Self-propelled AAA automatic weapons battalion:

The battalion is the basic self-contained administrative and tactical unit of antiaircraft artillery.

Self-propelled automatic weapons battalion and medical detachment, T/O & E 44-75. The battalion consists of a headquarters and headquarters battery (T/O & E 44-76), and four self-propelled firing batteries (T/O & E 44-77).

MISSIONS
PRIMARY MISSION. The primary mission of automatic weapons is to attack all enemy aircraft within range, particularly low flying aircraft to destroy them, cause them to abandon their missions, or to decrease the efficiency of their operations.

SECONDARY MISSION. The secondary mission of automatic weapons is to attack and destroy enemy mechanized or other ground targets within range, particularly light and medium tanks and armored cars; in coast defenses, to attack and destroy enemy motor torpedo boats or other light naval craft within range; or in support of infantry, to act as reinforcing infantry weapons or tank destroyers.

The appropriate division or higher commander must decide in each case when automatic weapons will be diverted from their primary mission and employed to accomplish their secondary mission.

SELF-PROPELLED CARRIAGES.
Multiple gun motor carriage M15A1. The multiple gun motor carriage M15A1, used in self-propelled units, has one 37-mm gun and two caliber .50 machine guns mounted coaxially as a unit on a half-track vehicle. The gun mount is traversed and elevated manually. The mount can be elevated from 00 to 85° and traversed 3600. However, fire to the front of the vehicle is restricted at low elevations. (See FM 44-59.)

Multiple gun motor carriage M16. The multiple gun motor carriage M16, used in machine gun squads of self-propelled units, is a multiple machine gun mount mounted in a half-track vehicle. The machine gun mount is the same as used on the trailer mount M55 and carriage M51 (par. 14c and d). Fire to the front of the vehicle is restricted at low elevations (See FM 44-57.)

RADIO NETS, SELF-PROPELLED BATTALION.
a. Higher headquarters net. The SCR-506 located in the communications section at battalion headquarters is employed in the group command net when operating under group control. When the battalion is the highest AAA unit in the AAA defense, this set is utilized to communicate with higher headquarters.

b. Battalion command net. One frequency only is provided for command purposes from battalion headquarters to fire units. The SCR-508 located at battalion headquarters (communication section) is the control station of this net.

c. AAAIS net. This net includes the SCR-593 located at battalion headquarters (S-2 and S-3 section), the SCR-593's located at battery headquarters (communication section), the SCR-593's located at platoon headquarters (platoon commander's car), and the eight (8) SCR-543's located at observation posts. This frequency will be common to all AAA units in the army or air defense area,

I was assigned to the 899th AAA Bn., 28th Inf. Div., at Nellingen Kaserne in April 1954.

In November 1954, the 28th (Penn. Nat'l Guard) was deactivated. My unit became the 42nd AAA Bn., 9 Inf. Div., and remained that designation when I departed in August 1956.

The 42nd (four line batteries and Headquarters Battery) were quartered next to the parade ground, adjacent to the back gate (where the road went up to a village named Shulenbuk) (Webmaster note: Scharnhausen?). I recall that an engineering battallion (which designation I can't remember) was quartered just east of us next to the post EM club. Farther down lay the medical unit, the service area (theater, px, snack bar, library) near the front gate on the road to Nellingen, where troops on pass could catch the strassenbahn to Esslingen, thence the train to Stuttgart.

When I arrived, our battalion was equipped with halftracks, some armed with quad 50's, others with 37mm cannon flanked by two 50's (the gun platforms hand-cranked). In 1955 the unit was re-equipped with M48's armed with twin 40mm cannons.

I was a radio operator on the early warning net run by battalion S2 (Capt. William D. Corley). Capt. Robert Hollingsworth was our Headquarters Battery commander. In three-man units, our platoon, equipped with Jeep-mounted AN/GRC-9 radios, occupied high points in our operational area, to warn battalion of any aircraft bandits sighted. We ranged all over Baden-Württemberg on regular duty, went every winter to Hohenfels-Grafenwoehr for firing exercises, and all over Bavaria for spring maneuvers. My favorite of all outposts, though, was an abandoned (and badly damaged) castle atop Kircheim unter Teck, just off the autobahn toward Ulm.

I once spotted an F86 (which was playing bandit) somewhat below our observation point.

In the valley, in 1955, a glider club (Germans were not allowed to own powered aircraft at that time) had a launch and landing field. I took my first glider ride in one of their craft, with a young German named Rolfe piloting.

Once in late winter my team spent a week on top of Kirkheim unter Teck. We had a new driver, Pvt. Jesus Gonzalez, a young cowboy from the King Ranch in south Texas. Snow was coming down hard when we awoke one morning and received radio orders to return to kaserne for "replenishment." We carried our gear in a 5x8 two-wheel Army trailer. By the time we had packed up, there was about a foot of snow on the ground. Gonzalez had never seen snow before, though he admitted to having heard stories about it. Joe Olivero, a kid from Cincinatti, and I were uneasy about going down that mountain's twisted trail with Jesus at the wheel, so to speak. The cowboy insisted, however, that he was the driver and would drive. We hadn't gone 500 yards down the mountain when the Jeep skidded, jack-knifing the trailer, sliding into the ditch on the uphill side. Joe and Jesus were both ashen-faced, and I must have been, too. "Thees horse don't do right," Jesus said, voice quivering. It took us an hour to get the jeep and trailer back on the trail, and I drove down the rest of the way.