Herb Knox - The Quiet Hero Herb Knox was born on December 2, 1923 in the Cornelius/Huntersville area, north of Charlotte, NC. Herb started his schooling in a small two-room school house that is still standing. After graduation from Cornelius High School he moved to Sumter, SC, where he took a job with Kelly Motor Lines. Herb was working in the terminal on the morning of Sunday, December 7th when news of the attack on Pearl Harbor came over the radio. He decided to enlist but his father, who had fought in World War I, asked him to wait until he was drafted. He did not have to wait long. Herb was inducted at Ft. Bragg and sent to Camp Hood, for basic. Camp Hood is located in Killeen, TX and Herb remembers it as a small town that still had hitching post on Main Street. Upon completion of basic he was sent to a different area of Camp Hood for advanced weapons training. After advanced training Herb joined a tank destroyer unit for the winter maneuvers in Tennessee. In September, 1944 he was shipped to Cherbourg, France with the 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion. The area around Cherbourg was fairly secure at the time and Herb remembers feeling almost like a tourist. That feeling didn’t last long. The unit was first assigned to support a British/Canadian unit and entered the line near Wustwezel, Belgium toward the end of October and saw their first action. They were then assigned to the Big Red 1, the 1st ID, and fought along the Siegfried Line in the vicinity of Stolberg beginning in November. They occupied defensive positions along the Roer River during the Battle of the Bulge. In February, 1945 the 692nd converted from towed weapons to the M36 and supported the drive from the Roer to the Rhine. In early March they were involved in the capture of Cologne and then crossed the Rhine near the town of Worms. At some point during this time they were assigned to the 42nd ID, Rainbow Division. On April 11, 1945, as the unit raced across Germany, the 692nd encountered heavy resistance. The following paragraph is taken from the book Journey to Dachau written by Charles H. George: “On the same spring day near Herlheim, the very special driver of one of our destroyers, T4g. Herb Knox, was under attack by two platoons of German infantry. The destroyer was hit twice by Panzerfaust rockets, which set it on fire and wounded the commander and another crew member. Knox killed the charging members of the Panzerfaust “tank-killer” unit with his .45 pistol, got on the turret machine gun with the destroyer blazing and German infantry fire raging around him, killed six of the German infantry and wounded several others-forcing an obviously prudent withdrawal of what was left of the platoons. Herb managed to put out the fire in the M36; administered first aid to his wounded comrades; and his adrenaline by then surging, took over direction of the .90mm and destroyed a number of fortified German positions. Herb was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, his country’s second highest award for valor. His citation reads; “His courageous action and intrepidity under fire reflects credit upon himself and the armed forces.” Herb was also awarded the Bronze Star. As with many of his generation, Herb returned to civilian life as soon after the war as possible and with the GI Bill returned to college. At Presbyterian Junior College he played baseball, football and basketball. Herb also married Janet, a young lady he had met in the 3rd grade, at the little two-room school house. They have two children. Herb is retired from the Ralston Purina Company.