W.W.II 104th Infantry Division
(Leland Lee Palmer Page)
This page pays tribute to the W.W.II 104th Army Infantry
Division,
better known as the "Timberwolves", under the command of Major General
Terry de la Mesa Allen. This is a non official web site, not
affiliated
with the U.S. Army or any other government agency. Information in
this web site is designed to augment the official 104th Infantry
Division
Home Page web site: http://www.104infdiv.org/
Please refer to the official home page for complete information
about the Timberwolf Division. Timberwolves or Timberwolf "Pups"
are invited and encouraged to use this site to gather additional
information about former buddies. Anyone having additional
information
on the 104th, photos or other memorabilia are requested to contact the
webmaster of this site.
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(click on an image to enlarge, back
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| Leland Lee Palmer | Pvt. Davenport, Pvt. Palmer |
*(These are) "photos of my father, Leland Lee Palmer, 104th Infantry Division, 415th Regiment, Company F.
He was drafted into the U S Army in January of 1944 and served until June 1946, participating in all major actions of the division. He seldom spoke about the war, and then only briefly. After the war, he married my mother and raised three children, living a stable and quiet life, but throughout his life, quietly struggling with depression. On a wintry day in 1992, he ended his own life after a particularly bad stretch of depression. I think the roots of it lay in the war.
A relative told us that Dad's experiences in the war changed him, that before the war, Leland was "the life of the party". But the father we knew was solemn and seldom smiled, would not watch violence on TV, and would not go deer hunting. Once when I was about to visit Germany in 1974, he asked me not to go, saying: "I didn't have a good experience in Germany...I don't think the Germans are good people." But he would not elaborate. After his death in 1992, I learned from my mother that his
division had liberated the Nordhausen concentration camp and had been in much hard fighting. In those days, there were no internet resources and I knew little. Anything I know I've pretty much learned since then, largely from the internet and from sites like this one.
Leland told us that when he first got into the army, he thought it was a great adventure, but the first battle they got into was a bad one, and most of his buddies were killed, and he didn't know why he was still alive after that.
My brother once asked him if a bazooka could stop a tank from a frontal attack. Daddy responded something like: "We were out in a town in Germany, temperature was in the single digits, night-time, nearly frozen to death, (guess it must have been Jan. or Feb.) 1945, and we (a squad of about 12 people) came upon a house about two blocks away, with a truck, sounded like a deisel, running out in front of a house, with headlights on. After a while, two German officers, came out of the house talking loudly in German and got in the truck, slamming doors as they went. After discussion amongst the squad as to what they should do, the B.A.R. man (Browning automatic rifle), opened fire on the truck. They
immediately discovered they were dealing with a German tank. Daddy said the tank, firing his machine guns (two of his automatic guns), came part of the way up the street towards them. Daddy then told of his commander sending him, with bazooka in hand (was not his position to carry bazooka within his squad, but was qualified to operate such), to wait for the tank behind a rock terrace wall, about 3 ft. high, about half way down to where tank was approaching from. He then explained that German tanks could only be knocked out from the side, or rear. From the side you could hope to shoot though to the inside of the the tank, with schrapnel rattling around inside vehicle that would disable operators,
or from behind take out the motor, or if you were lucky, you might knock a track off from the front, causing them to stall. Daddy said this was the most scared he ever was in his lifetime, but said he went anyways, said the tank came within about 15 yrds. of his position, yet never closed the distance for a shot. Said they (Germans) started backing up, and eventually backed up out of sight. Daddy's comment after this was "I never figured why the squad leader sent me to possibly encounter this tank, till this day". -- Pat G. Palmer
(*Webmaster note: I believe the Pvt. Davenport shown in one of the above photos is Walter I. Davenport, from Tennesee. He was killed in action and received the Purple Heart posthumously.)
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