Company A 3D Tank Bn Harold Fisher Fought on Guam, Iwo JIma

[Raidercollector]

Here is a Small Photo group I obtain on a Marine Harold S Fisher . He was with Company A 3D Tank Battalion ,3D Marine Division. He was a Tank Driver for a M4A2 Sherman Tank. Which he saw action on Guam and Iwo Jima. Half his company was Killed. In the photos I have all the names on the backs. Which Harold is listed in Both.His Mos was 736 which is a Tank Driver. He was from North Dakota.

Some of the Tanks I have researched in Company A Were Sherman M4A2 ANN/7, Sherman M4A2 '66', M4A2 Demagog 196' , M4A2 Adder # 14, M4A2 Apache, M32B2 Almighty. Harold was never wounded. I wish I could figure out which tank He was in, But from some of the research I did ,I guess their were at least 29 Tanks in Company A 3rd Tank Battalion 3rd Division. Any Information would be most Appreciated

[Raidercollector]

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[Raidercollector]

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[Raidercollector]

Last One, The Names are all on the back, And Harold in in the photo. This was taken on Guam

[Raidercollector]

BTT

[TBMflyer]

Nick, great photos and research. USMC tank stuff is so rare, it's nice to see some once in a while, and 3rd Division is my favorite as my uncle was a corpsman with the 21st. Thanks for showing,

Mark

[D.A. Venters]

Nick,

 

I found your post here while also researching the 3d Tank Battalion. My great uncle, Eugene Brand, of West Virginia, was also a member of Company A. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe he is in the picture above which shows the men posing on the tank. If you look at the men in that picture in vertical columns, he would be in the second column from the left, top man, helmet without goggles, with his head turned a little to his right, elbow on his knee. Is his name listed on the back?

 

Brand was a crewman in a tank called "Ateball" on Iwo Jima. There is a passage in a book called "Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor" by Bill Ross which describes Ateball being in combat alongside "Agony" and "Angel." It is not clear from the book if those tanks were all part of the same platoon (if Marine tank companies were divided into platoons?), but that seems likely as they were close to each other during the action. The book mentions a Marine named William R. Adamson, who was a crewman on "Agony." Adamson was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on Iwo. You may want to check to see if his name is listed on the back of your pictures.

 

It requires a lot of assumptions, but if Eugene Brand is in that picture, and if that is a picture of members of the same platoon, and if that platoon included Ateball, Angel, and Agony, it might narrow down which tanks Harold Fisher may have been in.

 

My father has some other pictures of Eugene Brand which I will look at the next time I get a chance and see if someone who looks like Harold Fisher is in them.

 

I would also recommend the book "Tank Warfare on Iwo Jima" which has a number of pictures of 3d Tank Battalion tanks.

 

Good luck in your research.

[Raidercollector]

Great info. And yes your great uncle is in the picture,He is named in the back on the roster.But Adamson is not, But this could narrow down which tank he might have been in,I will get those books you recommended. I hope you can post those pictures you said you have. This forum is such a small world.

 

Thanks Nick

[EJV]

Nick, DA --

 

My father (Lewis R. Van Camp Jr) was also a crew member of Ateball. In the group picture wearing khakis, he is 4th from the left standing. On the front of the Sherman, he is in the upper middle of the pic, cigarette in mouth, his right forearm horizontal with his left arm draped over and around the Marine to his left. Harold Fisher was a crew member in Ateball; my father said his nickname was "Minnow." The only other name I recall him mentioning was Bob "Cowboy" Allen from Four Corners WY. Not sure if he was in Ateball or one of the other Shermans in the Platoon.

 

My father enlisted with other members of his HS senior class (Battle Creek, MI, Central HS) in the early summer of 1942, trained on the west coast, deployed to the Pacific and came home and was honorably discharged in the fall of 1945. He went to work at Kelloggs in Battle Creek and went to school at Western Michigan University on the GI Bill; met my mother on a bus in Kalamazoo while they were both attending Western. He became a HS teacher and footballl coach in Wayland, Michigan -- she an elementary school teacher -- and later at Muskegon HS (MI) and Muskegon Mona Shores HS.

 

My father will likely pass this week (he's 92), which has given me the occasion to search the internet for any new things related to his service in the Pacific. Nice to find these pieces on Fisher.

 

EJV

[D.A. Venters]

EJV and Nick,

 

First, EJV, I'm sorry to hear your father is not well. I can tell from your post you are a proud son. I wish him the best.

 

What are the odds that three unrelated people would, almost simultaneously, be looking for information about marines, not just from the same unit, but the same tank?!

 

Over the last few weeks I have casually run a few google searches and I'm amazed at what is out there on this particular tank company.

 

I have found a few pieces of film footage that show the company and in at least 2 that I've found, you can clearly identify Ateball.

 

Here is a link to footage of the company's tanks rolling off the LST, onto the beach at Iwo. Ateball, "9", can be seen at about the 40 sec. mark.:

 

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675063850_3rd-Marine-Division_Iwo-Jima-operation_tanks-emerge_landing-ships

 

Here is another one that shows Ateball, again the #9 tank, parked with some others in what looks like a staging area of some sort, with the crews resting and talking. That scene is at about the 6:15 mark.

 

https://archive.org/details/NPC-8550

 

I have been curious as to what my great-uncle's experiences in the war were. He and his wife lived on a farm in northern West Virginia, and he and my grandmother (his sister) didn't see each other often. I think he only rarely left home for any reason. I only met him once or twice before he passed away 2 or 3 years ago. My understanding is that things were pretty brutal for his crew on Iwo Jima; the story I have heard is that they were pinned down and stuck in the tank, or in a foxhole beneath it, for many days. As I mentioned in my previous post, some of the action was described in that Ross book, but it's just a brief description of one firefight.

 

Anyway, I hope to be able to post a few more things as I can get time to do it.

[EJV]

The only things my father talked about were the kamikaze hit on LST-477 while they were enroute or laying off of Iwo, and his egress from Ateball after it was disabled. As I recall, they couldnt get out the escape hatch on the bottom because they were high-centered underneath. He successfully egressed out the top but was nearly killed by another Marine when he leaped into a shell crater and startled the Marine already occuping the space.

[Raidercollector]

Very sorry to hear about your Dad,He is listed on the back of my photo. They were all fine men that fought for our country.I'm glad you found this site,An to add info on your fathers. It is very nice to see on this forum how we all meet from different parts of the US looking for information on the same thing, Now that I know Harold Fisher was on the Sherman Tank Ateball on Iwo Jima, I thought I would never fine that out, I did buy those books on the Sherman's on IWO, Their are pictures of Ateball in their ,How cool that is. I will try to post some.Researching on these fine marines Makes my hobby so interesting, If you guys have any photos of your Dad,s please try to post them. And many thanks for your information. Im sure this info has helped all of us. And to know a little bit about the Tanks on Iwo Jima.

 

Nick

[Raidercollector]

Here is a Photo of Ateball on Iwo Jima ,With 3 of its crew resting . You can see the name Ateball on the side of the tank ,near the front on the side ,right above the tracks.

[EJV]

Nick, is Jack Barman amongst those in the pic on Guam (in khakis)? Perhaps the last Marine on the right kneeling?

[Raidercollector]

EJV

Yes That is Him on Guam kneeing, Small world

 

Nick

[Private Adamson]

Hi Nick and everyone. My name is Kris Adamson son of William Adamson mentioned in the book Iwo Jima by Bill D. Ross. My fathers tank name was Agony. Everyone except him in Agony were killed that day on the second airfield of Iwo Jima. Kris my name sake was the driver and my father was the co driver. My father saw the flash of the anti tank gun that hit them and crawled back to another tank in the company with an operational turret and directed the fire. He passed at 92. I played taps and laid him to rest with military honors. I too was a Marine in Artillery from 1984 to 1988.

[Palehorse]

Hi, I stumbled across this thread while researching my Great-Grand Uncle.  His name was Horace Harp, and he served in A Co. 3rd Tank Battalion during the Bougainville and Guam campaigns.  Any chance you guys have any information about him?