Source Material for 110th AAA Gun Bn Book (ETO)

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This document archive surfaced at the Show of Shows last month. It’s a collection of wartime letters that the late Lonnie Speer (1949-2010) used as primary source material to write his history of the 110th AAA Gun Battalion published in 2006. The 110th earned five campaign stars including Normandy and the Ardennes. I don't think this archive has sold, at least the seller from Georgia took it home.

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Close up of some of the letters

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More letters

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And a synopsis of Mr. Speer’s book:

"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. Landing on the beach with elements of the 29th Infantry Division and later supporting the 30th Infantry Division in the breakout of St. Lo, the 110th AAA would become the FIRST 90mm Gun Battalion to shoot down a German plane on French soil, the first American AA unit to enter Paris, chosen to guard First Army Headquarters at Spa, Belgium, and then go on to distinction during the Battle of the Bulge and, later, in the protection of the Remagen Bridge. Although Driving Hitler's Crawlin Coffin begins with the induction of one person into the 110th AAA, it illustrates how his situation was typical of all its members and then goes on to chronicle the entire history of the battalion from its inception at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in April 1943, through its combat history of WWII, to its deactivation in Germany in October 1945, all based on many first-hand accounts from interviews of the veterans, themselves, and a wide range of additional primary sources and previously unpublished material such as military records and archives, morning reports, individual, battery, and battalion awards and commendations and soldiers' letters, diaries, and memoirs.

[Alex Boban]

Thanks for sharing, I'm currently reading this book. It is filled with very detailed information and many veterans personal stories. The author did an excellent job gathering all this information.

The 110th AAA was attached to the 29th ID during D-Day. The plan was for them to land a few hours after the infantry to provide anti-aircraft support as soon as possible. Due to the situation on the ground, they spent most of this fateful day aboard their LSTs, waiting on orders to land. Only a few men made it to Omaha late on June 6th to recon the area and identify the best location to set their 90mm guns. The rest of the battalion finally got the OK to land on the 7th.

 

Any ideas who was the seller and what the asking price was?

 

Alex

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It’s definitely rare to find a well-written book about an antiaircraft unit, especially a book written after the 1940s. The seller was from Hoschton, Georgia, and I don’t know what price he was asking for the letters. He mentioned that he acquired them sometime over the past year from an antique dealer. I'll send you what contact information I have for him.