“Not for God and country but for me and my people,” he said. Long proudly summed up his pride for the Black Panthers and their conduct. He too would receive a Silver Star for gallantry in action.Ĭapt. He would use the same gun again many times that same day-exposing himself to enemy fire and knocking out German machine gun nests and an anti-tank gun. Without hesitation, Crecy climbed up to his turret machine gun and used it to suppress the enemy. While he was doing so, he saw an enemy machine gun take some of the 26th Division infantry under fire. On the following day, leading another tank, Crecy again dismounted under fire when his vehicle became stuck in the mud and worked to extricate it. Crecy jumped out, took charge of a machine gun on a nearby American halftrack, and used it to wipe out the enemy gun crew. Warren Crecy’s Sherman was knocked out by a German anti-tank gun. Three days later, as the advance continued, Sgt. The Black Panthers captured Morville-les-Vic on November 7. Like King, however, Rivers would be killed in action several days later his medal was sent to his family in Oklahoma posthumously. Rivers would later receive the Silver Star for his conduct. Under heavy enemy small arms fire, he leaped out of the tank, attached a cable from his Sherman to the roadblock, remounted, and then had his tank pull the obstacle off the road, freeing the tank column to resume the advance and capture the town. Ruben Rivers, encountered a German roadblock that forced his tank to a halt. Courtesy US Army.Īnother tank commander, Staff Sgt. At the end of the battle in Morville-les-Vic, a German officer would tell Long that the conduct of King and his crew “was only equaled by that of a Russian tank crew under similar circumstances.”Ī Sherman tank of the 761st Tank Battalion. King ran to the aid of a white infantryman and was wounded in the process but refused evacuation he would be killed in action 12 days later. Two of King’s crew were wounded their comrades dragged them to safety behind the tank and then went on to kill the soldier with the panzerfaust and also the crew of a German anti-tank gun. Right inside the town, King’s lead tank was knocked out by a German panzerfaust. “They were a well-greased fighting machine.” “I am sure my men thought I was a bastard and hated my guts but they followed me,” later recalled Long, a no-nonsense officer who hailed from Detroit. Long of B Company, who followed behind the lead Sherman tank commanded by Sgt. Instead, the first thrust into the town was commanded by African American Capt. Bates, wounded the night before the engagement, was not present nor were many of his white senior officers. On November 7, 1944, the Black Panthers finally got their chance as they attacked the German-held town of Morville-les-Vic in support of the 26th Infantry Division. James Lightfoot of the 761st Tank Battalion. Robinson was later acquitted, but too late to rejoin the Black Panthers.Ĭapt. Bates, refused to prosecute Robinson, but his superiors got around that by transferring the lieutenant to another unit, where he was court-martialed. First Lieutenant Jack Roosevelt Robinson of the 761st, an athlete who would become one of the greatest baseball players of all time, lost his chance to see combat when he refused to move to the back of a segregated military bus during an incident at Fort Hood, Texas in July 1944. As a segregated African American unit, it took part in the struggle for racial equality-a struggle in which the men of the 761st-the so-called “Black Panthers,”-would engage for the rest of their lives.īrought into existence on April 1, 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, the 761st Tank Battalion trained amid the restrictions and racism of the Jim Crow South. But the 761st’s fight was not just against the Germans. The 761st Tank Battalion’s motto was “Come Out Fighting.” And that it did, from its first engagement at the little Belgian town of Morville-les-Vic in November 1944, and through heavy combat right through to the end of the war. Top Image: Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States 761st Tank Battalion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |