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All or most of the information on this page came from the contact listed below. If you have comments or can add any information, please send e-mail to him. Thank you very much.
Nickname: Camel Caravan
Association: 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion Association
Reunions:
Contact: LtCol Bruce Elliott, USA Retired, created this website and he was the history of the 87th CMB. May he rest in peace. Burial in the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery
Newsletter: Camel Caravan
Activated: 22 May 1943 as 87th Chemical Bn Motorized at Camp Rucker, AL
Training:
3 Feb 1944 - 24 Mar 1944 Tennessee Maneuver Area
Redesignated: 26 Apr 1945 as 87th Chemical Mortar Bn
Inactivated: 6 Nov 1945 at Fort Benning, GA
Overseas: Arrived NYPE 31 Mar 1944, England 7 Apr 1944, France-ETO 6 Jun 1944; returned NYPE 2 Aug 1945
Campaigns: Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe, Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland
Number of men killed in action: 65 (see Honor Roll of names)
Number of days in combat: 326
Number of rounds fired: 184,010 total (74,406 WP and 109,604 HE)
Histories
- History of the 87th Cml Mortar Bn
- History of Co A, 87th Cml Mortar Bn, by Robert L. Greenleaf
- History of Co C, 87th Cml Mortar Bn USA After Action Report
- The Mortarmen, by Michael Connelly
- Video interview with S/Sgt. Joseph W. Kneiper. Co. C, 87th Chemical Mortar Bn.
| This monument is to the 87th Chemical Mortar Bn, the Camel Caravan. On 12 June 1998 at the former Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, the battalion dedicated a monument to its members who made the supreme sacrifice during combat in Europe in World War II. The monument is located at the edge of the parade ground near the post chapel. This is now known as the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, earlier known as Edgewood Arsenal and then as the Army Chemical Center. |
Tales by Glenn Brunt - Julian Brunt served with the 87th in training and in combat, and has passed on many personal-interest stories about that service in Co A to his son, Glenn, who re-tells some of them here.
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During the fight in Aachen, my father, who was the platoon FO at the time (the two lieutenants in the platoon rotated every four days), spotted a house with movement in it. He called in a fire mission on the house, and all four mortars in his platoon fired on it. The platoon was proud that each gun was able to get 12 rounds in the air before the first one impacted, and with some accuracy; but on this occasion they hit the house with only 12 rounds. Those 12 really did the trick though, and the men were sure they had taken care of whatever threat had been there. But, as the smoke and fired cleared, Dad was amazed to see movement. The smoke cleared some more and the figure of an old German woman appeared in peasant dress and scarf, staring at my father's well-concealed position, shaking a raised finger at him and his men in admonishment. So much for unit pride!
Chocolate milk. Company A's first platoon was made up of men from a variety of backgrounds, but S/Sgt Brunt was the only country boy, a status that was much played on by the other men. While still in the hedge rows of Normandy, Brunt one day found a cow that was in need of milking. To the astonishment of the men, Brunt quickly removed his steel pot and brought it back just as quickly to the men's position full of warm milk. Without comment, he then built a small fire, placed the helmet on it and shaved a chocolate bar into the warming brew. Chocolate milk! It became the drink of preference and did much to raise the status of Brunt in the eyes of the city boys. It was the first lesson of many.