Mirror of My Past

"Hitler's Crawlin' Coffin" was an eighteen-ton M-4 high-speed artillery tractor that crept up out of the surf onto Dog-Green Omaha Beach hauling a 90mm anti-aircraft gun and its crew for the 110th AAA Battalion during the D-Day invasion of Europe.
The 110th AAA Battalion participated in all five major European campaigns of WWII and witnessed many of its historical events. After fighting in the Battle of the Beaches during the D-Day invasion of the continent, it was involved in the Battle of the Hedgerows and was active in the breakout of St. Lo. The battalion helped cover the advancement of the 30th Infantry Division across France, was with the initial troops that entered Paris and protected the city against German bombing attacks that night and for some time afterward. In addition, a number of the battalion volunteered and drove for the Red Ball Express, saw and shot at some of the first V-1 and V-2 rockets and saw and shot at some of the first German ME-262 Turbojet aircraft to fly across the sky. The battalion became part of the so-called Palace Guard chosen to protect First Army Headquarters at Spa, Belgium against aerial attacks and later gained distinction when it fought in the Battle of the Bulge and participated in the protection of the Remagen Bridge.
In its remarkable eleven month wartime career - from the initial assault onto the Normandy Beaches to the drive to the Weser River in Germany - the 110th AAA Gun Battalion (Mbl) would hold the distinction that no objective defended by it was ever damaged by aerial attack. During the course of the war the personnel and weapons of the 110th AAA Gun Battalion was used for everything from antiaircraft duty to field artillery duty, anti-tank duty, infantry duty, and as a trucking company. "During this period there were a lot of acts of individual heroism," noted Lt. Col. William F. Curran, in one of its many citations. "This battalion does not claim to have stopped enormous armored drives or gigantic infantry penetrations but in presenting a determined front to the advance columns of the enemy it slowed down the advance columns of the enemy enough to check it until reinforcements in strength could arrive and repel the enemy." During those eleven months the battalion participated in 601 aerial engagements destroying 65 enemy planes and was in 22 ground engagements destroying 11 enemy tanks, 80 armored and motor vehicles, and innumerable gun positions, bunkers, bridges, ammunition dumps, and supply dumps, while greatly facilitating the advance of front line Infantry. The battalion received five Campaign Streamers: Normandy with arrowhead, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe.
What's more, the 110th AAA became the first 90mm Gun Battalion to shot down an enemy aircraft on French soil during the D-Day invasion and while performing anti-tank duty during the Battle of the Bulge single-handedly held off a unit of Jochen Peiper's 6th Panzers to prevent it from getting desperately needed petrol outside Spa, Belgium. All of this action is supported by commendations and military record.
Although Driving Hitler's Crawlin' Coffin begins with one man's recruitment into the 110th AAA during the war, it shows how his situation was typical of all of its members and quickly evolves into a history of the entire battalion based on government and military record - including daily reports and after action reports, commendations and citations - along with diaries, letters, journals, memoirs, and interviews of many of its members.
Greatly detailed and expertly researched, Driving Hitler's Crawlin' Coffin covers the battalion from basic training at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, to advanced training at Camp Kilmer, NJ, through their experiences of going to England on the Queen Mary, training and preparation in England, to the details of the D-Day invasion, to St. Lo, the Battle of the Bulge, the R