A Secret Mission and a Monument to Bravery-
Finding a Memorial to an Army World War II Battalion
My dad Ed Newvine stands next to military banners honoring family members who served in the military. Chester T. Dean is memorialized with a banner honoring his service in World War II .
Over the past ten years, I have been on a mission to learn as much as I can about my great uncle Army Corporal Chester T. Dean.
Chet was killed in a training accident in Wales on June 8, 1944, just two days after D-Day.
In this space, I have shared new-found pictures, newspaper clippings, and the text of an Army Adjunct General’s letter written to the widow in response to her inquiry asking for more information on how Chet died.
The letter confirmed the worse, but went on to praise Chet as a soldier, leader, and friend to his platoon partners. This past summer, a new search started.
Taking the exact wording from what was inscribed on his headstone a new journey for more information started. What has been found is information that Chet and his battalion worked on a secret Army mission.
There’s even a memorial to that company on the grounds of a former training camp in Arizona.
Corporal Chester Dean and the headstone in the Port Leyden Cemetery.. Photos: Find a Grave.com
Chet served with the 748th Tank Battalion, Medium. They were also known at the time as the Rhinos. On August 20, 1942, they were activated from Camp Rucker in Alabama.
Eight months later on April 15, 1943, they were sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for training.
Five days later on April 20, they were reorganized as a special battalion ready for a top secret Army mission. The secret mission was all about a powerful lighting device that would be attached to tanks.
The group was trained on and equipped with special CDL spotlights. CDL stands for Canal Defense Light. CDL was a powerful searchlight mounted on a tank that was intended to be used during night-time attacks to disorientate enemy troops.
The Rhinos would be sent to Camp Bouse, Arizona where they would be attached to the 9th Armored Tank Group. Rhinos landed at Glasgow, Scotland on in early April of 1944, and then proceeded to South Wales.
The Rhinos landed in Normandy on Utah Beach on June 6th, 1944, D-Day.
Corporal Dean trained with the soldiers and remained in Wales, presumably to train with more troops that would be deployed sometime after D-Day.
Two days after D-Day, Corporal Dean was killed in a training accident in Wales.
All three locations where Chet trained: Camp Rucker, Fort Knox, and Camp Bouse are confirmed in a newspaper clipping found several years ago when I started looking for more information about my great uncle’s service.
American military history has been compiled on-line in a number of websites and databases.
I learned most of this new information for a Google search that took me to the Historical Marker Database (https://www.hmdb.org).
According to the website Veterans.ND.org, over nine-thousand troops spent time at Camp Bouse.
All were sworn to secrecy about the projects. Solders could not transfer out of the camp and their movements were restricted.
Historical marker honoring the 748th Tank Battalion, also known as the Rhinos. My great-uncle Chester Dean served with the 748th. He died in a training accident two days after D-Day in Wales where the unit prepared for deployments in the European theater. Flanking the photo are Hank Leintz and his wife Leota. Hank served in the 748th Tank Battalion. Photo: hmdb.org
The internet search took me to a stone marker and bronze plaque honoring the 748th Tank Battalion.
The monument is on the site of Camp Bouse Desert Training Center in south western Arizona.
According to the website DesertTrainingCenter.com, Camp Bouse was established in 1943 expressly for the secret CDL training. It closed when the soldiers left for Europe in the spring of 1944.
The inscription on the monument can be found at https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=92814
The man in the photo is Henry “Hank” Leintz who served in the 748th.
Hank’s son Jon was instrumental in getting the monument placed through the group E. Clampus Vitus. Hank passed in 2017.
Like many of our brave men and women who died while wearing the uniform of our armed forces, Chet Dean’s story has not been completely told.
Left: plaque marking the Bouse WW II Desert Training Camp where my great-uncle Chester T. Dean and his unit trained on the Canal Defense Light tank project. Right: Unidentified soldiers from the 399th Engineer Battalion who also trained at that location. Photos: deserttrainingcenter.com
Little by little, new information is being uncovered. We know now that the secret mission, the Canal Defense Light was found not to be as effective as the Army hoped.
That did not stop the 748th from completing the mission to win the war in Europe.
The soldiers of the 748th Tank Battalion made it to Omaha Beach, and would remain in France through the end of the war. The memorial at the site of the former Camp Bouse stands, along with several other monuments as a tribute to all the soldiers who passed through that aptly titled Desert Training Camp for that short time during the critical days of the war.
Chet Dean was there too. He paid the ultimate price.
-Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He is indebted to four groups:
Citizens of Bouse, Lost Dutchman Chapter 5917, Billy Holcomb chapter 1069, John P. Squibob Chapter 1853, and E. Clampus Vitus for making this and other monuments at Camp Bouse possible.
Steve will launch his newest book Beaten Paths and Back Roads at the October 3 meeting of the Merced Women’s Club.
His California books are available at the Merced County Courthouse Museum or online at Lulu.com