Donald V. Tompkins
Biography: Donald Victor Tompkins was born on August 14, 1920, in the small farming community of Berkey, Ohio. His parents were Frank and Ruby Alice Dings Tompkins and his only sibling was his sister Vanessa who was 8 years older. After graduating from Burnham High School in 1938, he took a job with the General Telephone Company (now Verizon) as a lineman.
Service Time: In 1942 Donald was drafted into the US Army and entered the military on October 2, shipping to Camp Hood, Texas, for basic training. He initially trained as a radio operator but his military occupation was changed to tank gunner after they observed he had near perfect scores on the shooting range.
At some point, Donald was assigned to Company A of the 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion and continued his training. He was promoted to Sergeant along the way. They were assigned to the Tank Destroyer Training Brigade as school troops for almost a year. They assisted in the development of the rocket launcher, the 3-inch gun, both towed and self-propelled, the M-10 and M-18 Tank Destroyers and the M-8 Armored Car.
On February 28, 1944, they sailed from the Boston Port of Embarkation aboard the H.M.S. Britannic, landing in Liverpool, England on March 11th. The 801st landed at Utah Beach on June 13th with towed 3-inch anti-tank guns. They fought at Mortain, France, later entering Belgium on September 8th and Germany on September 12th. Supporting operations in the Hurtgen Forest in late November, they were in the Ardennes when the German offensive struck on December 16th. Later in life, when a Belgium writer was researching for a book on the Battle of the Bulge, Donald wrote the following letter:
The night of Dec 15 or the morning of the 16th, Sgt. Gallagher had a platoon of men and I had the other platoon on an outpost far beyond the infantry. Seems like we were always in front of everything. We were in the vicinity of Honsfield if you know where that is. By the way password that night was “Armored Knight.” I shall never forget it. It was just beginning to get daylight and I heard tanks rumbling. Thought for a minute they were our own but a Tiger tank came out of the woods and fired a shot just as I was climbing into the M-8. If you have ever that experience you will never forget it. That 88 could not have missed my head over 6 inches. I will never forget that sound. Before my driver could get the M-8 started, they fired another shot and it hit the ground by the M-8 and exploded. I fired a couple of rounds of 37 MM but never did know if I hit anything or not. There were tanks all over the place so it was time to get out of there. We got over a small knoll in the road and out of sight of the Tiger tanks and one of the fellows ran back to get Jeep. About that time one of the Tiger tanks made a direct hit on the Jeep and blew it sky high.
Our Second Unit, myself, and about five others took off down the road in the M-8, but everywhere we tried to go there were Germans everywhere. Took off cross country and went as far as we could until we came to a small stream of water and couldn’t get across it. It was either leave on foot or surrender. Every vehicle was issued a thermite grenade to use in such a condition. I put it on the motor of the M-8, pulled the pin and left. I later found out that the grenade did not go off and the vehicle was later used by the Germans.
There wasn’t a one of us that had a compass so we would hide during the day and at night went in the direction that the buzz bombs were going. This went on for 4 or 5 days. Nothing to eat and only snow for water. At night we walked right through the German lines will all their guards. When we finally got back to our own lines it was early morning and we had picked up a few stragglers on the way and I believe there were 21 or 22 of us when we reached the American lines.
The 801st then moved to Aachen, Germany in February, 1945, crossing the Roer River on February 25th and the Rhine River on March 29th. Donald was involved in an action which led to a group of German soldiers to be holded up in a cave. He was instrumental in forcing their surrender and was awarded the Bronze Star. The unit eventually supported the drive to the Ruhr River before turning east to the Elbe River. After being moved south, they supported operations in the Harz Mountains in late April. They converted to M-18 Tank Destroyers in late April. Crossing the Danube River followed soon after the conversion and they reached the Inn River outside Braunau am Inn, Austria, by VE day. Donald left the service at the rank of 1st Sergeant.
Donald returned to Ohio and found work with the General Telephone Company. On December 30, 1945, he married the former Bertha Mae Thornburgh who was born in Huntington, West Virginia and was the daughter of Thomas Thornburgh. The new couple would make their home in Sylvania, OH, and have a son, David, in 1947. In his spare time, Donald enjoyed carpentry. He passed away on July 12, 2006, and was buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee.
I want to thank Donald’s son, David, for providing the photos and portions of the text used in this tribute. Thank you also to Find A Grave contributor WB33 for the use of the grave marker photo.
