Concentration Camp Liberators

[checkit]

Another favorite photo. This is a large 8x10 taken by a company photographer for the John Deere Battalion. The concentration camp inmates all apear to be Russian. Note that the white painted star on the side of the tank is almost completely worn off.

 

I have several detail pics on my website showing closeups of the patches and armbands.

 

Allies Liberate Russian Prisoners

 

[Jeeper704]

Nice but dramatic photo.

A tanker with a Mackinaw in the middle.

 

Were these prisoners partisans or did they take the weapons from their former guards?

They seem to be in rather good health for KZ prisoners (my observation).

 

Erwin

[Stuart GI]

 

 

Another favorite photo. This is a large 8x10 taken by a company photographer for the John Deere Battalion. The concentration camp inmates all apear to be Russian. Note that the white painted star on the side of the tank is almost completely worn off.

I have several detail pics on my website showing closeups of the patches and armbands.

Allies Liberate Russian Prisoners

What's the 'John Deere Battalion'? Were they activated at Moline?

Mike

[checkit]

 

 

What's the 'John Deere Battalion'? Were they activated at Moline?

Mike

I have some information regarding them around here somewhere, which I received from the John Deere historian in Moline. They were Deere factory engineers and technicians who volunteered to go overseas as crackerjack tech specialists (but as I recall, they were a special unit of the regular army, not civilian tech reps). According to the literature I got, they were the ones actually responsible for the idea of fitting the tanks with special hedgerow clearing equipment in France. The vet who's estate I got the photos from was a Production Illustrator, cartoonist, and photographer. He was also president of a John Deere Battalion reunion group.

Zip on the Internet about these guys, at least at the time I obtained the photos. Deere has invited me to come down and go through WW2 era company newsletters, but I haven't gotten a round tuit yet. I am guessing that the liberation photos are in a John Deere newsletter somewhere, properly captioned.

[Wailuna]

...I have several detail pics on my website showing closeups of the patches and armbands....

Interesting picture. A couple of the GIs appear to be wearing SSI (the SSgt. standing far right; the Tec. 4 third from right, top row). Can you ID the unit?

[checkit]

Interesting picture. A couple of the GIs appear to be wearing SSI (the SSgt. standing far right; the Tec. 4 third from right, top row). Can you ID the unit?

 

If I can dig it out, I'll look at it with a magnifying lens.

[Wailuna]

Another reference to a "John Deere Battalion" has come up on the Forum (link here). It is identified here as 2nd Battalion, 303rd Ordnance Regiment, Base, and later known as Later known as the 608th Ordnance Base Armored Maintenance Battalion and/or 608th Ordnance Base Armament Maintenance Company. Is this the same unit you are showing here?

[checkit]

Another reference to a "John Deere Battalion" has come up on the Forum (link here). It is identified here as 2nd Battalion, 303rd Ordnance Regiment, Base, and later known as Later known as the 608th Ordnance Base Armored Maintenance Battalion and/or 608th Ordnance Base Armament Maintenance Company. Is this the same unit you are showing here?

 

 

That would be them.

[Steindaddie]

Neat photo. I wonder what camp it is and who the women are. In my extremely uneducated opinion, they look French.

[Proud Kraut]

The armband the former prisoner sitting in front is wearing could be: "Zugbegleitung" (Train escort). Maybe they were liberated on the move ...

 

Lars

[Stuart GI]

I have some information regarding them around here somewhere, which I received from the John Deere historian in Moline. They were Deere factory engineers and technicians who volunteered to go overseas as crackerjack tech specialists (but as I recall, they were a special unit of the regular army, not civilian tech reps). According to the literature I got, they were the ones actually responsible for the idea of fitting the tanks with special hedgerow clearing equipment in France. The vet who's estate I got the photos from was a Production Illustrator, cartoonist, and photographer. He was also president of a John Deere Battalion reunion group.

 

Zip on the Internet about these guys, at least at the time I obtained the photos. Deere has invited me to come down and go through WW2 era company newsletters, but I haven't gotten a round tuit yet. I am guessing that the liberation photos are in a John Deere newsletter somewhere, properly captioned.

 

Thanks Don. I had no idea of that John Deere military connection, and that they get credit for such an important innovation. I know that there is a current connection in that John Deere makes a military version of the 'Gator' which is used as an in and around utility vehicle in base camps in SWA.

 

Mike

[checkit]

The armband the former prisoner sitting in front is wearing could be: "Zugbegleitung" (Train escort). Maybe they were liberated on the move ...

 

Lars

 

Hello Lars - I thought that was one thing that made this photo histroically significant. You see so many "fantasy" KZ armbands, and here is documented evidence of one actually being worn, and of course, it is nothing like the ones you see for sale.

[checkit]

This has since been posted on the Internet:

 

On August 15, 1942, Deere & Company issued a special bulletin

 

“John Deere Employees, Dealers and their Employees have received an important call to the service of their country. The War Department has asked us and our dealers to form a U.S. Army Battalion, made up entirely of men enlisted from our organization, for service as a maintenance unit for keeping mechanized combat equipment constantly in order at an established base.”

 

Col. Joseph L. Aman, commanding officer of the 303rd Ordnance Regiment, arrived in Moline, Illinois, in August 1942 to select officers and form the John Deere Battalion, officially known as the 608th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion. Nearly 950 men applied, including 642 who enlisted. More than two-thirds of the battalion’s total members came from John Deere dealerships.

 

Robert Tarbell of the John Deere Plow Co., in Syracuse, New York, was the commanding officer. Charles Deere Wiman, president of Deere & Company, resigned his position to accept a commission as colonel of the Ordnance Department, but at the request of the War Production Board returned to civilian status to serve as director of the farm machinery and equipment division of the War Production Board, based in Washington, D.C.Activated at Camp Sutton in North Carolina, the battalion received training in Pomona and Arcadia, California, and shipped overseas. They spent a year repairing tanks and artillery, first at Warminster, England, and then at the recently occupied plant in Familereaux, Belgium. Two men from the Rice City Tractor Corp. dealership in Crowley, Louisiana, enlisted as part of the John Deere Battalion.

 

Lucien Savoie and Leo Milton Miers joined the 700 men who went to Savanna, Illinois, for training in 1942 before heading to Camp Sutton in January 1943. Eventually, they sailed to Warminster, England, where they spent over a year repairing and maintaining machinery. Their Louisiana roots served Savoie and Miers well. Their ability to speak French led to their selection to serve as interpreters when the battalion deployed to France and Belgium. They served for the remainder of the war and returned to the United States on New Year’s Day, 1946.

 

 

[Garandomatic]

They also made a prototype of an armored vehicle that strongly resembled our family heirloom tricycle front end John Deere A all armored up with gun sponsors in front of the rear wheels. Very cool photo.