A card sent from Uncle Grady
A letter from North Africa, January 23, 1943:
"I will drop you just a few lines to let you hear from me. This finds me well and OK and hope you are the same. I still haven't heard from you, but I guess I will sometime soon.
Things have been quiet around here lately. I haven't had to duck in my fox hole for some time now. I hope I don't have to dodge another airplane while I am overseas. Oh well it isn't so bad over here. I just got some eggs so I will have them for dinner.
Do you ever hear from Percy? If so tell him to drop me a few lines sometime when he can't find anything else to do. Do you know where Robert Earl Andrews is now? I guess he is overseas some place by now. I haven't found any of the boys from home over here yet. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one from home over here. But I think I will be back in the states before long cause I don't see how this war can last now.
I guess I had better stop and get busy doing something else. So tell everybody I said hello and write sometimes. Your son, Grady H. Johnson, Co. B 701st T.D. Bn."
This is one of the last few letters written by one of the uncles I never knew, my mother's brother, Grady Johnson. Apparently things got less quiet in North Africa because Grady was killed in battle in Tunisia, North Africa in March of 1943. Uncle Grady was right about the war in North Africa not lasting much longer. The Axis forces in North Africa surrendered on May 13, 1943. The Tank Destroyer Battalions were then sent to Italy to continue the fight. The war in Europe was not over until May of 1945 and war in the Pacific did not end until September of 1945.
I found information about the tank destroyer battalions in a booklet, "Opening Rounds" Here are a few excerpts:
"Stopping the Axis Blitzkrieg was the Army's number one problem when the war started. ... The response was typically American; create a whole new type of unit exclusively to stop massed armor attacks. Accordingly, the Army's hodge podge of artillery, cavalry and infantry anti-tank units were combined and redesignated "Tank Destroyers" on 15 December 1941. ... Unfettered by tradition, the new command worked hard to dispel the fear of mass tank attack and developed an aggressive doctrine epitomized in the new T.D. motto: "Seek, Strike and Destroy" A new training site in Texas was selected and developed to handle the massive influx of new recruits. ...the 601st and 701st T.D. Battalions sailed for the United Kingdom where they completed training. They were organized as heavy T.D. battalions, fully mechanized and equipped for independent operations."
"When B Company, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion parted company from their C Company comrades on 21 November 1942, it headed south to Tebessa and a unique odyssey. ... Ahead lay central and southern Tunisia, an arid, rocky desert and scrub, broken by wadis* and steep barren hills called dejebels."
(*wadis: a valley, ravine, or channel that is dry except in the rainy season)
Uncle Grady sent letters from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida (An Alabama farm boy, he didn't like the sandy soil.), New York, and England as well as from the battlefield in North Africa. He always expected to come home to his beloved Alabama.
Uncle Grady and my daddy's brother, German Chancery, who died in Italy were two of the many who gave their lives for our country. I thank them all.
