Crossing the Belgium Border September 1944:

    (As told by Taylor Maloney, a member of the 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Armored Division, from 1941 up until November 1945. Taylor served under Gen. George Patton in Ft. Benning, early in the formation of the 2nd Armored Division, Taylor was in 1st Platoon "A" Co. during the time of this accounting of his experiences.)

THIS IS MY STORY: AS TOLD BY TAYLOR H. MALONEY:

    On 2 September, 1944, we departed Valencianes Sheet: 11, GSGS, #4250, #672932 Rumancourt, France at 0530B. The mission of the company was to seize an important crossroads three miles northeast of Orchies, a distance of about 3 miles. We went a short distance when we run into a column of German Infantry that was on trucks. We went on the attack and we opened fire on them. We were lead by the Scout Section which was four Jeeps. Behind them was a light tank. I was behind it with the mortar half track. Most of the Germans had jumped out of the truck. There were four armored cars that was following behind me. We told the Germans to head for the back of the column. We kept moving until we reached our objective. A lot of the Germans had run out into the fields. We captured those that stayed on the road and sent them to the back of the column. We were of the first platoon, Company A of the 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion.We were the first American troops to reach the Belgium border. 

     There, we lost our company commander, Captain McGee. He started back over the same road that we had cleared of the Germans. We had lost radio contact with the 2nd Platoon. We were surrounded by the remains of the Germans that we had not captured. Captain McGee had tried to contact the 2nd and 3rd Platoon and wanted to go back to see if he could contact them. He was told by Sergeant Theron McElwaney not to go until the road was cleared. He went anyway and was ambushed in his jeep. Captain Clark E. McGee, Corporal Lee S. Wanne, Pfc. Leslie Herbig were killed and two hours later Pfc., Christian Albert was seriously wounded by machine gun and rifle fire. We went into the town of Orchies , France, the company captured 480 prisoners and the 3rd platoon remained at Orchies to guard the prisoners and to maintain order. I write this story to honor Captain McGee and the men who were killed on this day. 2 November 1944. I would like to write of this as only one day within over one year after we left Normandy. We were ahead of the division just about all the time. Within about two to three months, we lost another company commander. First Lieutenant Frank Jordan was assigned as company commander. In a short while later he was also killed in Germany.

Taylor's email address is as follows.

[email protected]