Steel Victory: The Heroic Story of America's Independent Tank Battalions at War in Europe - Hardcover

Yeide, Harry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0891417826 ISBN 13: 9780891417828

Publisher: Presidio Press, 2003

Synopsis

Advancing at the speed of the infantry, the U.S. Army independent tank battalions ground slowly across the continent during World War II, from the bloody beaches of Normandy; through forests, villages, and cities in France, Belgium, and Germany; and into Czechoslovakia at the war’s end. Greater in number than the battalions in the vaunted armor divisions, the infantry tanks were doled out to a platoon here and a company there to undertake the war’s dirtiest mission–prying enemy troops from every position across the breadth of the great Allied offensive line of 1944-45. The bold American tank infantry teams of WWII’s European theater have become the stuff of legend. But the true details of their amazing missions have never been revealed in one comprehensive work of popular history . . . until now.

Using the words of the tank soldiers themselves, and the radio logs of their real-time communications, Harry Yeide vividly brings back all the men and machines of this crucial method of combat–one that, in the end, may have won the war. Here are startling revelations of the treacherous fighting, and the challenges and dangers of battling a better-equipped enemy in outmoded, slow-moving “death traps.” Inside you will discover:

· Tank commanders were often trained only for invasion–and were given no tactical training for what to do after penetrating the maze of hedgerows
· Tankers learned to fear their own air force in friendly fire from the “American Luftwaffe”
· Due to inadequate periscopes, commanders often entered battles with their heads stuck out of the turrets, becoming “priority targets” for German snipers
· Many tanks sank 1,000 to 5,000 feet away from the Normandy shore on D day.

Steel Victory recounts how tank planning, expertise, and accuracy grew as the war roared on–and reveals the inside story of how tank battalions turned the tide in the Battle of the Bulge and other major encounters of the European war. Here is an honest, painstakingly researched history of these man-driven vehicles that, in the words of one soldier, “saved the day, shot the hell out of the Germans, and had the hell shot out of them.”

About this title

About the Author:

Harry Yeide is an international affairs analyst with the federal government. He has worked primarily with political and security/military issues, writing assessments for the president of the United States and senior policymakers. Yeide lives with his wife in Maryland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

1

GENERAL McNAIR’S CHILDREN

By the time dirt-grimed tankers rolled up to the assembly area south of Isigny and staff officers had gone out to report that the 743d had arrived as ordered, the XIX Corps had already planned an attack for the 30th [Infantry] Division. . . .

Move Out, Verify: The Combat History of the 743d Tank Battalion

Fifty-four medium tanks, model M4 Sherman; 6 assault guns, model M4 mounting 105mm howitzers; 17 light tanks, usually model M5 Stuart; 750 officers and men. Mere “attachments” to the infantry divisions and unglamorous step-sisters to the storied armored divisions, the U.S. Army’s separate tank battalions carried a heavy load in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in World War II, but tend to get little attention. Their tanks fought beside—and often in front of—the “doughs” of the Big Red One, the Old Hickory Division, and other outfits whose well-earned reputations would not have been as grand were it not for the contributions made by the tank crews and their supporting troops. Soldiering in tanks that many considered outmoded death traps, they gave as good as they got (and often more) against a battle-honed foe who could deploy Panthers, Tigers, and other menacing war machines that excelled at killing from a distance and shrugging off American armor-piercing shells.

Wayne Robinson, who served with and wrote the informal history of the 743d Tank Battalion, described a battalion’s role in these terms:

A separate tank battalion assigned to work with an infantry division fought at the foot soldier’s pace. Its job was to give the doughboy’s attack the added punch that tanks have, to bull ahead when the going got rough, to knock down houses Jerry tried to use as forts, to stop enemy tanks in the counterattacks, to spearhead a way for the doughboy and his rifle, his machine gun, and his mor- tar. . . . Often the doughboy regiment and its attached tank battalion slugged it out with the Jerry on the line for days, inching painfully ahead to engineer an opening in the enemy defenses through which the star ball carriers, the armored divisions, could do their free and fancy open-field running. When this happened, it became the job of the doughboy and his supporting tanks to follow up as fast as they could, moving behind the swift, surging, twenty-mile-a-day drives. The infantry moved and fought, mopping up the pockets of resistance always left in the wake of such drives. But mostly, while the big armor waited in reserve for the quarterback to call their number and set them going through the line, the infantry and the separate tank battalion were in the thick of the line play, fighting and getting hurt, always under fire, within enemy artillery range, doing their work ever at the front of the division’s sector.

The mission of the separate tank battalion as outlined in FM 17-33, 19 December 1944, was as follows:

·To lead the attack.

·To support by direct fire the advance of light tanks, other medium tanks, and ground troops.

·To feel out the enemy and develop weak spots.

·To serve as a reserve for exploiting a success or breaking up a counterattack against the supported unit.

·To accompany the infantry and assist the advance by destroying or neutralizing automatic weapons and pillboxes holding up the advance.

·To fight enemy tanks when necessary.

·To destroy dug-in pillboxes as necessary.

·To reinforce artillery fires.

·To assist the infantry in mop-up.

By the end of the war, infantry and tank commanders appended an additional role on the basis of combat experience: transporting infantry on tanks in fast-moving operations.

A mere four years separated the creation of the first tank battalions from the grueling combat of Normandy, France. Starved of resources, the U.S. Army had allowed its tank force to fade into irrelevance after World War I. Stunned by the German Wehrmacht’s Blitzkrieg through Poland and France, Congress found the money, and the Army re-created an Armored Force on 10 July 1940. The independent tank battalions were part of the scheme from the start, albeit initially as a side show. That they existed at all was the result of a doctrinal dispute between a group consisting mostly of cavalry officers who thought in terms of armored divisions and German-style Blitzkrieg, and a group who viewed tanks as an important infantry- support weapon.

The armored divisions look back on cavalry officers such as George Patton, Adna Chaffee, and Daniel Van Voorhis as their forebears; all were men who realized the tank’s potential in warfare and argued their cause. Chaffee became the first commander of the Armored Force, and the swashbuckling Patton became the U.S. Army’s most effective practitioner of mechanized warfare in the ETO. Despite the establishment of a separate Armored Force (in part to end the wrangling between the cavalry and infantry over the control and use of tanks), cavalry officers largely determined the organization, doctrine, and mission of the armored divisions.

Fittingly for the independent tank battalions, their most important patron during the early evolution of the Armored Force was the decidedly unglamorous, hard-of-hearing Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, who, as commander of the General Headquarters (GHQ), lacked any clear authority over the newly created organization. His views on the subject nevertheless carried great weight at the War Department. Along with other senior infantry officers, McNair continued to champion the traditional infantry-support role of armor, which had a pedigree dating back to World War I. Whether or not this was wise lies in the eye of the beholder and admits to no authoritative answer. Military historian David Johnson, in an innovation-themed study of the Army during this period, concluded, “The GHQ [i.e., separate] tank units were memorials to the War Department’s reluctance to completely discard its conventional tank wisdom for a new concept.” Johnson himself concedes, however, that the cavalry officers in the Armored Force were perfectly comfortable with an infantry-support role for some of the tank battalions. And infantry commanders throughout the war expressed strong support for the concept. As a pragmatic answer, the arrangement worked in the ETO.

As of 1940, the War Department contemplated the activation of only fifteen GHQ tank battalions organized under three Reserve (later Tank and then Armored) Group headquarters. McNair was convinced from the start that the Armored Force was the most wasteful of the ground arms in its use of men and equipment, and he argued in 1942 and 1943 that the armored divisions were bloated and unwieldy. Combat experience helped McNair make his case by showing that tanks frequently needed escort by foot troops to locate and destroy antitank defenses. In 1943, McNair wrote in a memorandum: “It is believed that our 1943 troop basis has entirely too many armored divisions, considering their proper tactical employment, and too few GHQ tank battalions. It is particularly important that the latter be available in quantities to permit all infantry divisions to work with them freely and frequently.”

In part due to McNair’s influence, the armored divisions were reorganized twice, first in March 1942 and again in September 1943. The latter affected all but the 2d and 3d Armored divisions and released two battalions per division into the GHQ pool. Standard separate battalions were made identical to the divisional battalions and hence could theoretically be attached to armored divisions—although that did not occur directly in even a single case in the European campaign. Prior to the reshuffle, a sharp distinction existed between medium and light tank battalions. Afterward, although a few light tank battalions continued to exist, the vast majority were mixed. Each had three medium tank companies (seventeen tanks each), one light tank company (seventeen tanks), and six assault guns (Shermans mounting a 105mm howitzer in place of the normal 75mm cannon). The battalions also became administratively self-contained, each receiving a service company and a headquarters company.

Several tank battalions (701st, 736th, 738th, 739th, 740th, and 748th) were organized as special battalions under T/O & E (Table of Organization and Equipment) 17-45S and equipped largely with M3 Grants mounting special searchlights and code-named Canal Defense Lights (CDLs). Each CDL battalion had a headquarters company, a service company, and three medium-tank companies, each with three platoons consisting of six CDL tanks and one standard fighting tank. Each company also had two standard tanks as command tanks, and battalion headquarters had three more.

Developed by the British in 1939, the CDL project was shared with the United States in 1942 with the proviso that American forces would not use the equipment without checking with London first. Moreover, the components would be manufactured by different firms and assembled under military supervision in order to maintain secrecy. The primary mission of CDL tanks was to provide illumination for aimed fire at night. Secondary missions included dazzling enemy soldiers with a flicker effect and protecting friendly foot troops in triangles of darkness formed between adjacent lights. Training, conducted in strictest secrecy at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and the Desert Training Center at Indio, California, was completed between December 1943 (736th and 748th) and April 1944 (739th). No CDL battalion was used in combat as such. In light of the need for more standard battalions to support infantry divisions, the U.S. European command on 23 October 1944 requested permission to convert four special battalions to standard battalions. The War Department agreed, and the 701st, 736th, 740th, and 748th were so converted; the 738th and 739th were converted to mine exploder battalions.

The separat...

About this edition

• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0891417826
• ISBN 13: 9780891417828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336