Jack’s Story

Jack Wilson arrived in Europe as a tank officer with Company A of the 17th Tank Battalion, 7th Armored Division. Within weeks, he and his men were fighting for their lives at St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge.

From the desperate defense of St. Vith through the fighting that carried the 7th Armored across Germany and into the Ruhr Pocket, Jack’s Story follows one young tank commander through the final months of World War II.

For nearly fifty years, Jack said little about what he had experienced. Then he began to tell his family. His wartime letters reveal the young man inside the tank: his humor, his love for Jean, his hopes of coming home, and the things he could not tell her. His later recollections reveal what the letters could not: the fear, the loss, and the decisions of combat.

Military records and original after-action reports place his experiences within the larger battles unfolding around him. Together they tell the story Jack left behind.