit of the SNCF city to locate and estimate the importance of German forces ambushed behind the mounds that border the north-east side of the avenue of the station opposite the street of Val de Mory. He was killed instantly by the bursting of a shell. Is it a German or American shell? Some witnesses say that Sergeant HUGUES, finding the firing of American guns or mortars too long to reach the Germans would have asked for it to be shortened. It would have been, a little too much ... His body lies, mutilated, in the middle of the avenue of the train station about ten meters from the beginning of the linden trees. Despite the risks, the Germans are less than 50 m across the street, a MITRYENNE will cover a blanket, another throws a flower, then another. According to a witness, in the evening, when American services picked him up, he was covered with flowers.

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Mitry Mory History - August 29, 1944