743rd Tank Battalion - Description Of Combined Armor Attacks With Infantry - Germany, November 1944

[Richard Stone]

The attached article discusses the combined arms attacks the 743rd Tank Battalion made in Germany during the November 1944 period. These attacks were made in conjunction with the 117th and the 30th Infantry Divisions. The article begins with the theory of this attack method per the late 1940’s US Army doctrine and then discusses the actual attacks. I will place the remaining pages in another post shortly.

The article was printed in the June 1949 edition of the USA professional military reference magazine ‘Military Review’.

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[Richard Stone]

These are the remaining pages.

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[Carl Schwamberger]

I sense some parallels to the Marines experience in the Pacific. After the Betio Island battle there was criticism of the doctrine and training of the Marine tankers, who had been trained by the Army. The AAR from that battle recommended searching for different tactics/doctrine for the Marine tank battalions.

[phaze]

Getting into actual nitty gritty of what combined arms looked like is an arduous task so that was a very interesting read, thanks a lot. Have to say I'm surprised at the degree of vehemency the "overwatch" tactics are treated with, goes to show i've still got lots of reading to do.