The author presents an extremely detailed record of the organization, doctrine, and equipment of the Armored Division of September 1943. He examines each unit of the division. A chapter is dedicated to the Tank Battalion, Armored Infantry Battalion, but also Maintenance and Medical Battalions. The author examines the organization and tactical doctrine of each unit and studies the doctrine of employment of the unit, as well as the duties of key personnel. Each sub-unit is presented by lists of personnel, weapons, vehicles, and equipment. The book includes 146 charts depicting the organization of all units. In each chapter, a special paragraph examines the modifications made in the field by armored division’s units, as found in unit reports, and histories, and veterans recollections. This is an essential reference for re-enactors, modellers, wargamers, researchers, and all those who require a detailed guide to the U.S. Armored Division during WWII.

Stirring accounts of the almost legendary campaigns of the United States Fourth Armored Division, universally recognized as "Patton's Best," from its pre-World War II origins up through its famous relief of the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge are presented in this book. The break out of Normandy at Avranches, the isolation of the Brittany peninsula, the armored thrust across France, the tank battles at Arracourt that cemented the reputation of the Fourth Armored, the brutal struggle in Lorraine, and, ultimately, the legendary drive to Bastogne are among the topics. The accounts were assembled through the use of original unit combat diaries and after-action reports, memoirs of key historical figures and abundant supplementary documents and correspondences. But the essence of the book are the first-hand recollections from members of the division gathered by the author. With maps, drawings and photographs.

Tanks, amphibian tanks, and amphibian tractors in action in all theaters, from Africa and Europe to the Pacific How the battalions fought the war, often in the tankers' own words Crystal-clear maps The U.S. Army's separate armored battalions fought in obscurity by comparison with the flashy armored divisions, but they carried the heavier burden in the grim struggle against the Axis in World War II. The battalions participated in every armored amphibious assault that the army conducted. They did most of the bloody work in Italy, made vital contributions in France, and constituted the entire effort in the Pacific.

Archival photos detailing the US Army division’s efforts during WWII, featuring accounts of the T-26 Pershing tank and its first use in combat. The Third Armored Division, famously known as the “Spearhead Division," had an illustrious combat career in WW2. One of only two “heavy armored” divisions of the war, the 3rd Armored joined the battle in the ETO in late June of 1944, was bloodied almost immediately and was at the front of the American advance through the hedgerows of Normandy and the rapid advance through France into Belgium by September 1944. The 3rd was one of the first units to breach the vaunted Siegfried Line and then fought a series of back and forth battles with the German army in the Autumn of 1944 as the weather conditions and determined tenacity of the German defenders produced an Autumn stalemate. The 3rd was rushed to the Ardennes front in December of 1944 in response to Hitler’s winter offensive and they famously fought battles at the defense of Hotton, Grandmenil and then pushed the Germans back to the border after vicious battles in places like Ottre, Lierneux, Cherain and Sterpigny. The early days of the Bulge battles would find the lost unit of Col Samuel Hogan’s 400 men who were surrounded for days and fought their way back to friendly lines. After a brief rest and being outfitted with 10 of the T-26 Pershing tanks, the 3rd was at the spearhead of the 1st Army advance into Germany, across the Rhine and into the Harz mountains and the liberation of the Nordhausen concentration camp. This final campaign would see the highpoint of the famous Cologne tank duel between a Pershing and German panther, made famous by the recent book Spearhead by Adam Makos. Then, just a few weeks later the beloved commander of the division, Major General Maurice Rose, was tragically shot by a German tank commander when trying to surrender Paderborn, Germany. The 3rd would end the war at the tip of the American advance into Germany before the war ended. “An armored division is more than just its tanks, and the author makes that clear by including numerous images of the unit’s infantry, reconnaissance artillery and support troops performing their duties. This book provides a wealth of details of how the men of this division lived and fought during the war.” —WWII History “Sometimes a pictorial history is a hundred times better than a textual history, and that’s certainly the case with the US 3rd Armored Division.” —Books Monthly

“An incredible job in shedding light about an often neglected but important role this unit played in the defeat of Nazi Germany” (WWII History). While headline writers in the European Theater of Operations were naturally focused on events in Normandy and the Bulge in the north, equally ferocious combats were taking place in southern France and Germany during 1944–45, which are now finally getting their due. The US 14th Armored Division—a late arrival to the theater—was thrust into intense combat almost the minute it arrived in Europe, as the Germans remained determined to defend their southern flank. This book explores in detail what happened in the month of January 1945 in the snow-covered Vosges Mountains, when the Wehrmacht’s attempt to destroy the Sixth Army Group failed. A strategic withdrawal after ten hellish days of fiery combat allowed the Allies to hold the line until a spring offensive. In March, the division literally exploded its way through the Siegfried Line at Steinfeld and began to propel the Wehrmacht into a retreat from which it could never recover. Armored columns kept punching their way through roadblock after roadblock in town after town with powerful artillery and air concentrations that never gave the German soldiers a chance to respond. As a result of the rapid advance of Seventh Army and the 14th, German POW camps like the ones at Hammelburg and Moosburg were liberated of over 100,000 prisoners, an achievement which gave the division the nom de guerre “The Liberators.” “A frontline soldier’s view of how green troops became battle-wise and battle-weary veterans.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past