Tank Killers

54. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.

55. “Commander-in-Chief’s Dispatch, North African Campaign, 1942-43.”

56. A Brief History of the U.S. Army in World War II (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1992). (Hereinafter A Brief History of the U.S. Army in World War II.)

57. Operations report, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion.

58. Letter from Major General Orlando Ward to Lieutenant General Jacob Devers, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.

59. Josowitz, 11.

60. Telephone interview with John Spence, April 2002.

61. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.

62. Unit history, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 1 January-31 December 1943.

63. Untitled document fragment included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.

64. Gill, 29.

65. Tunisia, 17-18.

66. Operations report, 1st Armored Division.

67. Account of Col J. Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

68. This description is based on several accounts: LtCol Herschel D. Baker, “El Guettar,” TD Combat in Tunisia (Tank Destroyer School, 1944), 17 ff (Hereinafter Baker); Howe, 560-562; Presidential unit citation, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, quoted in Josowitz, 12-14; telephone interview with Bill Harper, April 2002; operations report and medal citations, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion; Gill, 31-33; and Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2002), 439-441 (Hereinafter Atkinson).

69. Operations report, 1st Armored Division. Gabel, 37-38.

70. Account of Col J. Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

71. Unit history, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

72. Gill, 34.

73. Greenfield, et al, 425.

74. “Report on OPERATION AVALANCHE,” 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, 25 September 1943.

75. Greenfield, et al, 426.

76. Account of Col J. Barney Jr., undated, records of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

77. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.

78. Greenfield, et al, 427.

79. Lessons learned, 1st Armored Division. The document is undated.

80. Notes of Major General Omar Bradley on visit to the 1st Armored Division, 1 March 1943. Records of the 1st Armored Division.

81. “Observer Report,” 13 March 1943. Included in “Report of Observers: Mediterranean Theater of Operations,” Volume 1, 22 December 1942-23 March 1943.

82. Bradley and Blair, 159.

83. Greenfield, et al, 428.

84. Rich Anderson, “The United States Army in World War II.” Military History Online. http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/usarmy, 2000. (Hereinafter Rich Anderson.)

85. Tunisia, 29.

86. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 23.

87. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 31.

88. AAR, 701st Tank Destroyer Battalion, May 1944.

89. Greenfield, et al, 430-431. Study of Organization, Equipment, and Tactical Employment of Tank Destroyer Units, 23.

90. An Informal History of the 776th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 31.

91. AAR, 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

92. Gill, 44.

93. Unit history, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

94. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

Chapter 4: The Tough Underbelly

1. Martin Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1969), 73-77. (Hereinafter Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino.)

2. Ibid., 80-82.

3. Ibid., 86.

4. Operations report, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.

5. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 89 ff.

6. Griess, 234. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 97.

7. Operations report, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 100.

8. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 104ff.

9. S-1 logs, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.

10. Griess, 234.

11. S-1 logs, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.

12. Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the 45th Infantry Division (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998), 87-88. (Hereinafter Whitlock.)

13. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 108.

14. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

15. Sherman, 16.

16. Gill, 45.

17. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 114-115.

18. Gill, 45.

19. Liddell Hart, 463.

20. Combat Lessons Learned Number 2. (U.S. War Department, 1944), 22.

21. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 115.

22. Ibid., 118.

23. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

24. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

25. Recommendation for Silver Star, 24 September 1943, records of the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Gill, 45.

26. Journal, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

27. Blumenson, Salerno to Cassino, 129.

28. AAR, 645th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

29. Liddell Hart, 464.

30. AAR, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion.