716th Tank Battalion

Earthican,

Thanks for the tip.

 

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In addition to the book Cutthroats, I am reading Okinawa Odyssey also about the 763d TB. He was a tank platoon leader and provides a different perspective. I have not finished it yet but here are a few bits of tankers lore. The man that operated the bow machine gun and was also the assistant driver was called "bog". So driver, bog, gunner, loader, commander is a crew. He also wrote that the auxiliary power unit was called "little Joe" but never knew why. So, "Driver, shut down the engine and fire up little Joe". Also he explained for the vehicle intercom each crewmen had a throat microphone while the commander often used the hand-held mic for better sound quality. Also he explained that the periscopes around the commanders hatch did not come until later production of M4A3's. The few vehicles they had equipped with these were highly sought by the tank commanders and probably saved many lives from snipers.
Really embarrassing to have to post my own corrections!!!

A US Sherman crew is driver, bog, gunner, canoneer and commander.

Happy New Year!

 

My grandfather was in the 716th tank battalion. He was on Mindoro, Mindanao, Leyte, Luzon, and few others. He was with MacArthur when he came ashore to retake the Phillippines. Any help would be appreciated. His name was Oscar Duffield from West Virginia.

 

Do you know which company your grandfather was in? And whether he was a member of a tank crew, staff, service or other weapons section?

If he was with MacArthur on his return to the Philippines, that would be in Leyte, as you said above - the 716th's first action after New Guinea was at Luzon. He must have been with some other outfit at Leyte, unless parts of the 716th were sent there.

All I know (from this forum mostly) is that they went directly to New Guinea. It would interesting to find out what else they were doing.

His name is not in my father's diary - very few there anyway.

If you mean being alongside MacArthur, then he might have been on an officer's staff or himself one.

Time to search the personnel records...people here know how to do that.

 

I was researching my Father who was with the 35th Infantry Regiment and served on Luzon during the Battle for the Philippines. There is a battle map on this website, which I have his original , that names the 716th Tank Battalion as support for the Battle of Lupao. Doing some researching links found here, I was able to determine it was Co. C that supported the attack. The map and pictures can be found here, thanks to Albert Stoltzman's son , Douglas Stoltzman and Peter Flahavin, who owns the website. Just look under the Luzon Philippines photos at the bottom of the page on the link.


http://guadalcanal.homestead.com/vetphotos.html

 

From time to time I come across items that mention men in the 716th TK BN. I dont know if this is at all helpful for any of you but here you go.

 

One thing I came across while searching for info on the 716th was that many of the Newspapers reported articles about local men, what is odd is that may of these newspapers ran essentially the exact same articles and just changed the names and hometowns of the men in the article. If you download the attached PDF documents that are labeled "generic" you will see what I mean. I have also uplaoded some other PDF newspapers that mention the 716th as well.

 

Here is a scan on a hand drawn map with dates and unit names. It may be helpful.

 

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I thought it was a cool fact. Bruce Lee's mentor, James Yimm Lee, was a attached to the 716th Tank Battalion. http://books.google.com/books?id=iqVutksWfJkC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=James+Yimm+Lee+716th+tank+battalion&source=bl&ots=xsnPHZiFHQ&sig=wH7b2mNJjRzOfeL5pNGC4gL1YIQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JB62UryCJ-TMsQS44IDYDA&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=James%20Yimm%20Lee%20716th%20tank%20battalion&f=false

 

Thanks for sharing, this is the place for it all, never know when a connection will be made.

 

I just recently found out my grandfather was in the 716th . He passed away in 1985 . I have a newspaper article that said he was Sgt . Herbert J Quigley and his tank was a Sherman tank called Chicago Kid . All I know is he was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received in Luzon , Campaign Ribbon of Liberation , Asiatic - Pacific Theatre Ribbon each with one bronze star and a Good Conduct medal . Does anyone know how I can find anything else about his time in the army ? He trained for tanks in Fort Knox , enlisted on December 5 , 1942 until June 1944 .

 

The AAR mentioned above has a list of killed and wounded in action which was not transcribed.

Technician 4th Grade Herbert J. Qui_l_y(?), 3258_ _60(?), was wounded on 17 Jan 1945. He was a member of C Company.

I am relatively certain this is your man but I thought I should be cautious since I missed it first time I searched. His tank name of "Chicago Kid" also matches the practice of "C" names for C Company. Thanks for sharing that information.


The best source of personal information is letters and photographs. Next would be his discharge document. If the family cannot locate a copy, one can be requested from the NARA/US Army personnel center in St Louis, MO. However a fire in the 1970's caused the loss of 80% of those records. Veterans often registered a copy at their local court house where records can be searched. States like Maryland consolidated these records so check the state government website too.


1st Lieutenant Buford T Chasten and Corporal John Adzarito were also wounded on 17 Jan 1945. Nothing confirms your relative was wounded in the same action but it may be a lead.

 

Hello,
I just happened to find this conversation and was delighted. My father was in the 716th tank battalion, company D. He was the gunner on an M5A1 Stuart light tank called "Good Buddy". He also trained in Fort Knox, Kentucky. He passed away in 1996. Before he passed, he ordered all documents on file for the 716th from the National Department of Archives in Washington DC. They came in three very thick books of photocopied documents containing anything concerning the 716th from the war department. The documents range from target practice scores for the training recruits to repairs ordered for the tanks to day by day reports of the battalion in battle.

I have these documents now and cherish them as I do all of the stories that my father told me about the war.

Thank you for creating this forum for the 716th! I know I am very late to the conversation but really appreciate the chance to talk about my father and read stories about other men from his battalion.

 

Welcome embennet,

It looks like you are the one that everyone has been waiting, hoping for...

Someone with the answers...or at least the documents. Hopefully some of the regular family members will return shortly, please check back often...


Rosters of the companies seem to be the biggest need, any chance those documents contain lists of names? It may be too much to ask but anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would be very happy to look through the documents and try to find rosters/lists for the different companies. There are hundreds of pages so it may take me a while. I will also try to have the documents turned into PDF files so I can upload them.

It would be an honor to help these family members find some information! I hope I can help!

I will be checking in soon with what I find.

 

Earthican,

I have found several lists of the companies, in fact. It is actually overwhelming to narrow it down. There are separate rosters for candidates for Good Conduct Medals, American Defense Medal, and Bronze Service Arrowhead for all of the companies. There are rosters for qualifications in arms (exact quote) for .45 caliber Thompson Sub-Machine gun, .30 calibre carbine, .30 calibre M1 rifle, .30 calibre machine gun, .50 calibre machine gun, .45 calibre revolver, and 75mm tank gun. These rosters give serial numbers, scores, and ratings (marksman, expert, and sharpshooter) for each enlisted man. There are two lists for these categories in many cases, some rosters are dated for March and April 1944 and the others are dated for August and October of 1944.

If you could give me an idea of which list would be helpful to you, that would help me to narrow it down for scanning and uploading in a PDF format. Also, if you personally have a name that you want me to look up for you, I could try to find everything associated with him as well.

Thanks,
Embennet

 

Wow, Embennet, you have a treasure there.

 

Embennet,

Welcome! This is a great forum and the members have contributed a lot of valuable resources and provided many insights. My uncle was a member of Co. C and unfortunately was killed at San Manuel in Jan. 1945. Thanks to this forum and the references from the members I have been able to understand the context of the circumstances more fully. We look forward to hearing more from you.

One bit of info in closing: For other members whose relatives may have participated in the San Manuel action (with special relevance for Co. C and Co. D), also see M4 Sherman vs. Type 97 Chi-Ha by Steven J. Zaloga, Osprey Press.

 

Wow that's amazing. On NARA's website they say the Army destroyed the unit rosters compiled by the personnel branch. I never thought of the unit personal award records as a source for names.

Unless somebody has a better idea, I think the list for the Bronze Arrowhead would contain the names of those who landed on Luzon. The only problem might be the Service Company names might not be complete. Hopefully we can find a way to get those names too. For now, one mostly complete list of names for one point in time would be great.


If you have read this thread/topic you will see a post where two family members connected after three years. Hopefully we will see many more in the coming weeks.


I replied to messages of some of the active family members below in case they have their notifications set -- hopefully they will remember their passwords.

 

Thank you, everyone, for your feedback. I don't have a working scanner at home so will be taking the documents to be scanned this week. I will start with the Bronze Service Arrowhead medal, as you suggested, Earthican. The list is dated Oct. 3, 1945.

Please know that I am not the most technically savvy person so I appreciate your patience as I navigate through this process. This opportunity to connect with families of the 716th is priceless and I will do my best! Your comments, suggestions, and ideas are greatly appreciated!