761st Tank Battalion

On 15 March 1942, the War Department activated the 761st Tank Battalion (Light) at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. Its 36 officers and 593 enlisted men moved to Camp Hood, Texas, to train and convert to M4A3 Sherman tanks. On 10 October 1944, the Black Panthers landed on Omaha Beach to fight in the 3rd Army commanded by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., who greeted them himself. As a unit of the 26th Infantry Division's Provisional Task Force A, the 761st first engaged the enemy on 8 November 1944 and joined the attack eastward through Lorraine, dislodging enemy forces at Moyenvic, Bezange la Petite, and Hill 253 after furious fighting. Similar engagements followed daily as the battalion pushed through the Moselle department into Germany, overcoming resistance in town after town. In the Allied counteroffensive to Operation Wacht Am Rhein, also known as the Battle of the Bulge, the 761st supported several divisional forces, beginning with the 87th Infantry Division's 345th Infantry Regiment. At Tillet, Belgium, it assaulted enemy panzer and infantry units and forced their withdrawal after two days of fighting. During the next two weeks, the battalion attacked other enemy strongpoints, disrupted resupply efforts, and interdicted reinforcements. For the last two weeks of the German offensive, it helped split enemy lines at three points, hastening the relief of Bastogne. On 23 March 1945, as the armored spearhead for Task Force Rhine, the 761st attacked the Siegfried Line and, often operating beyond the range of friendly artillery and against last-ditch resistance, captured seven German towns, more than 400 vehicles, 80 heavy weapons, 200 horses, and countless small arms. Reaching Steyr, Austria, on 5 May, the Black Panthers were among the first Americans to link up with Soviet forces. During 183 days of unrelieved combat, the 761st participated in four campaigns, inflicted 130,000 casualties, and captured, destroyed, or liberated more than 30 towns, several concentration camps, four airfields, three ammunition supply dumps, 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns, and thousands of individual and crew-served weapons. The Black Panthers received a Presidential Citation for extraordinary gallantry, courage, professionalism, and high esprit de corps in unusually difficult and hazardous operations in the European Theater of Operations.

Bedford, Virginia · United States