Lorraine Hellcat
80 years ago this month. An M18 (T70) Hellcat of the 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion during Patton’s Lorraine Campaign in an ambush position down Rue Carnot in recently liberated Lunéville, France, 22 September 1944. The dismounted .50 cal M2 gunner is going to have a bad day if the Hellcat’s 76mm gun gets rowdy, especially in the days before hearing protection.
Via the Bovington Tank Museum.
Established 15 December 1941 as the TD unit for the 3rd Infantry Division, by D-Day the 603rd had been sent to England and, reequipped with M18s, deployed to the continent in support of the “Super Sixth” 6th Armored Division. They landed at Utah Beach and entered combat on 28 July 1944.
Loading shells onto a B Company, 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion M18 just outside Brest, France, are, left to right: T/5 Francis J. Kangas, Astoria, Oregon; Pfc. Dominic Juncewski, Silver Lake, Minn.; Sgt. Emory Triggs, Arkansas City, Kansas; Pvt. John Horns, Dickinson, N.D., and Cpl. Cliff Pratt, Selah, Washington. 12 August, 1944. SC 195544
Fighting through Northwest Europe, the 603rd raced through Brittany then Lorient, and through Lorrane to the Moselle. Then came the Saar, Bastogne, crossing the Rhine, and pushing through the Fulda Gap where it later helped free Buchenwald and, with the rest of the Super Sixth, is recognized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Liberating Unit.
Disbanded in 1946, one of the Hellcats from the 603rd is on display at the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Wyoming.
M18 Hellcat of the 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion at the NMMV