Tribute to my grandfather, a Man I never knew
I made this website to pay tribute to my grandfather. He was a kind, decent man who put his own dreams aside when his country called him. Despite the bitter cold of Europe's coldest winter in 100 years and the constant problems experienced by Sherman tanks, he led his tank unit into the Battle of the Bulge. After being wounded twice, watching his best friend's tank explode into flames, killing countless German soldiers, and seeing the horrors in Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, he returned to his life as an engineer, married, and had a family. He never spoke of the war or what he had seen or experienced until a month before he died. During his last month of life, he recorded his memories of the war, at times breaking into tears as he recalled many painful memories. He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He faced his painful death from cancer as he had led his life - with quiet courage, dignity, and love for his family, his friends, and his country. I was born three years after he died. I wish I had known him.
He was your mother's father"He was your mother's father"
That's all that I was told Of the young man pictured by the tank In Europe's snow and cold. He dreamed of building bridges That spanned the waters wide Yet when his country called him, He put his dreams aside. The men called him Captain As he led the tank brigade Into Nazi's war of hell - Belgium's frozen glade. His life-long friend killed by his side He could not pause to grieve The tank guns roaring endlessly Until at last they ceased. The Allies won the battle long He then could mourn his friend The soldiers and their armored beasts Turned east toward Hitler's den. In early spring of forty-five Troops halted their fast pace And viewed the bloody handiwork Of the Aryan master race. Bodies were not soldiers Innocent, one and all Yet they lay upon the ground Behind barbed wire so tall. World War Two had ended Some soldiers came back The Captain built bridges long and wide That spanned the waters black. The Captain married his only love A family he did raise He never spoke of war again Nor of his soldier days. After forty years had passed, Cancer struck and slayed The Captain who served his country well And was so strong and brave. "He was your mother's father" That young man in the snow Who lived and died with courage A man I would never know. |
|
I made this video slide show in 2010 as a Christmas present for my grandmother. It documents my grandfather's experiences in the 37th Tank Battalion of the 4th Armored Division in General Patton's 3rd Army during World War II from 1942-1946. The 4th Armored Division played a critical role in the Allied victory in the Battle of the Bulge. The 4th Armored Division, along with the 89th Infantry Division, liberated Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, which was the first concentration camp to be liberated by Americans. Ordruf was a sub-camp of Buchenwald, which was liberated about a week later. The last part of the video shows my grandfather as an old man. He and my grandmother went on a tour of the former battlegrounds
40 years later. He found the grave of his best friend who was killed in action, talked to many other surviving American veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, and visited the American Memorial in Bastogne. |
Jack Holmes (1913 - 1991)
My grandfather, Jack Holmes, was born to Louis and Eliza Jane Holmes on March 7, 1913 in the small town of Longstreet, in northwestern Louisiana just a few miles from the Texas border. His father died in 1922, leaving his mother to raise Jack and his older brother alone. After graduating from high school, Jack earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical and civil engineering from LSU, along with a second lieutenant's commission in the U.S. Army. He became an engineer at the Standard Oil(now Exxon) Refinery in Baton Rouge. When the United States entered World War II, his commission in the army was activated as he joined the 37th Tank Battalion of the Fourth Armored Division. He served with distinction as leader of a tank unit and was promoted to the rank of Captain. After the war had ended, Jack returned to Standard Oil and married Elsie Elizabeth O'Neal. They had two children and, in time, three grandchildren before Jack died at the age of 78. I would have been his fifth and last grandchild, but he died three years before I was born.
Fourth Armored Division in World War II
The Fourth Armored Division complied a most distinguished record in the European theater of World War II. Leaving from Boston in late 1943, the Division trained in England during the first half of 1944, landed on Utah Beach on July 13, 1944, and entered combat on July 17, 1944. They engaged the German army in numerous battles in France, including Operation Cobra, Avranches, Lorient, Orleans, Luneville, Arracourt, and Fontenay. Moving into Lorraine and Saarland, they quickly defeated German panzer troops in three key battles. Only two days after the Germans began the Ardennes offensive on December 16, 1944, the Fourth Armored Division joined the fight, racing over 150 miles in 19 hours to relieve 101st Airborne Division, which had been pinned down behind enemy lines. The battle, which was later named the Battle of the Bulge, lasted until January 25, 1945. The Division then moved east, crossed the Rhine River into Germany on March 24, 1945, and reached the town of Gotha, Germany on April 4, 1945. Outside of Gotha, the Fourth Armored Division, along with the 89th Infantry Division, liberated Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, the first such camp to be liberated by Americans. The Fourth Armored Division was the first armored division to receive the Distinguished Unit Citation for spearheading the Third Army across France, into Belgium, and finally into Germany. It also was honored by the government of France and received the French Fourragere, having been cited twice for the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War). In 1985, the Fourth Armored Division was honored as a liberating unit by the U. S. Army's Center for Military History and by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for its liberation of Ohfdruf Concentration Camp in 1945.