TANK FIGHTER TEAM

I found out about this book from my friend David Lehmann in France, I was looking for books
to read about The Battle Of France that were in English and he came across this book and
so I ordered it from Merriam Press in PDF format.

After reading this book I wanted to know more about Robert Gerard and so I started
searching the internet to see if I could find out more about this man.
There wasn't much about him on the net, just a few tid bits of information here and there.
1. Once back in the U.S. he finished his schooling at Harvard Business School.
2. He did some work at FT. Knox

With the little information I could find I started talking to Harvard and to FT. Knox and
three months later I was talking to Mr. Robert Gerard on the telephone!
I wont go into all the details but I will say that after his schooling at Harvard he did indeed go
to work at FT. Knox and helped train U.S. soldiers in tank combat.
It was an honor to speak with this man who not only served his country France but also
served his new country the U.S.A.

What follows is the first few pages from the book Tank Fighter Team.
I highly recommend you buy this book(only one dollar from Merriam Press)

ABBEVILLE TO ROUEN In November, 1939, I was called back to France for military duty and left the United States on a French convoy. When I completed my course at the Saumur Cavalry School, I was given a commission as second lieutenant in the French Armored Force. I was retained for a few weeks at the School to get additional training in tank engineering.   On May 17,1944, I was transferred to the organization center of the French Armored Force in Monthlery, twenty miles west of Paris.  There I waited For my assignment to a fighting unit, and finally, I learned that the French were building up several armored combat teams. We were told that these new units would be sent on dangerous missions and that everyone who joined them must be a volunteer.  I volunteered and was fortunate enough to be given the best possible job in my particular team, the job of second-in-command, under the captain in command.  And so on May 26th I was assigned to one of the "Groupes Franc" formed in those last desperate days.  Groupe Franc means unattached group: we could be sent anywhere we were needed to aid hard-pressed troops. We were to operate directly under the headquarters of any infantry division which could use our services. The specific mission of our Groupe Franc was one of a rear guard action-to protect the retreat of an infantry division. We were actually a special antitank unit, protecting the division against tank attacks, That the group was pretty much of a "suicide unit" is apparent from the fact that out of 250 men in the group, over 100 were killed, 50 were wounded, 80 were taken prisoner, and only 17 came back. The composition of this combat team has particular interest because it included, within a small unit and under the unified command of a captain, five medium tanks, five armored cars, two 25-mm. antitank guns, two 47-mm. antitank guns, fifty infantrymen on trucks with heavy machine guns, 25 side-cars with machine guns, ten solo motorcycles with machine guns for reconnaissance, liaison, and transmission of orders, several ammunition and supply trucks three gasoline trucks, one kitchen truck, one repair truck, one telephone truck, and one radio truck.  It was thus a little army in itself, an integrated combat team. A more detailed description of the composition of the unit is given in the first table in the Appendix. The equipment of our Groupe Franc was brand new. It took us from May 26th to June 3rd to get fully equipped and ready to leave for the front.  The medium tanks were the French Somua, model 1939, which the Germans have said was the best tank in the Battle of France. (In fact, I have heard they are making them now.) The armored cars were Panhard cars. The antitank guns were of the two newest models in the French Amy, towed by brand-new six wheel prime-movers of the Laffly type. The sidecars were Indian machines, made in Springfield, Massachusetts. The solo motorcycles were Royals, built in England. The command cars used by the officers were small French passenger cars, the Peugeot 302.  Finally, most of the supply and ammunition trucks, and the trucks used to carry the fifty infantrymen, were General Motors trucks. Practically every man in the Groupe Franc carried a rifle, Model 1936.  A more detailed description of the equipment is given in the second table in the Appendix. Not only were the officers in the Groupe Franc volunteers, but the men too. About half of them were Foreign Legion men. They were extremely hard to handle away from battle, but they proved to be remarkable fighters in battle itself.  About one-fourth of them were regulars, and the rest draftees.  The draftees, however, had gone through two years of military training and had been recalled by the French Amy for the war. My captain, in command of the Groupe Franc, was a regular army officer, thirty-five years old. He had served for years in the motorized cavalry, and had seen actual battle experience in Belgium in the present war as a commander of a company of armored cars.  All his armored cars had been destroyed in combat, a few in one fight and a few in another, until he finally found himself surrounded by the Germans around Cambrai, in the northern part of France.  With his last three armored cars he broke through a German motorized infantry column and managed to rejoin the French forces. The fact that our captain had already been through it gave us confidence in him as commander. It was mainly through his remarkable leadership that our Groupe Franc accomplished its missions swiftly and efficiently.