Mar 28, 2020

In the712th Tank Battalion's 11 months on the front lines of World War II, there were many significant events: Hill 122, the Falaise Gap, the light tank that ran over a string of mines, the battle with the 106th Panzer Brigade at Mairy, the Saar River crossing at Dillingen, the Battle of the Bulge. Tank recovery...

Mar 8, 2020

Yesterday upon the stair

I saw a man who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today

I wish I wish he'd go away

So begins the poem Antigonish by William Hughes Mearns, about a ghost in a village in Nova Scotia. According to theghoststory.com, it's the most famous ghost poem of all time. Who knew. Glenn Miller even...

Mar 2, 2020

At the 1992 reunion of the 712th Tank Battalion, I sat at a table in the hospitality room with four veterans -- Jim Gifford, Ed Spahr, Bob Rossi and Tony D'Arpino -- whose Sherman tank was knocked out on January 10, 1945. They reconstructed the details of that day, and spoke about other events in the war. There is...