US Army Sherman Tanks Nick names

Hi I haven't been on this site since 2015 and I regret that. I need help. My Uncle George Rohde jr, commanded a Sherman tank from Italy, to Berlin in 45. His tank had the name, Butcher Boy, and possibly Butcher Boy II I can't know what Batallion, Company, or regiment he was in.
George was my uncle and my Mom's oldest brother. I'm trying to find information about him and his Tank and Crew. Where would I go to find this info? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Possibly someone may have seen his tank in a book or archive. Any data would be greatly appreciated. Frank Balkus.

 

Often the first letter of a tank's "nickname" would correspond to the company that the tank was in. In this case "butcher boy" might mean that he was in a B Company. This won't help much as every tank battalion had a B Company, but hope that it is of some use.

 

I'm a grateful New Member here. I found this valuable forum here while researching my next book. It is about my Great Uncle, Corporal Pete Snoich, KIA 11-28-1944. We think he was the driver or asst. driver for his tank. I have yet to find his tank's name. However, I started working from the letters he wrote that survived. Once I deciphered his handwriting, I was able to identify his outfit via his return address. Apparently they were all required to put their ASN#, Rank and Assigned Outfit. If there are any elders alive in your family they may have letters stashed away they forgot about that will be invaluable to you.

As an example, in this way I discovered that Pete was in the 2nd Armored Division "Hell on Wheels". 66th Regiment "The Iron Knights" His first company assignment was HQ, Headquarters while in North Africa. By Sicily he was transferred into the Reconnaissance Company and remained there until his death in Germany. His letters return addresses allowed me to reconstruct these facts.

The Tank Names is what led me to this forum via a Google search. Yesterday, I just received a WW2 memoir-history of the Iron Knights, link here: Amazon.com. This Book has photos of tanks and tank names from the letters/diaries. So if you know he was 2AD vs. 3AD 3rd Armored Division, this book will help you. I'm not up on 3AD at all, no family there. TANK NAMES & PHOTOS I found in this book about the 66th SO FAR: Astoria & Alamo, confirmed Co A. Dodo, El Celeste (for the commander's wife) Hawkeye Houdini Homesick and Loretta II. None of these are my Uncle as none of them were in Recon Company.


Regarding 66th Armored Tank Regiment specifically: I just research today out of this book so its fresh in my notes & mind: on 6/14/1944 the 66th Reg reorganized its remaining Battalions in this way after landing on Normandy (beginning on DDay+3 or 6/9/1944). REORG: 1st Battalion: Companies C, F, I. 2nd Battalion: Companies A,D,E. 3rd Battalion: Companies B,G, H. It appears per this book that the following companies remained independent outside the 3 Battalions, as they were in service to all 3 Batts: HQ Headquarters, RECON Reconnaissance (my uncle Pete) Maintenance, Service. 2AD had one other armored division heavy- think the 67th. But I'm narrowly focused here on Pete, trying to reconstruct his journey here in the 66th! I hope you find some clues in the family attic too!

 

My first thought on reading this was that it was to provide mixed battalions of light and medium tanks, and it turns out that was the case: 66th Armor Regiment - Wikipedia

The regiment originally had two battalions of mediums and one of lights (1st bn, A, B, and C cos). The reorg gave each battalion two medium and one light company.