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Contact Info
Home Town Port Jervis
Last Address Bradenton, FL
Date of Passing Dec 27, 2002
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Lewis Clark Taynton, Colonel, United States Army (Retired), a resident of the Washington, D.C. area during the 1960'S, passed away in Bradenton, Florida, on December 27, 2002.
Born in Port Jervis, New York, on September 17, 1917, Colonel Taynton had a distinguished 27-year career with the Army. He was a highly decorated combat veteran of World War II. Awards received during his career include: three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, and the Legion of Merit. During the war, Colonel Taynton served with the 70th Tank Battalion, earning eight campaign stars including the invasion of North Africa, invasion of Sicily, invasion of Normandy, engagements in Northern France and the Ardennes.
The battalion sailed with the 1st Infantry Division on 9 January 1942 for the French island of Martinique in the West Indies because it "was probably the only tank battalion combat ready for this amphibious operation". In February 1942 Company C was detached and sent for garrison duty in Iceland, with a new Company C being formed in May. Company A was detached later in the year, and landed in North Africa as part of Operation Torch, attached to the 39th Regimental Combat Team.
The battalion landed in Sicily as part of Operation Husky in July 1943, and was withdrawn to England in November, where it re-equipped as a standard battalion with M4 Shermans. The former Company C (now designated as Company D) rejoined the battalion, giving it four tank companies.
The battalion suffered some casualties when during Exercise Tiger on an early morning of 28 April 1944, German E-boats that had left Cherbourg on patrol spotted a convoy of 8 LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade in Lyme Bay and attacked.
On D-Day it landed on Utah Beach as part of the 4th Infantry Division, supporting the 8th Infantry Regiment led by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.; companies A and B used amphibious DD Sherman tanks. It fought in the northward drive to Cherbourg, and in the breakout from St.-Lo, through France and into Belgium, entering Germany on September 13th. It fought in the Hurtgen Forest in November, and moved to the Ardennes in December, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. On March 29th 1945 it crossed the Rhine, and moved quickly through Germany, crossing the Danube on April 25th and ending the war near the Austrian border.
The battalion performed occupation duties until mid-1946, when it was deactivated; shortly thereafter, it was reactivated as a training unit at Fort Knox. In 1949, it was redesignated the 70th Heavy Tank Battalion and reduced to a three-company establishment.
Other assignments during his career included the Armored School (Fort Knox, Kentucky, Occupational Forces Command (Salzburg, Austria), Command and General Staff College (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas), Armed Forces Staff College (Norfolk, Virginia), Base Comptroller (Fort Ord, California, Military Advisor for Financial Management to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Pentagon) and Faculty Member and then Comandant of the Army Management School (Fort Belvoir, Virginia) where he retired in 1965.
He was an Associate Professorial Lecturer in business administration of the off-campus faculty of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Survivors include: his wife of 62 years, Laura Craig Taynton; two sons, Lewis F. Taynton of Sudley Springs, Virginia, A. Craig Taynton of Martinsburg, West Virginia; four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His only daughter, Diane Carol Johnson died in 1984.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Ardennes Alsace Campaign (1944-45)/Battle of the Bulge
From Month/Year
December / 1944
To Month/Year
January / 1945
Description The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. Hitler planned the offensive with the primary goal to recapture the important harbour of Antwerp. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. United States forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred the highest casualties for any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's war-making resources.
The battle was known by different names. The Germans referred to it as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), while the French named it the Bataille des Ardennes ("Battle of the Ardennes"). The Allies called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase "Battle of the Bulge" was coined by contemporary press to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps and became the best known name for the battle.
The German offensive was supported by several subordinate operations known as Unternehmen Bodenplatte, Greif, and Währung. As well as stopping Allied transport over the channel to the harbor of Antwerp, Germany also hoped these operations would split the British and American Allied line in half, and then proceed to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis Powers' favor. Once that was accomplished, Hitler could fully concentrate on the eastern theatre of war.
The offensive was planned by the German forces with the utmost secrecy, minimizing radio traffic and moving troops and equipment under cover of darkness. Despite their efforts to keep it secret, the Third U.S. Army's intelligence staff predicted a major German offensive, and Ultra indicated that a "substantial and offensive" operation was expected or "in the wind", although a precise date or point of attack could not be given. Aircraft movement from the Russian Front and transport of forces by rail, both to the Ardennes, was noticed but not acted upon, according to a report later written by Peter Calvocoressi and F. L. Lucas at the codebreaking centre Bletchley Park.
Near-complete surprise was achieved by a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions, which grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. Fierce resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive around Elsenborn Ridge and in the south around Bastogne blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success; columns that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This and terrain that favored the defenders threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. Improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line.
About 610,000 American forces were involved in the battle,[2] and 89,000 were casualties, including 19,000 killed. It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II.