"761st Tank Battalion: Patton’s Panthers Would Not Quit" Topic

"A cold January rain drizzled onto the rolling red-dust hills of central Oklahoma the day Ruben Rivers walked to war. There were those in the little Negro community of Holtaka who insisted this was a white man's war and that Negroes didn't belong in it. (Negro was the correct term during WWII). The only reason Negroes were invited was so they could cook for the white man and clean up after him while he did the fighting. Ruben didn't see it that way. This was his country too.

Prior to WWII, assumptions about the inferiority of black soldiers as combat troops dominated military thinking and supported a policy of segregating blacks into support and service units to provide cooks, stevedores, truck drivers, orderlies and other noncombat personnel. Only five black commissioned officers served in the army in 1940, three of whom were chaplains…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Book "Brothers in Arms" by Kareem (Sky-Hook) Abdul-Jabbar is all about this unit. I would recommend it. It gives a good history of the raising of the unit and the problems they had, as well as a history of the units actions.
One thing I learned, there is no such thing as a mobility kill, or gun kill. One a tank is not 100% operational, the crew will get out of what has become a death trap.

Patton is on record as saying he didn`t think negro soldiers were suited to armoured warfare, followed by a few lines of highly questionable racial slurs – poor night vision, low IQ, etc, etc

I don't want to rain on a good story but:
Heavy Panzerjager Abteilung 653 had the JagdTiger first deployed at Wittlich-Wengerohr mid December 1944, none were in action November 19 1944.

The Defense Technical Information Center site had the AAR 761st buried in another report.

Continuing to its objectives the 26th Division fought for the town of Dieuze. The assault guns of the 761st defeated the biggest part of the German resistance there. Major General Paul stated that he had not seen a better demonstration of these types of weapons before. On 19 November this breach allowed Combat Command A, 4th Armored Division, to conduct a passage of lines. Following the seizure of objective Dieuze, units of the 761st along with the 26th Division set out to take Benestroff. The assault began with a platoon of light tanks from D Company that had been working with the reconnaissance troop from the 26th. The mission was to set up road blocks and perform a guard mission. The fighting of the 761st during this last part of November resembled the fighting at Moville. By this time C Company had sustained heavy losses and had a total strength of fifty-eight enlisted men. The new commander of C Company, Captain Gates, was ordered to take the town of Honskirch, and do it by going straight down the road. Gates tried to tell the infantry colonel that it was not the best tactic to accomplish the mission. Gates tried to delay the attack; he delayed it four hours until he was given a direct order from the infantry colonel to conduct the attack. The outcome was just as Gates predicted: as the company proceeded down the road shells were dropped to the front and the rear of the tanks and brought the column to a halt. Captain Gates himself served as a crew member and loader in an assault tank gun. His driver was killed, and Captain Gates was wounded

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

Yes I've read about these excellent soldiers. They certainly did their duty !

I used a decal of their unit insignia on one of my models …

Actually, the reason why I read about the 761st was I was researching AARs of tank destroyer units.
Doesn't the 628th Tank Destroyer Bn. insignia look like a panther as well?
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