T’anks For Everything, Gentlemen
If we’re going to talk about African-American history in warfare, we already know about the Redtails, US Army Air Force’s corps of Black combat pilots. There were also African-American combat units driving tanks across Europe and scaring the pants off the German army.
The articles posted here for your perusal are about two tank battalions of crews who literally had to improvise at times, just to keep their machinery going. There is a history behind this related to another segregated unit, the Harlem Hellfighters, from World War I. (See below)
The 761st Tank Battalion was known as the Black Panthers Tank Battalion. They broke the Siegfried Line and crossed the Rhine in 1945. If you read the article at the link below, you’ll realize that they scared the bejeezus out of the Germans.
One surrendering German officer asked, “how many Negro Panzer divisions are there?” – article
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/black-panthers-germany-1945
They were also a large part of the firing line at the Battle of the Bulge.
Many of the officers and men of the African American 761st Tank Battalion saw military service as an opportunity to maintain proud traditions from the past.
During World War I, the 369th Regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division, also a segregated unit, had fought with great distinction on the battlefields of France under the moniker “The Harlem Rattlers,” and later became known as “The Harlem Hellfighters.”
Photo of Harlem Hellfighters: National Archives
The 369th’s service had been mostly overlooked by the all-white Army hierarchy—just as the 761st Tank Battalion’s exploits would be. But the men who served in both units were proud: they knew what they had accomplished, and would never permit anyone to question their determination or bravery. – article
* * * *
And here’s another battalion, the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, which fought at Climbach. The unit was awarded many medals including the Silver Star, and the company commander was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/614th-tank-destroyer-battalion-climbach-1944
The MOH citation is here: https://themedalofhonor.com/recipients/first-lieutenant-charles-thomas-u-s-army-company-c-614th-tank-destroyer-battalion/
This is 1LT Charles Thomas. It is sad that his Medal of Honor was delayed until after he had passed away.
As chewed up as 1LT Thomas was, not once did he let that get in his way. He must have been made of titanium steel.
If there is another war like that, I definitely want these guys on my side of the fence.
Category: Army, Disposable Warriors, Historical
The 761st still has a street at Fort Hood named after it.
Jackie Robinson of MLB legend was an officer in the 761st. He was wrongly accused of public intoxication and insubordination after he refused to give up his seat on a bus for a white man. The charge was repudiated by Robinson’s CO, LTC Paul Bates (who was also white) on the grounds that anyone who knew Robinson knew he didn’t drink, and argued that Robinson was within his rights and not insubordinate to challenge the blatantly-racist questioning he got from an MP officer afterwards, so racist higher-ups had Robinson transferred to another unit with a more compliant commander. Robinson eventually beat the chickenshit charge, but was not allowed to deploy with the 761st. Robinson appreciated LTC Bates standing up for him and spoke highly of the colonel in his autobiography. He also went on to become one of the most legendary ballplayers of all time, so there’s that.
Concur. Was at a unit on that street in 2016.
Wow – I had never heard of these units. I’d heard of the Red Tails many years ago, and the Red Ball Express, but was not aware of African-American ground combat units.
In a better world our education system, when teaching US history, would include stories of these units, stories about men who, in spite of the treatment they received at home and in the Army, signed up, went to war, and fought well and bravely.
They are heroes who should be celebrated today. I think our nation would benefit from that.
Read up on the “US Colored Troops” and “Buffalo Soldiers”.
Buffalo Soldiers:
24th, 25th, and 38th Infantry Regiments, 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments.
It goes to show, the desire to free the f**k outta someplace is an universally American thing to do.
Thank you, Gentlemen.
BZ to LT Charles Thomas AND to all of the men that served this Nation. A very good friend of the Family and my Papa’s bestest buddy was a Black Gentleman named “Tiny.” Tiny was nearly 7 feet tall, Pop was 5’2″. They called Papa “Shorty.” Mr Tiny had served in either a Tank Unit or Tank destroyer unit and both were at Bastogne, Papa with the 741st FA. I wish I knew more about both of their service time, was only 10 when we lost Papa and Mr. Tiny died less than a year after Papa did. Tiny and his family were one of the reasons that we were brought up to respect ALL people and that we were ALL equal in His eyes.
Those of us that have read W.E.B. Griffins’ “The Brotherhood of War” series will recognize the alluding to the service of the Black Tankers in the character of Philip Sheridan Parker, his father, and Grandfather Philip Sheridan Parkers I & II, descended from FIRST Sergeant Moses Parker of the 10th Cavalry, Buffalo Soldiers.
Tanks Ex, you know me too well and how much I like these posts.
William E. Butterworth, raised in New York City and Philadelphia but whose post-military service writing career was spent in the Deep South, paid ongoing tribute throughout his countless novels of war to the service of both blacks and Hispanics.
He died in 2019 in Daphne, Alabama.
Forgot to add–he also earned a CIB in Korea as an NCO.
When Dad had his “all-expenses-paid walking tour of Europe” (“I just had to carry a machine gun and shoot it every once in a while”) there was a group of tank-killers (dunno the proper name) that was manned by an all-black group.
Dad said they didn’t care who was in those tank-killers, they wanted them around to handle the Panzers and 88’s
One of the men from the tank-killer unit was later a member of our church in Houston. They served their God and their country side-by-side.
Like it should be.
“Tank Destroyer” was a tracked vehicle, fairly lightly armoured and often with an open top turret, that was armed with a heavy gun meant to kill tanks. They were fast, and intended to maneuver tanks.
There were also antitank guns, towed guns meant for direct fire to kill tanks.
Our doctrine was “tanks kill infantry. Tank Destroyers kill tanks”. This is one reason we stuck with lighter tanks and TDs throughout the war.
German and Russian doctrine was basicly “tanks kill tanks, then everything else”. Thus the increasingly heavy Panzers.
Dad had a story of a time when their advance up a valley was halted by an 88
The Tank Destroyers came up and engaged in a duel with the 88.
In the meantime the German commander sent a group out to flank the column and try to inflict some damage. One of the Sgts, whom Dad described as “three sheets to the wind”, got upset at them, jumped up on one of their trucks that had a Ma Duce on it. He laid down fire until the barrel melted, replace that barrel and repeated, and was in the process of replacing the mounted Ma Duce with the backup when the Germans came down with hands raised.
The Sgt then picked up a carbine to whallop one of the Germans with as they went by – but the soldier to whom it belonged stopped him with “Don’t break my stock!” The Sgt contented himself with a boot to the butt of a passing German.
The Tank Destroyers eventually won the duel and they moved on.
Several years ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar authored a book about his father’s exploits in WWII as part of a tanker outfit and his combat missions. Very well researched and written, and offered an insight to a part of the European theater of operations that most people are not aware of. It’s an enjoyable read.
He could have always fallen back on writing if that basketball thing did not work out for him