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Overshadowed by the United States Army's armored divisions, the separate tank and tank destroyer battalions had the difficult mission of providing armored support for US infantry divisions in the 1944–45 campaigns. This book details the organizational structures and deployment of these units: the standard tank battalions, tank battalions (light), tank battalions (mine exploder) and tank battalions (special), self-propelled and towed tank destroyer battalions. It also covers the tactics used by these units in their attempts to assist the infantry, as well as providing a listing of all the battalions that took part in the Northwest Europe campaign.

The amazing story of the Japanese-American Nisei of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team fighting the Nazis in northeastern France.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the Allies and the Soviets were the only side in the Second World War to support resistance movements. However, based on recently-released archival sources, "The SS Hunter Battalions" shows that Hitler had his own version of the SOE and the OSS, and that the Nazis too encouraged underground resistance against their enemies, especially as Europe was liberated in 1944-5. The Nazis tried to exploit the misguided activism of ex-collaborators, ethnic nationalists and rabid anti-communists, but their efforts were clumsy and they were hamstrung by the sordid reputation that they had gained as wartime occupiers. In addition, the German commandos and spy-masters in charge of the project hindered their own efforts through infighting, ill-discipline and a misconceived appreciation of their ability to motivate violent dissent. Nonetheless, the Germans supported as many as 700,000 anti-Soviet partisans during the last year of the war, and even in liberate

D-Day was characterized by sacrifice and uncommon valor. Yet even among the valorous deeds that were common on 6 June 1944, the exploits of the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc stand out as tributes to human courage. This book details the true story of Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder and his 2nd Ranger Battalion. It is a true story of courage, human ingenuity, achievement and ultimate sacrifice. The story of Rudder's Rangers is brought to life by Ronald L. Lane. Lane's familiarity with Rangers stems from his personal experience as an airborne ranger with the 101st Airborne Division. Lane's vivid depiction of the story and events of Rudder's Rangers will give you a depth of understanding of these great events, a perception of actually being there, that has not been available before. He presents the facts, but more importantly, he expertly weaves the thoughts and words of the survivors of the operation into a story of great perseverance and unhesitating sacrifice, a story that will continue to serve as inspiration to all who enjoy the freedoms bought with the lives of these brave men. The insights Lane has gained were made possible by personally interviewing hundreds of people associated with Earl Rudder and his Rangers. Personal letters, along with official Army records and files, add a historical perspective unmatched by any other account of the Ranger attack on the Normandy cliffs.

The first hours and days following the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6th June 1944 have strong claim to be the most crucial in world history. Spearheading this vast undertaking were crack British and American airborne forces.

The 51st Again! is the story of a hard-working successful engineer combat battalion that was formed in Texas, and trained in New York and England. Landing on Normandy in June 1944, the men had reached Belgium by November. There, they began sawmill operations. Then the Germans struck in the Battle of the Bulge.The 51st, called on to help stop the enemy, soon found itself holding a 40-mile front, with numerous strategic roadblocks to defend.Fighting as infantry as well as engineers in several pitched battles, elements of five divisions relieved the battalion as the Battle of the Bulge came to an end.When the American counter-offensive began, the 51st was in the forefront clearing roads and mines and bridging the Roer, the Rhine, and the Danube, along other natural obstacles to the American advance.When the war ended in May, the 51st had just finished several bridges over the Isar Canal.The 51st then turned to helping the Germans rebuild their country. By fall it was preparing to go home. The 51st Engineer Combat Battalion was inactivated on October 27, 1945 at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia. Few of its orignal members remained.

December 1944. When the Daredevil Tankers of the 740th Tank Battalion moved into the breach against Kampfgruppe Peiper in the ice and snow of the Belgian Ardennes, the ferociousness of their attack sent the elite panzers of Hitler's 1st SS Panzer Division reeling. In bastard tanks pieced together from the scrapheap only the night before, the 740th plunged awkwardly into the war, spearheading lead elements of the 30th "Old Hickory" Division. It was the first good news to come out of the Battle of the Bulge. The 740th tankers rumbled on to crack the famed Siegfried Line twice, in some of the most bitter fighting of the war.

During World War II, James A. Huston served as an operations officer in the 3rd Battalion, 134th Infantry, a unit that helped to liberate or capture dozens of cities across France, Belgium, and Germany. From July 1944 through April 1945, the regiment captured 8,974 prisoners of war and covered more than 1,500 combat miles, but lost 10,046 men in the process. "Biography of a Battalion" recreates the action and provides an account of the war from one soldier who lived through it.

The 51st Again! is the story of a hard-working successful engineer combat battalion that was formed in Texas, and trained in New York and England. Landing on Normandy in June 1944, the men had reached Belgium by November. There, they began sawmill operations. Then the Germans struck in the Battle of the Bulge.The 51st, called on to help stop the enemy, soon found itself holding a 40-mile front, with numerous strategic roadblocks to defend.Fighting as infantry as well as engineers in several pitched battles, elements of five divisions relieved the battalion as the Battle of the Bulge came to an end.When the American counter-offensive began, the 51st was in the forefront clearing roads and mines and bridging the Roer, the Rhine, and the Danube, along other natural obstacles to the American advance.When the war ended in May, the 51st had just finished several bridges over the Isar Canal.The 51st then turned to helping the Germans rebuild their country. By fall it was preparing to go home. The 51st Engineer Combat Battalion was inactivated on October 27, 1945 at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia. Few of its orignal members remained.

In 1941, the U.S. Army activated the 758th Tank Battalion, the first all-black armored unit. By December 1944 they were fighting the Axis in Northern Italy, from the Ligurian Sea through the Po Valley and into the Apennine Mountains, where they helped breach the Gothic Line--the Germans' last major defensive line of the Italian Campaign. After the war the 758th was deactivated but was reformed as the 64th Tank Battalion, keeping their distinguished insignia, a tusked elephant head over the motto "We Pierce." They entered the Korean War still segregated but returned fully integrated (though discrimination continued internally). Through the years, they fought with almost every American tank--the Stuart, the Sherman, the Pershing, the Patton and today's Abrams. Victorious over two fascist (and racist) regimes, many black servicemen returned home to what they hoped would be a more tolerant nation. Most were bitterly disappointed--segregation was still the law of the land. For many, disappointment became a determination to fight discrimination with the same resolve that had defeated the Axis.

The first hours and days following the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 have a strong claim to be amongst the most crucial in world history. Spearheading this vast undertaking were crack British and American airborne forces. The Day The Devils Dropped In examines in fascinating detail the pivotal role of the 9th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment over the first week of the landings. Tasked with neutralizing the mighty Merville Battery, capturing Le Plein and the Château St Côme on the Breville Ridge, failure by the Paras to achieve any of these key objectives could well have unraveled the whole OVERLORD operation with catastrophic consequences. In his quest to uncover the true story of the early days of the landings, Neil Barber has successfully tracked down surviving participants in the operation. As a result he is able to tell the full story of the fierce fighting that characterized the early days of the landings largely in the very words of those who lived through the experience. This adds much to the credibility and immediacy of this enthralling book, which paints a superb picture of what soldiers care to call 'the fog of war'. The result is an inspiring and revealing read and a fine tribute to those whose contribution must never be forgotten.

In 1941, the U.S. Army activated the 758th Tank Battalion, the first all-black armored unit. By December 1944 they were fighting the Axis in Northern Italy, from the Ligurian Sea through the Po Valley and into the Apennine Mountains, where they helped breach the Gothic Line--the Germans' last major defensive line of the Italian Campaign. After the war the 758th was deactivated but was reformed as the 64th Tank Battalion, keeping their distinguished insignia, a tusked elephant head over the motto "We Pierce." They entered the Korean War still segregated but returned fully integrated (though discrimination continued internally). Through the years, they fought with almost every American tank--the Stuart, the Sherman, the Pershing, the Patton and today's Abrams. Victorious over two fascist (and racist) regimes, many black servicemen returned home to what they hoped would be a more tolerant nation. Most were bitterly disappointed--segregation was still the law of the land. For many, disappointment became a determination to fight discrimination with the same resolve that had defeated the Axis.

Memoirs written over 50 years after the fact are rightly subject of suspicion, the author has stated. But his recollections were forthcoming with the help of his letters home during World War II, as well as his notes written soon after his return. Records of his 949th Artillery Battalion, preserved in the National Archives, were also accessed to confirm his own observations. J. Russell Major states that "the artillery finally came into its own in World War II," even winning the praise of the German army, which had belittled the American infantry. The artillery had a primary role in the war -- with over half of the battle casualties caused by artillery fire. But it was better off than the infantry. Only the artillery forward observers experienced the incessant dangers and hardships that plagued the infantry. The artilleryman, Major notes, though within large-weapon range of the enemy, usually escaped small-arms fire. It was the infantryman who was the "unsung hero," who spent weeks, even months, without a shower, sweating in his wool uniform in the summer and freezing in it in the winter. The infantryman lived in the dirt, his home a foxhole. He lived for days on K rations. He was always in the greatest danger of an attack, never truly safe. The 949th Artillery Battalion arrived in France in August 1944, with the mission of supporting the 7th Armored Division and then the 5th and the 90th Infantry Divisions. In November and December of 1944, Major's battalion participated in what he calls "the real war" -- the Battle of the Bulge and events leading up to it. J. Russell Major served his battalion and his country well. He called himself a "bookish recluse who knew nothing of firearms," woefully lacking in confidence, yet was "transformed into a decorated officer with the highest possible combat efficiency rating." He subsequently became a noted historian of European affairs.

Revealing what it was like to live and fight in a medium tank during World War II (1939-1945), this book is structured around the career of a single tanker from 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division. The focus is largely on the crew of an M4 Sherman, though light tank service is also studied. Tank operation required a well- trained and well-coordinated crew. The crew positions and roles of tank commander, gunner, driver, loader, and assistant driver are all covered in detail, together with recruitment procedure, specialist training, and the variety of specialized clothing and personal weaponry.

On 25 May 1944 800 men of the 500th SS Parachute battalion descended on Drvar, a town behind enemy lines in north-western Bosnia; their aim was to kill or capture Tito, a major leader of the Yugoslavian partisan movement. The Abwehr had discovered his location there. SS Major Otto Skorzeny had even pinpointed his personal quarters to a cave on the ridge that overlooked the village, but because of inter-agency rivalry between the SS and Abwehr this information was not exploited. Nevertheless a plan was developed to land the battalion by glider and parachute in two waves, which would be relieved the next day by a ground assault. Tito knew an attack was imminent but dismissed the idea of an airborne assault. He set up an alternative nighttime location but on the evening before the attack decided to stay in Drvar to celebrate his birthday. At 0800 600 men landed by glider and parachute. The fiercest combat centred on the Communist Party HQ, which was demolished by satchel charges. Captain Rybka, the unit commanding officer, then redirected his forces on the ridge, correctly suspecting Tito was located there. Conscious of the prize that awaited them the German paratroopers were relentless but two companies of Tito's bodyguard battalion succeeded in repelling them. By the time the second wave landed and another attack could be mounted Tito had escaped through the woods. The paratroopers were forced to withdraw to a cemetery and endured successive attacks throughout the night, before relief arrived the following day. The attempt to eliminate Tito was a colossal failure. The elite battalion had been decimated with only 200 men fit for duty the next day. The Germans had failed to exploit HUMINT about Tito's precise location and adopted a plan that did not take into account intelligence limitations. Rybka's failure to redirect the second wave onto the ridge above the cave ended all hope of mission success.

80 b/w photographs 8 x 10 In one of the remarkable stories of D-Day, the task of liberating a small but significant German stronghold-Pointe du Hoc-fell to 225 brave souls from the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Led by Lt. Col. James Rudder, the men scaled the 100 foot cliff and fought their way into history. Volunteers for "the most dangerous mission of that day", they were asked to overcome natural barriers, destroy six huge 155mm guns, cut German communications, set up roadblocks, and hinder enemy reinforcements from reaching the beach areas. The suppression of the guns would literally make a life or death difference to the U.S. troops landing on Omaha and Utah Beaches. After two days of fighting, only 90 of the battalion were left to tell their story.

The heavily armored Tiger I became the most famous German tank of World War II. The Tigers were originally intended to counter the heavy tanks of the Russian Front, and were assigned to specially created tank battalions. In 1944 Tiger units were rushed to Normandy and fought in all the major battles of the Western Front. Although they were superior to all the tanks of the Western allies, Tigers in the West faced the added danger of attack from the greatly superior British and American air forces. Each Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS unit equipped with the Tiger I is covered in detail. Each unit's insignia and a representative vehicle with camouflage and markings is shown in color. The operational history of each unit, and in some cases individual vehicles, is described with the aid of 250 black and white photos, most of them never before published.

December 1944. When the Daredevil Tankers of the 740th Tank Battalion moved into the breach against Kampfgruppe Peiper in the ice and snow of the Belgian Ardennes, the ferociousness of their attack sent the elite panzers of Hitler's 1st SS Panzer Division reeling. In bastard tanks pieced together from the scrapheap only the night before, the 740th plunged awkwardly into the war, spearheading lead elements of the 30th "Old Hickory" Division. It was the first good news to come out of the Battle of the Bulge. The 740th tankers rumbled on to crack the famed Siegfried Line twice, in some of the most bitter fighting of the war.

The injustices of 1940s Jim Crow America are brought to life in this extraordinary blend of military and social history—a story that pays tribute to the valor of an all-black battalion whose crucial contributions at D-Day have gone unrecognized to this day.In the early hours of June 6, 1944, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers, landed on the beaches of France. Their orders were to man a curtain of armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft. One member of the 320th would be nominated for the Medal of Honor, an award he would never receive. The nation’s highest decoration was not given to black soldiers in World War II.Drawing on newly uncovered military records and dozens of original interviews with surviving members of the 320th and their families, Linda Hervieux tells the story of these heroic men charged with an extraordinary mission, whose contributions to one of the most celebrated events in modern history have been overlooked. Members of the 320th—Wilson Monk, a jack-of-all-trades from Atlantic City; Henry Parham, the son of sharecroppers from rural Virginia; William Dabney, an eager 17-year-old from Roanoke, Virginia; Samuel Mattison, a charming romantic from Columbus, Ohio—and thousands of other African Americans were sent abroad to fight for liberties denied them at home. In England and Europe, these soldiers discovered freedom they had not known in a homeland that treated them as second-class citizens—experiences they carried back to America, fueling the budding civil rights movement.In telling the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, Hervieux offers a vivid account of the tension between racial politics and national service in wartime America, and a moving narrative of human bravery and perseverance in the face of injustice.

Operation EPSOM was General Montgomery's third attempt to take the City of Caen, which had been a key British D-Day objective. Delayed by a storm, the attack, designed to envelop Caen from the west, eventually began at the end of June 1944. The Territorial Army battalions of 15th Scottish Division spearheaded the attacks through the well developed positions of 12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division. It was slow going and when tanks of the 11th Armoured Division dashed to the Odon Bridges they ran into the concentrated fire of dug-in panzers. However, the following day the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders slipped through the German defenses and seized a vital bridge. Armor poured across but, rather than pushing home their advantage, the British prepared to beat off a powerful counterattack from II SS Panzer Corps.