2nd Armored Division

Label on used envelope

The label on this envelope is the tab of a Belgian "Mystamp" personalised stamp, issued on the 65th anniversary of the liberation by the 2nd armored division "Hell on Wheels". On the stamp we see 2 liberators on motorcycles driving into Taintignies, a small town in the Belgian province of Hainaut near the French border. In the upper right corner of the stamp is an imprint of the uniform badge of the 2nd Armored Division of the United States Army.

The complete personalised stamp

This armored division had a short and unfortunate history. The 2nd Armored Division was formed on October 15, 1939. The 1st Light Armored Brigade and the 22nd Heavy Armored Brigade were added. In February 1940 the 2nd Support Group was added. Because the 1st Armored Division was given preference when allocating equipment, the 2nd Armored Division had to do its job with what was available.
After the threat of a German invasion of Great Britain had passed, the Armored Division was reorganized and, after rearmament, deployed in the Middle East. The 22nd Heavy Armored Brigade was exchanged for the 3rd Armored Brigade.
The division was sent to Cyrenaica (part of Libya) in early 1941 to guard the lines of communication to the front. The 1st Armored Brigade was sent to Greece. When the armored division arrived at the front, General Archibald Wavell ordered the evacuation of the Allied forces. Unfortunately, by a pincer movement of the Italian 10th Bersaglieri Regiment, the German 5th Light Division and the German 15th Armored Division, the bulk of the 2nd Armored Division was surrounded and taken prisoner on April 8, 1941. Certain units of the 2nd Armored Division managed to escape and were evacuated to Tobruk. On May 10, 1941, the Armored Division was officially disbanded.

Today Taintignies is part of Rumes. This village was "liberated" on September 2, 1944 by a WLA rider of the same 2nd Armored Division "Hell on Wheels".
The scout had accidentally crossed the border. When he realized that after a few hundred meters, because he saw Belgian flags, he turned back, as it was not the intention to drive that far ahead of his company.

But the incident made him the first American in Belgium that day. And the village of Rumes is so proud of this history that they have placed the statue in front of it, and still commemorate their early "liberation" every year.

Postcard with picture of the WLA-monument that was unveiled in Rumes, on September 2, 2009

The Hell on Wheels badge on the schoulder of the statue of the liberator(s)

The next days the 2nd Armored Division would really liberate large parts of Belgium.

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