The 746th Tank Battalion was an independent tank battalion that participated in the European Theater of Operations with the United States Army in World War II. It was one of five tank battalions (all independent) which landed in Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944). The battalion participated in combat operations throughout northern Europe until V-E Day. It served primarily as an attachment to the 9th Infantry Division, but fought alongside numerous other units as well. It was inactivated in October 1945.
Organization The 746th Tank Battalion followed the standard organization of a U.S. medium tank battalion during World War II.Zaloga, pp. 22–24 It consisted of a Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Service Company, three medium tank companies (Companies A, B, and C) and a light tank company (Company D).
The Headquarters Company included the battalion headquarters staff, both officers and enlisted men; an assault gun platoon, consisting of three Sherman tank variants armed with a 105 mm assault gun; a mortar platoon, equipped with three half-track mounted 81 mm mortars; a reconnaissance platoon with five quarter-ton “peeps” (jeeps); and the headquarters tank section consisting of two tanks for the battalion commander and operations officer. At the time the 746th went into action at Normandy, the assault gun platoon was still equipped with standard M4 Sherman tanks. They did not receive the 105 mm assault gun equipped tanks until the first week of July 1944.CARL, AAR 746th Tank Bn, July 1944 The assault gun platoon, along with the line company assault guns consolidated into a second platoon, was periodically attached to the division artillery as an ad hoc artillery battery to provide supporting fires to the division artillery.CARL, AAR 746th Tank Bn, August 1944 On one instance in October 1944, this reinforced platoon was even attached to the gun company of the Infantry Regimental Combat Team which the battalion was supporting.CARL, AAR 746th Tank Bn, October 1944
The Service Company included a headquarters section; a maintenance platoon; and a large battalion supply and transportation platoon, with over thirty trucks to provide logistics for the battalion.
Companies A, B, C, and D – the tank line companies, both medium and light, all followed the same table of organization. Each company consisted of a headquarters section which, along with a small headquarters staff also included two tanks for the company commander and executive officer; three five-tank platoons; and, in the medium tank companies, a single 105 mm assault gun. The medium tank companies were equipped with M4 Sherman tanks, while the light tank company was equipped with M5 Stuart tanks. While attached to the 9th Infantry Division for combat operations, normally Company A was attached to the 47th Infantry Regiment, Company B was attached to the 60th Infantry regiment, and Company C was attached to the 39th Infantry Regiment. The authorized assault gun was a medium tank until the real 105 mm gun-equipped tanks arrived in Normandy the first week of July 1944. In August 1944, the company assault guns were consolidated into a second assault gun platoon under the control of the battalion assault gun platoon leader and attached to the division artillery for general fire support. In October 1944, the assault guns were consolidated with the headquarters assault gun platoon and formed into three two-gun sections that supported each of the battalions of the Infantry regimental Combat Team which the battalion was supporting. All four companies had their own maintenance section which included a M32 tank recovery vehicle, built on a Sherman chassis. Because the Stuart carried a 4-man crew versus a 5-man crew on the Sherman, it had a somewhat smaller personnel strength than then medium tank companies.
History
Activation and deployment The 746th Tank Battalion was activated at Camp Rucker, Alabama on 20 August 1942 as the 746th Tank Battalion (Medium), drawing its initial cadre of officers from the 760th Tank BattalionBlanchard, p. 1 and an additional six officers and 135 enlisted men from the 70th Tank Battalion.Jensen, p. 18 The battalion filled out its personnel strength and trained at Camp Rucker until October 1943, when it relocated to Camp Pickett, Virginia for advanced training. Soon after the move to Camp Pickett, on 22 October 1943, the unit was redesignated as the 746th Tank Battalion and adopted the organization in which it would fight throughout the European Campaign. In January 1944 it moved from Camp Pickett to the embarkation point at Camp Shanks, New York for deployment to Europe.Blanchard, p. 2
The 746th embarked in New York on 29 January 1944 aboard the RMS Aquitania and arrived at Gourock, Scotland on 9 February 1944.Blanchard, p. 2Stanton, p. 301 Upon arrival in Great Britain, it shipped by train to Fairford, England. It then moved in March 1944 to Castlemartin Range, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, where it conducted live fire and maneuver training at the company level and below.Blanchard, p. 2 Following live fire and tactical training, the battalion moved to the south of England where they participated in training for the amphibious assaults in Normandy. It was during this time that the 746th was assigned to support the 4th Infantry Division for the invasion. They participated in Exercise Beaver without incident and although they also took part in Exercise Tiger, the unit suffered no casualties as a result of the German raid in the early morning darkness of 28 April.Blanchard, pp. 3–4
By May, the 746th Tank Battalion marshaled in their staging area at Lupton Park, Brixham and from 31 May to 2 June loaded aboard LCT’s at Dartmouth and joined the invasion armada on 3 June.
D-Day Landings and Normandy Although not one of the three tank battalions that would land with the first assault wave on D-Day, the medium tank companies and the command elements of the battalion nevertheless landed ashore on Utah Beach attached to the 4th Infantry Division before noon of 6 June. The tanks’ landing craft landed about 2,000 yards from their planned locations, but once ashore the battalion immediately went into combat and was parceled out to the various infantry units they were to support. The battalion headquarters remained attached to the 4th Infantry Division. Company A(-) linked up with elements of the 101st Airborne Division; Company B with the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division; and Company C was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division at Ste.-Mère-Église. One platoon of Company A was attached to the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. Company D, along with the reconnaissance and mortar platoons and selected support elements landed ashore in the early morning hours of 7 June. Company D was initially placed in 4th Infantry Division reserve.Blanchard, pp. 8–25 On 7 June, Company B formed the core of a 746th task force that was crucial in blunting a German assault gun attack on Ste.-Mere-Église that was the first armor-on-armor battle in France and which caused the German commander in the area to switch from trying to eliminate the beachhead to trying to contain it.Harrison, pp. 342–345 In supporting these diverse elements, which landed both in airborne and beach assaults, the 746th played a crucial role in consolidating the elements of these three divisions into a coherent organized beachhead.CARL, Armor in Operation Neptune, p. 46
The companies reverted to battalion control on 9–10 June. The tankers had found the first days in combat in France very trying. Despite training with the infantry units for the landings, neither had conducted any real training working with the other in combat operations. Lessons were learned the hard way as infantry and armor worked together against tough German resistance.CARL, AAR 746th Tank Bn, June 1944Yeide, pp. 72–82 On 11 June, the battalion was relieved from the 4th Infantry Division and attached to the 90th Infantry Division. The battalion approached this relationship with the untried 90th with trepidation, observing what they thought undisciplined behavior in their assembly areas. In operations with the 90th Infantry Division, the tankers noted the hesitation in the division leadership and high casualties suffered by the infantry that they were supporting. However, by 16 June 1944, the last 746th unit was detached from the 90th Infantry Division. It was at this time also that the remainder of the battalion which had not landed on 6–7 June, consisting mainly of the service company and other support elements of the headquarters company dubbed the “Battalion Residue”, departed Bournemouth on 16 June, landed on Utah Beach the following day and linked-up with the battalion soon thereafter.
Through the remainder of June 1944, the 746th was instrumental in the drive up the Cotentin Peninsula and the liberation of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin while still attached to diverse units. Company A was detached from the 82nd Airborne Division on 17 June and attached to the 79th Infantry Division, with whom they fought until 26 June, when Cherbourg was reduced. The battalion headquarters was attached to the 9th Infantry Division on 17 June. Company B was likewise attached to elements of the 9th Infantry Division during the drive on Cherbourg. During this period, a platoon of Company B was tasked to dash to the western coast of the peninsula and on 18 June, upon reaching the west coast at Barneville-Carteret, cut off all German forces on the peninsula. Company C, which had been reduced to about 30% strength during the first week in action, spent the next two weeks reconstituting and training new replacements, while Company D, equipped only with light tanks, was in division reserve and assigned security missions within the 9th Infantry Division's area. This initial relationship with the 9th Infantry Division was to become a habitual relationship, and the battalion would maintain a close operating relationship with it for most of the remainder of the war in Europe.
The battalion spent the first four days of July refitting from the Cherbourg campaign. On 5 July, the 746th Tank Battalion was attached to the 83rd Infantry Division to help repel a strong counterattack from the German 6th Parachute RegimentBlumenson, p. 81 toward Carentan in an effort to cut off the VII Corps from their supply lines to the landing beaches. The M5 Stuart tanks of Company D were considered too light to be able to operate independently in the heavily compartmented bocage in Normandy, so the battalion commander decided to break the company up and attach one platoon from Company D to each of the medium tank companies, ostensibly as flank security. However, even in that role, the light tanks were considered ineffective. Although remaining attached to the medium tank companies, they were used to maintain security along the lines of communication, where bypassed and infiltrating German troops continued to pose a real threat; to protect the infantry regimental and battalion command posts; and as a tactical reserve. The medium tank companies encountered fierce resistance from the Germans as the 83rd fought to contain the German counterattack. They suffered their heaviest casualties of the war so far, with 75 killed, wounded and missing during the ten days they were attached to the 83rd Infantry Division.