User:Bilhartz

I am a retired US Army armor officer with modern day experiences that have granted me insights into World War II combat in the European Theater of Operations. I attended both the 40th and 50th anniversary ceremonies for D-Day (my unit participated in the 40th ceremony and I was assigned to the embassy for the 50th) and visited numerous other sites of World War II battles throughout Western Europe, that included the reminiscences of General Knowlton at Bastogne, the route of advance of the 37th Tank Battalion to relieve the city with Colonel Leach, and talks with many American veterans visiting France. In addition to serving on variants of the M60 and M1 tanks, speaking German, I had the honor to serve as a tank commander on a Bundeswehr Leopard 1A4 on field exercises and as a French speaker to complete the French Armor and Cavalry Officers Course at Saumur and qualify on the AMX-30B2. I hope to use these insights to inform the articles to which I contribute so that others may also understand the relevance and challenges of armored combat.

I've therefore taken an interest in including entries for some of the tank battalions (and perhaps others) which saw action in World War II. I've made small advances on this so far and made the following additions to the Wikipedia knowledge base:


 * Landroff (France) - added account of battle for the village in World War II. This was the genesis of my contributions to Wikipedia.  Saw an official citation that misspelled the name of the town.  In the process of looking it up on Wikipedia, saw the battle was not mentioned.  I thought the cost of human life on this little corner of the planet—from all sides—made a short retelling of the battle worthwhile.
 * Roy Benavidez - corrected the Medal of Honor citation to reflect the citation as amended by DA GO 2001-25. On a personal note, it is a matter of pride that I returned my first salute as a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant to Master Sergeant Benavidez (and yes, he got my silver dollar).
 * Armored group (military unit) - created new entry. This level of unit is frequently mentioned in World War II histories, but rarely discussed in any useful detail. Thought this would make a useful addition to the knowledge base of World War II.
 * 70th Tank Battalion - consolidated entries for the 70th Tank Battalion and the 70th Armor Regiment. OK, that was a challenge: took 3 months of research and writing during my off time to make a reasonably complete narrative. It took another two months to research the Korean War history, but still would like more info on post-World War II activities. Recent history is arguably thin, but at least accurate.


 * 735th Tank Battalion - new article
 * 741st Tank Battalion - rewrite of rambling and unreferenced article


 * 743rd Tank Battalion - new article


 * 745th Tank Battalion - new article
 * 746th Tank Battalion - new article
 * 747th Tank Battalion - new article

Future Projects

 * 736th Tank Battalion


 * 757th Tank Battalion


 * 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion
 * 8th Infantry Regiment (United States) - current history does not even include World War II.

While the focus is a little narrow, my philosophy is stick with what you know.

Will branch out when I've had my fill of these. One additional project I will publish soon will be the first of this branching out. This will be:
 * Gardendale Railroad