Activation and early service The 70th Tank Battalion was formed as an independent
medium tank battalion on 15 July 1940 at
Fort Meade, Maryland from elements of the
34th Infantry Regiment and the
67th Infantry Regiment (Medium Tanks). This made the 70th Tank Battalion one of the founding units of the new armored force of the U.S. Army, along with the
I Armored Corps and 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions, and the first tank battalion not assigned to an armored division. Despite its initial designation as a medium tank battalion, the 70th was organized as a light tank battalion and received only light tanks. With roots in the Regular Army at a time when the U.S. Army was rapidly expanding with draftees, the battalion was initially able to select junior officers, sergeants, and new soldiers of superior qualities. This included the top graduates of
Officer Candidate School and only high school graduate enlisted men (at a time when high school graduates were a small part of the population). In addition to home station training at Fort Meade, the battalion trained at
Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania and
Fort Knox, Kentucky in early 1941. In July and August 1941, the battalion began its association with the
1st Infantry Division with which it would later serve in combat when Company A first practiced amphibious landings with the division at
New River, North Carolina along the shoreline of what is now
Camp Lejeune as part of the
Carolina Maneuvers to evaluate Army tactical doctrine. Upon the basis of this meager but unique training experience, the 1st Infantry Division and the 70th Tank Battalion were alerted for deployment on 4 January 1942, less than a month after the
attack on Pearl Harbor. The sailing generated rumors of conducting an actual landing on the island of
Martinique, which was a Caribbean outpost of
Vichy France and whose
Fort-de-France Bay was one of the best deepwater ports in the Western Hemisphere. This deployment was in fact a planned amphibious training exercise. The 70th Tank Battalion (minus Company C) sailed from
Brooklyn Navy Yard with the 1st Infantry Division on 9 January 1942 and appeared off the coast of
Culebra, Puerto Rico before conducting landing operations on the Mid-Atlantic coast. The landings were originally also planned to take place on Sand Island in the
Core Banks, North Carolina but were rescheduled and took place on
Cape Henry, Virginia. with a new Company C being formed in May. In August, six officers and 135 men were reassigned to form the cadre of the
746th Tank Battalion. And finally as preparations for combat became earnest, Company A was detached on 17 September and sent to
Camp Dix, New Jersey. On 26 September, the company sailed from New York. With stops at Belfast, Northern Ireland, Greenock, Scotland, and Inverary, Scotland, the company was preparing to land with the
39th Regimental Combat Team,
9th Infantry Division at Algiers as part of
Operation Torch.
North Africa The 70th Tank Battalion landed in
North Africa not as a battalion, but as three widely dispersed companies, each attached to a separate assault element and all landing on 8 November 1942. The battalion headquarters and "residue" initially remained in the United States. Company A landed with the 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division at
Algiers, part of the Eastern Task Force of Operation Torch. Initial ground combat was light, but the company faced repeated air raids when it began guarding the Glida airport. Company A had light duties in Algiers until they reported to Col.
Edson Raff and the
509th Parachute Infantry Regiment at
Fériana, Tunisia. The attachment to the 509th was brief, and Company A soon found itself primarily attached to French combat units, and occasionally British, in the vicinity of the Ousseltia Valley for the remainder of the North African campaign. Along with Company A,
601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, the company was the only American unit in the sector. As Allied units closed on
Bizerte and
Tunis in the final stages of the campaign, German and Italian troops preferred to surrender to the company of American light tanks rather than the British or French. The estimate of prisoners taken by Company A between 11–13 May 1943 tallied between 17–20,000. Company A had clearly impressed their French allies: 25 men received the
Croix de Guerre and the company was selected as the honor guard for the international victory parade in Tunis on 20 May. Finally in June 1942, Company A rejoined the rest of the 70th Tank Battalion at
Arzew, Algeria. . Company B landed with the
47th Regimental Combat Team of the 9th Infantry Division at
Safi, Morocco in order to secure the port. The port was needed to facilitate unloading the medium tanks of the
2nd Armored Division so they could advance on the primary objective at
Casablanca. Meeting only light resistance, the company suffered no casualties and the port was secured by 1530. The company remained in place while a larger force built around the
3rd Infantry Division moved toward Casablanca. Shortly thereafter, Company B moved through Casablanca and rejoined Company C near Port Lyautey. With their assault role completed, Company C reverted to routine duties near Port Lyautey. After Company B rejoined them, the two companies remained in the area through January 1943. When the tank companies deployed for North Africa, the battalion headquarters and other elements remained in
Fort Bragg, North Carolina until 1 January 1943. The remainder of the battalion decamped for New York and boarded the
SS Santa Rosa at Staten Island on 13 January. The
Santa Rosa docked at Casablanca on 29 January 1943. With most of the battalion (still minus Company A) now reunited, the 70th Tank Battalion moved by rail from Casablanca to
Tlemcen, Algeria on 4 February 1943. At Tlemcen, the battalion was made responsible for training Free French soldiers who later formed much of the cadre of the
2nd French Armored Division. It continued in this role until May 1943, when it was ordered to proceed to Arzew, Algeria. There Company A finally caught up with the rest of the battalion, and the unit was all together for the first time since September 1942.
Sicily The 70th Tank Battalion was selected to support the 1st Infantry Division in the assault landings in Sicily for
Operation Husky in July 1943. The battalion came ashore piecemeal starting on 10 July, with men and equipment offloading separately. Although the first men came ashore in the assault wave, their tanks did not arrive until D+4. They fought for the first time as a battalion and used the lessons learned in North Africa to fight their light tanks effectively against much heavier German armor, on one occasion destroying nine
Mark IV tanks without losing a tank. Company C was detached from 1st Infantry Division on 17 July and attached to the
45th Infantry Division for the remainder of the Sicilian campaign. In exchange, the 1st Infantry Division received a company of M4 Shermans from the 753rd Tank Battalion. Due to the poor terrain for tank operations, the 70th was pulled out of the line on 27 July and Company C rejoined the battalion on 31 July, although the battle for the island lasted until 17 August. The battalion began to receive new tanks to replace ones lost in combat and continued training for the next campaign, and naturally assumed they would be part of the Italian mainland invasion force. However, the battalion loaded aboard the
SS Monterey on 11 November 1943, bound for England.
Operation Overlord and action in France Based on the impression made on General
Omar Bradley, commander of
II Corps and future commander of the American landing forces in Normandy, the 70th Tank Battalion was reassigned from the
Mediterranean Theater of Operations and transferred to England to participate in the Normandy landings. Brigadier General
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., first as regimental commander of the
26th Infantry Regiment, then as assistant division commander of the
1st Infantry Division was also impressed by the performance of the 70th and worked successfully to have them attached for the landings to the
4th Infantry Division, where Roosevelt had been reassigned as assistant division commander. The SS
Monterey docked at Liverpool, England on 28 November 1943 and the personnel of the 70th Tank Battalion were transported to
Ogbourne St. George, where the battalion was met by members of the 10th Light Tank Company, which had departed Iceland and arrived in England a week before the 70th Tank Battalion. With this new addition, the first requirement of the battalion was to reorganize and re-equip the battalion as a de facto medium tank battalion. The personnel from the 10th Light Tank Company were partitioned among the companies of the 70th Tank Battalion as well as to the
743rd Tank Battalion. With the addition of these personnel, the battalion was reorganized with Companies A, B, and C as
M4 Sherman medium tank companies and D Company as an
M5 Stuart light tank company. While at Ogbourne St. George, the battalion became familiar with the operation of the tanks. On 16 February 1944, they departed for Camp
Barton Stacey, near Andover. From there, they had access to larger maneuver areas in which to conduct unit tactical training. The new camp also served as the base from which companies deployed to Wales to conduct gunnery training with the heavier 75 mm guns of the Shermans. By this time it had been decided that Companies A and B would be equipped with amphibious
dual drive (DD) tanks for the landings. They therefore began to receive specialized training in March 1944, first to become accustomed to the unique operating environment of the DD tanks, then with the tanks themselves, using British DD
Valentine tanks, then later their own new DD Shermans. By April, the battalion moved to the Devonshire coast and began amphibious training with the 4th Infantry Division. In April 1944, the 70th Tank Battalion participated in
Operation Tiger, a dress rehearsal for the Utah Beach landing, successfully navigating their DD tanks through the surf for the first time. Although there were heavy casualties during the training, both as a result of friendly fire incidents and a German raid on the convoy, the battalion suffered no casualties. In these final days before the landings, the battalion also received dozer tanks for the landings and a levy of combat engineers to help fill out the crews on the additional tanks. Although the engineers proved invaluable during the landings and subsequent combat in the Normandy hedgerows, the new personnel required a last minute shuffle of tank crews. , 6 June 1944. On
D-Day the 70th Tank Battalion landed on
Utah Beach supporting the
8th Infantry Regiment of the
4th Infantry Division. Unlike the DD tanks on
Omaha Beach, most of the 70th's DD tanks made shore. All of Company B's tanks made it to the beach, although four Company A tanks and all but one of their crew were lost when their LCT hit a mine before the tanks could launch. The Company C tanks and dozer tanks were landed directly onshore and went to work clearing obstacles. Although the units landed about 2,000-yard off their designated objectives, they were fortunate that the actual landing sites were less well defended and General Roosevelt had them reoriented as they hit the beach. The following day, the medium tank companies assisted the 8th Infantry Regiment in consolidating the beachhead by clearing the pockets of German resistance in and around
Ste. Mère Église and linking up with the
82nd Airborne Division, preparatory to the push toward the port town of
Cherbourg. Although the 70th Tank Battalion was one of the most experienced tank battalions in the U.S. Army at this point, the 4th Infantry Division was new to combat and the infantry-tank coordination was at first tenuous. But, within the first few weeks in Normandy the two arms were coordinating their maneuvers much better. Following the consolidation of the initial invasion objectives, the 70th Tank Battalion continued in support of the 4th Infantry Division as they moved northward to take the port city of
Cherbourg, which fell on 27 June. The 4th Infantry Division was recommitted in the main line of advance at the base of the
Carentan peninsula, near
Sainteny on 6 July. The 70th Tank Battalion moved with the division and engaged in brutal fighting in the hedgerows, made worse by heavy rainfall. After sustaining heavy casualties, the division and the battalion were withdrawn from the line on 15 July to rest and refit preparatory to playing a key role in the breakout from Normandy. The 4th Infantry Division was one of the assault divisions for
Operation Cobra, the planned breakout from Normandy. Following the disastrous air bombardments of 24–25 July 1944, in which the 70th Tank Battalion only suffered minor material losses, the 8th Infantry Regiment began the assault across the
St. Lô-
Périers road. Initial progress was slow, just 2,500 meters on 25 July, and 8,000 meters the next day, but even these gains were quite large compared with the advances in the Norman hedgerows. The VII Corps commander committed the armor units to breakout on 27 July and with that German resistance crumbled. Once the breakthrough had succeeded, the 70th was taken out of the line in order to perform much needed maintenance on their vehicles, and for the battalion, beginning with Company C, to begin receiving new Shermans mounting high-velocity 76 mm guns. The 70th began the race across France, at times halting only because they had outstripped their supply lines. On 29 August, the battalion attacked en masse in the vicinity of
Tremblay-les-Gonesse, a rare occurrence for an independent tank battalion normally parceled out as company and platoon attachments to elements of an infantry division. The battalion continued the advance into northeastern France through the first half of September. Fuel shortages imposed several days of inactivity during which the battalion was able to catch up on maintenance. The 70th Tank Battalion crossed into Belgium on 11 September, and was also issued four flame-thrower tanks the same day. After a brief orientation on the flame-thrower tanks, the battalion crossed into Germany near
Winterscheid on 13 September.
Siegfried Line and Hürtgen Forest In crossing the German frontier, the 70th Tank Battalion found themselves immediately in the
Siegfried Line. The 4th Infantry Division's sector was very hilly, heavily forested and ill-suited for tanks. Arriving in the sector at the end of summer, the weather quickly became cool and wet, and conditions worsened throughout their stay in this sector. As a result, although the infantry units of the division were initially engaged in penetrating the Siegfried Line, the 70th saw limited action until early November 1944. Tanks were employed in platoon strength and due to the restricted terrain and poor ground and weather conditions, the lighter M5's of Company D were often employed in lieu of the heavier M4 Shermans. The 4th Infantry Division did succeed in penetrating the Siegfried Line, but due to the poor terrain, lack of a road network with which to exploit the penetration, and no reserves to commit, the line was cleaned up and straightened, with little inclination on either side to force a decision. The ongoing limited supply of fuel for the tanks during much of this period did nothing to improve the outlook, though it did help restore the combat strength of the unit-strength which would be needed in their next operation. The 70th Tank Battalion was alerted for movement on 6 November 1944. Their road march began late on 8 November and the battalion arrived near Heistern on the western edge of the
Hürtgen Forest late the next morning. After several days of preparations and reconnaissance, the tanks were committed in support of the infantry regiments. Due to the poor weather and heavy forests, the tanks were limited to the narrow trails through the Hürtgen Forest. These were the object of carefully ranged artillery and repeated mining, as Germans would infiltrate the area at night and lay new mines. Numerous tanks were lost to mines, with the crews targeted by mortars and artillery as they abandoned or worked on their disabled tanks. The battalion suffered 8 killed and 39 wounded in three weeks of combat in the Hürtgen Forest, with 10 tanks lost and another 8 damaged due to enemy fire and mines. It was only when the infantry were able to push through to the eastern and northern reaches of the forest that the tanks could once again maneuver in reasonably open terrain. However, the division and the 70th Tank Battalion were so exhausted and depleted that they were instead withdrawn from the line beginning on 3 December and relocated over the next eight days to the vicinity of Luxembourg.
Battle of the Bulge Luxembourg was not a fortuitous site to relocate. Within a week of the battalion's arrival, the Germans began their last desperate counteroffensive into the Ardennes. The
Battle of the Bulge began on 16 December, and the 70th Tank Battalion was located on the southern flank of the German penetration, with only eleven of its 54 medium tanks in operating condition. On 16 December 1944, elements of the battalion were sent forward with infantrymen of the
12th Infantry Regiment mounted on their tanks in order to reach elements of the regiment which had been overrun and isolated near
Echternach,
Berdorf, Lauterborn,
Osweiler, and
Dickweiler, in the northeastern part of Luxembourg. Until 24 December, platoon size detachments of tanks, supported by no more than five infantrymen mounted on each tank, operated as mobile strike forces to repel any German thrusts toward Luxembourg city. Thinly as the 70th Tank Battalion's operational tanks were spread, their presence, reinforced by combined arms task forces from the
9th and
10th Armored Divisions is credited with defeating superior numbers of German infantry. The battalion had lost another 5 men killed, 14 wounded, and 4 missing in just a week in the Ardennes.
End of war in Germany In late January 1945 the 70th Tank Battalion was alerted that they would soon be on the move again. On 4 February, the battalion once again crossed into Germany to the west of
Buchet. The battalion made steady progress eastward against sometimes spirited defense supporting the infantry regiments of the 4th Infantry Division to the outskirts of
Prüm until ordered to go on the defensive on 12 February. Virtually out of contact with the enemy, the battalion used the time to train new replacements and catch up on administrative actions. After this successful deep penetration into German territory, the battalion unexpectedly received orders attaching them to the Seventh Army, far to the south in France, and to prepare for a long road march. The battalion covered 120 km on 12 March, and an additional 175 km on 13 March, closing on the town of
St.-Jean-Rohrbach, France. Here, the battalion was attached to the
63rd Infantry Division, with the mission of assisting the division to breach the Siegfried Line—the third time for the 70th Tank Battalion. The battalion advanced as far as Ensheim (Saarbrücken) before they were relieved in place by the 740th Tank Battalion and reattached to the 4th Infantry Division on 18 March. They reached the
Danube at
Lauingen by 25 April, and proceeded through
Wolfratshausen as far as
Miesbach, some 15 km from the Austrian border before their combat mission was completed on 3 May. On 7 May 1945 the battalion road-marched to
Ingolstadt briefly bivouacking there before moving to Rothenburg ob der Tauber on 18 May to take up occupation duties. ==Post World War II==