After witnessing the hideous atrocity of Nordhausen, the battalion had a personal tragedy of their own.
A routine trip from his command of Battery B to Battalion HQ ended Captain Potter's life. On the afternoon of 16 Apr 45, a jeep trip to HQ went terribly wrong. Captain Gordon Potter, his driver Sergeant Albert Allgeier and PFC William Ousley were ambushed and incurred multiple bullet wounds. The battalion would not learn about their fate till 3 May, seventeen days later. Three of the original Camp Edwards members. Sgt Allgeier and PFC Ousley were from Pennsylvania and are buried in Margraten Cemetery in the Netherlands. Capt. Potter was from Washington DC and is buried in Virginia.
Thank you for posting this information. Gordon Vincent Potter was my mother's cousin.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim! I am also the child of a member of the 474th. My dad was Jack Clark of A Battery. I was lucky to receive a copy of "The Maverick Outfit" by Frank Spalletti and Joseph Barrett, and created a blog that combined info from that book with my dad's own recollections, which I collected in the 1990s. Alas, he passed in 2013, and now I am converting the blog to a print-on-demand book. Please take a look at https://majorgoofup.blogspot.com/ and tell me what you think. It may answer some of your questions, and perhaps we can start a conversation.
ReplyDeleteAny info on the half-track photo below? It looks like an M-16? My dad was a gunner on an M-15. Is this half-track a 474th one? Perhaps one your dad was associated with?
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