Tank Killers

War II, The Organization of Ground Combat Troops (Washington, DC: Historical Division, Department of the Army, 1947), 74. (Hereinafter Greenfield, et al.)

3. Gabel, 5-7.

4. Greenfield, et al, 74.

5. Christopher J. Anderson, Hell on Wheels, The Men of the U.S. Armored Forces, 1918 to the Present (London: Greenhill Books and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1999), 6. (Hereinafter Christopher Anderson.)

6. Gabel, 8-9.

7. Greenfield, et al, 75.

8. Brigadier General Lesley J. McNair to Adjutant General, AG 320.2 (7-3-40) M-C, 29 July 1940, McNair Files, Box 8, RG 337, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), quoted in David E. Johnson, Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers, Innovation in the U.S. Army 1917-1945 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), 150. (Hereinafter Johnson.)

9. Greenfield, et al, 75.

10. Gabel, 14.

11. Greenfield, et al, 76.

12. Gabel, 12-13.

13. Robert Capistrano and Dave Kaufman, “Tank Destroyer Forces,” http://www.naples.net/clubs/asmic/TD-Forces.htm, 1998. (Hereinafter Capistrano and Kaufman.)

14. Johnson, 148.

15. History of the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

16. Greenfield, et al, 79.

17. Gabel, 14.

18. Greenfield, et al, 74.

19. Ibid., 81-82.

20. Bertrand J. Oliver, History, 602d Tank Destroyer Battalion, March 1941 to November 1945 (Lansing, Michigan: 602d Tank Destroyer Battalion Association, Inc., 1990), 1. (Hereinafter Oliver.)

21. Lonnie Gill, Tank Destroyer Forces, WWII (Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company, 1992), 11. (Hereinafter Gill.)

22. Gabel, 14-15.

23. Ibid., 17.

24. Edward L. Josowitz, An Informal History of the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion (Salzburg: Pustet, 1945), 4. (Hereinafter Josowitz.)

25. Johnson, 148-149. Greenfield, et al, 81. Gabel, 15 ff.

26. Gabel, 17.

27. Capistrano and Kaufman.

28. Gabel, 18 ff. “The Tank Killers,” Fortune, November 1942, 116. (Hereinafter “The Tank Killers”.)

29. Greenfield, et al, 396 ff.

30. Ibid., 403-404.

31. “The Tank Killers,” 117.

32. Gabel, 22 ff.

33. “The Tank Killers,” 116.

34. Gabel, 22 ff.

35. Ibid.

36. “Tank Destroyers: They Are the Army’s Answer to the Tank Menace,” Life, 26 October 1942, 87.

37. “The Tank Killers,” 181.

38. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units (U.S. Army, US Forces in the European Theater, the General Board, 1946), 10. (Hereinafter Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units.)

39. “The Tank Killers,” 118.

40. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 9.

41. Gabel, 20. Gill, 14.

42. Gabel, 27.

43. “The Tank Killers,” 116-118.

44. John Weeks, Men Against Tanks, A History of Anti-Tank Warfare (New York, New York: Mason/Charter Publishers, Inc., 1975), 96-97.

45. Harry D. Dunnagan, A War to Win, Company “B” – 813th Tank Destroyers (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: Royall Dutton Books, 1992), 79. (Hereinafter Dunnagan.)

46. The American Arsenal (London: Greenhill Books, 2001), 44. The Greenhill volume is essentially a reprint of the U.S. Army’s Catalog of Standard Ordnance Items of 1944. (Hereinafter The American Arsenal.)

47. Diary, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.

48. Jim Mesko, U.S. Tank Destroyers in Action (Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1998), 8. (Hereinafter Mesko.)

49. The American Arsenal, 45.

50. “The Tank Killers,” 118.

51. The American Arsenal, 51.

52. Telephone interview with John Hudson, May 2002. Gill, 17.

53. Mesko, 13.

54. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 9.

55. The Story of the 1st Armored Division (1st Armored Division, 1945), 60.

56. Gabel, 29.

57. Ibid., 29-30. “The Tank Killers, “ 181.

58. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Salzburg, Austria: Anton Pustet, 1945?, 13. (Hereinafter An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.)

59. Ibid., 10.

60. History of the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

61. Diary, 701st Tank Battalion.

62. Gill, 13.

63. Thomas M. Sherman, Seek, Strike, Destroy! The History of the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion (Published by author: 1986), 6. (Hereinafter Sherman.)

64. “The Tank Killers, “ 181. Gill, 13.

65. Greenfield, et al, 416-417.

Chapter 2: North Africa: Seeing the Elephant

1. Unless otherwise noted, the material on the activities of the 601st and 701st Tank Destroyer battalions in North Africa is drawn from the operational records of those units.

2. Loading records incorporating unit subordination, records of the 1st Infantry Division.

3. The unit diary records the date as 7 November, when the convoy was actually sailing past Oran in a