70th Armor Regiment
The 70th Armor Regiment is an armored unit of the United States Army. It was constituted as the 70th Tank Battalion in July 1940, an independent tank battalion intended to provide close support to infantry units. In this role, it saw action in the Mediterranean and European Theater of Operations, making assault landings and fighting with the 9th Infantry Division in North Africa, and with the 1st Infantry Division in Sicily. The battalion supported the 4th Infantry Division on Utah Beach during the D-Day landings in France, and fought with the 4th Infantry Division through the remainder of World War II. The 70th Tank Battalion was one of the first three tank battalions to deploy to Korea in the Korean War, where it saw significant action, primarily with the 1st Cavalry Division.
The 70th Armor Regiment was designated a parent organization as part of the Combat Arms Regimental System in 1963. When CARS was replaced by the U.S. Army Regimental System system in 1981, the 70th Armor Regiment continued to carry the colors and honors of the regiment. Although there is no regimental headquarters, battalions of the 70th Armor Regiment have since served in various theaters and campaigns. Units of the battalion participated in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and have served in Southwest Asia as part of the Global War on Terrorism.
On 9 October 2012, the last active battalion of the 70th Armor Regiment, the 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment was inactivated along with its parent headquarters, the 170th Infantry Brigade in Baumholder, Germany. On 9 October 2014, the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor regiment was activated and assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, at Fort Riley, Kansas.
With 13 unit awards and 22 campaign streamers, the 70th Armor Regiment is the most decorated armor unit in the United States Army.
Organization
The 70th Tank Battalion, and later the battalions of the 70th Armor Regiment, saw numerous changes to the table of organization and equipment over the years. The battalion was initially formed as a light tank battalion, then converted to a standard tank battalion configuration during World War II. After the war, it was redesignated a heavy tank battalion, in which guise it fought in the Korean War. When reactivated in the early 1960s, the battalions were reorganized again. They saw active service with relatively minor changes until the 1980s when they were reorganized again as modernized tank battalions.Light tank battalion
As a light tank battalion, the 70th Tank Battalion was equipped with M5 Stuart tanks, an updated version of the M3 Stuart. The battalion was organized as follows:Medium tank battalion
The 70th Tank Battalion followed the standard organization of a U.S. medium tank battalion during World War II. It consisted of a Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Service Company, three medium tank companies and a light tank company.The 70th Tank Battalion completely reorganized when it converted from a light tank battalion to the standard medium tank battalion organization. The M5 Stuarts were replaced with M4 Shermans and the new organization was as follows:
Heavy tank battalion
The 70th Tank Battalion once again underwent massive reorganization when it was converted into a heavy tank battalion. The primary changes were in the tank companies, which were reduced to three. The Heavy Tank Battalion organization is as follows:Image:US-tanks-korea.jpg|thumb|Pershing and Sherman tanks at the Pusan Docks, Korea.
Regimental battalion
When the 70th re-emerged in 1963 as part of the Combat Arms Regimental System, it once again had a completely new organization. The battalion still had a headquarters and headquarters company and three tank companies. However, the service company had been replaced by the combat support company, which also took over several of the functions previously contained within the headquarters company. Here is the following companies within the regimental battalion:Division 86 battalion
When the Army reorganized in the mid-1980s, under what was termed the "Division 86" force structure, the battalions of the 70th Armor Regiment took on a new structure. The combat support company was eliminated, with its functions consolidated into the headquarters company. An additional line tank company was added, bringing the total to four; these companies were made considerably leaner, with all but the most essential company administration and supply functions consolidated into the headquarters company. the organization here is as follows:World War II
Activation and early service
The 70th Tank Battalion was formed as an independent medium tank battalion on 15 July 1940 at Fort Meade, Maryland from elements of the 34th Infantry Regiment and the 67th Infantry Regiment. This made the 70th Tank Battalion one of the founding units of the new armored force of the U.S. Army, along with the I Armored Corps and 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions, and the first tank battalion not assigned to an armored division. Despite its initial designation as a medium tank battalion, the 70th was organized as a light tank battalion and received only light tanks.With roots in the Regular Army at a time when the U.S. Army was rapidly expanding with draftees, the battalion was initially able to select junior officers, sergeants, and new soldiers of superior qualities. This included the top graduates of Officer Candidate School and only high school graduate enlisted men.
In addition to home station training at Fort Meade, the battalion trained at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania and Fort Knox, Kentucky in early 1941. In July and August 1941, the battalion began its association with the 1st Infantry Division with which it would later serve in combat when Company A first practiced amphibious landings with the division at New River, North Carolina along the shoreline of what is now Camp Lejeune as part of the Carolina Maneuvers to evaluate Army tactical doctrine.
Upon the basis of this meager but unique training experience, the 1st Infantry Division and the 70th Tank Battalion were alerted for deployment on 4 January 1942, less than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The sailing generated rumors of conducting an actual landing on the island of Martinique, which was a Caribbean outpost of Vichy France and whose Fort-de-France Bay was one of the best deepwater ports in the Western Hemisphere.
This deployment was in fact a planned amphibious training exercise. The 70th Tank Battalion sailed from Brooklyn Navy Yard with the 1st Infantry Division on 9 January 1942 and appeared off the coast of Culebra, Puerto Rico before conducting landing operations on the Mid-Atlantic coast. The landings were originally also planned to take place on Sand Island in the Core Banks, North Carolina but were rescheduled and took place on Cape Henry, Virginia.
As the wartime buildup began in earnest in 1942, the battalion underwent considerable turbulence. In February 1942 Company C was detached, redesignated as the 10th Light Tank Company and sent for garrison duty in Iceland, with a new Company C being formed in May. In August, six officers and 135 men were reassigned to form the cadre of the 746th Tank Battalion. And finally as preparations for combat became earnest, Company A was detached on 17 September and sent to Camp Dix, New Jersey. On 26 September, the company sailed from New York. With stops at Belfast, Northern Ireland, Greenock, Scotland, and Inverary, Scotland, the company was preparing to land with the 39th Regimental Combat Team, 9th Infantry Division at Algiers as part of Operation Torch.
North Africa
The 70th Tank Battalion landed in North Africa not as a battalion, but as three widely dispersed companies, each attached to a separate assault element and all landing on 8 November 1942. The battalion headquarters and "residue" initially remained in the United States.Company A landed with the 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division at Algiers, part of the Eastern Task Force of Operation Torch. Initial ground combat was light, but the company faced repeated air raids when it began guarding the Glida airport. Company A had light duties in Algiers until they reported to Col. Edson Raff and the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fériana, Tunisia. The attachment to the 509th was brief, and Company A soon found itself primarily attached to French combat units, and occasionally British, in the vicinity of the Ousseltia Valley for the remainder of the North African campaign. Along with Company A, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, the company was the only American unit in the sector. As Allied units closed on Bizerte and Tunis in the final stages of the campaign, German and Italian troops preferred to surrender to the company of American light tanks rather than the British or French. The estimate of prisoners taken by Company A between 11–13 May 1943 tallied between 17–20,000. Company A had clearly impressed their French allies: 25 men received the Croix de Guerre and the company was selected as the honor guard for the international victory parade in Tunis on 20 May. Finally in June 1942, Company A rejoined the rest of the 70th Tank Battalion at Arzew, Algeria.
Company B landed with the 47th Regimental Combat Team of the 9th Infantry Division at Safi, Morocco in order to secure the port. The port was needed to facilitate unloading the medium tanks of the 2nd Armored Division so they could advance on the primary objective at Casablanca. Meeting only light resistance, the company suffered no casualties and the port was secured by 1530. The company remained in place while a larger force built around the 3rd Infantry Division moved toward Casablanca. Shortly thereafter, Company B moved through Casablanca and rejoined Company C near Port Lyautey.
Company C's objective, the all-weather airport at Port Lyautey, was to have been taken on 8 November. However, the company was put ashore at Mehdya Plage, three miles from the intended landing site. Due to this navigational error and the more spirited response from the French defenders than at the other landing sites, the airfield did not fall until 11 November. With their assault role completed, Company C reverted to routine duties near Port Lyautey. After Company B rejoined them, the two companies remained in the area through January 1943.
When the tank companies deployed for North Africa, the battalion headquarters and other elements remained in Fort Bragg, North Carolina until 1 January 1943. The remainder of the battalion decamped for New York and boarded the SS Santa Rosa at Staten Island on 13 January. The Santa Rosa docked at Casablanca on 29 January 1943.
With most of the battalion now reunited, the 70th Tank Battalion moved by rail from Casablanca to Tlemcen, Algeria on 4 February 1943. At Tlemcen, the battalion was made responsible for training Free French soldiers who later formed much of the cadre of the 2nd French Armored Division. It continued in this role until May 1943, when it was ordered to proceed to Arzew, Algeria. There Company A finally caught up with the rest of the battalion, and the unit was all together for the first time since September 1942.