Hometown: Mount Ephraim, NJ
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: 747th Tank Battalion, 29th Infantry Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart 
Date of Sacrifice: June 16, 1944 - KIA in Couvains, Departement de l’Orne, Basse-Normandie, France
Age: 22 
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Delbert “Del” Sandt was born on June 2, 1922. His family home was in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia. Sandt dropped out of high school after his junior year to enter the workforce. While working at the Palace Skating Rink Camden, NJ—directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia—Sandt met his future wife Gladys Bradford of Mount Ephraim, NJ. In October of 1941, the young couple married and moved to an apartment in Mount Ephraim.

By the time Del and Gladys celebrated the birth of their daughter, Shirley, on July 30, 1942, the United States’ role in World War II was escalating. Del had registered for the draft in June of that year, and joined the U.S. Army on New Year’s Day, 1943, reporting to Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Moved to Camp Bowie, near Brownwood, Texas for basic training, Sandt was assigned to the 747th Tank Battalion. The Battalion moved to Camp Hood (Killeen, Texas) for training, followed by maneuvers and more training at Camp Polk (Leesville, Louisiana) and Camp Swift (Austin, Texas).

In February of 1944, the 747th Tank Battalion sailed for Scotland aboard the USS Charles Carroll (APA-28) in preparation for the June 6 D-Day invasion of France. Each tank crew was ordered to give a name to their tank to use as a quick field identification. The first letter in the name was required to be the same as the company’s, which for Sandt’s crew was “H” for Headquarters Company. The crew agreed to the name “Hellzapoppin,” after a popular Broadway play at the time, and stenciled the name on both sides of their Sherman tank.

At 7:00 on the morning of June 7, 1944 (D+1), the 747th Tank Battalion began landing on Omaha Beach. Engineers had laid white tape on the sand to indicate lanes where minefields had been cleared, allowing tank battalions to safely move inland.

For the next week, the 747th moved forward into France. On the evening of June 15, the Battalion Headquarters received a communication from the 29th Infantry Division, requesting a vehicle to take a forward observer up with the infantry to direct artillery fire. Cpl. Sandt’s crew and the Hellzapoppin were chosen for the mission.

Traveling through the French countryside, they stopped the tank at various spots and provided coordinates to a nearby artillery battery over the tank’s radio. After the call was made and artillery shells fired, the lieutenant in command would verify whether the strike was successful and call in adjustments if necessary, then move on to the next potential target.

On a small dirt farm road near Bois de Brétel, just south of Couvains, France, the observation unit was discovered by German defenses. Exposed to enemy fire, the Hellzapoppin took a direct hit from a Panzerfaust, a German version of a bazooka.

According to Corporal Ted Surowiec, a member of the Hellzapoppin crew who survived the attack, molten metal shrapnel ricocheted throughout the interior of the tank—igniting flammable material in the crew compartment. The tank quickly erupted into flames. Corporal Del Sandt, along with Lieutenant Louis Linsley Jr., and Private Frank Switka, did not survive the attack.

Cpl. Delbert K. Sandt was brought home in the spring of 1948 and buried at Locustwood Memorial Park in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Sources
Artist’s rendering: Craig Du Mez
Mount Ephraim War Memorial: Delbert K. Sandt
Gwinnett Daily Post—D-Day 65th anniversary: Veteran tells story of storming the beach
Fold3: Delbert Kirk Sandt
Burial Site: Find a Grave