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In particular, World War II tank crews risked incineration from enemy shells that could turn their vehicles from protective fortresses into burning prisons.

In actual combat, tanks are far more vulnerable than viewers of most black-and-white films may realize.

The fighting was brutal, and the 761st Tank Battalion Shermans and 87th Division infantry had to struggle against bitter resistance every step of the way.If 60 years of B-grade war movies have taught us anything, it’s that tanks are unstoppable lumbering behemoths with frightening firepower that terrorize a battlefield.īut what’s it really like to climb into a tank and take it into war? Their objective: the town of Tillet in Belgium, about twelve miles west of the vital crossroads of Bastogne, defended by German tanks and troops of the elite Führer Begleit Brigade. The tankers were too valuable to be left alone for long, however, and at the beginning of January 1945 they were sent into action again. As a result, the 761st was not committed to the fight in the first days of the German Ardennes offensive that began on December 16, and became known as the Battle of the Bulge. These were hard to come by, and many of the new men assigned to join the Black Panthers were raw and untrained or-being rejects from other units-totally unfit for duty. By this point the unit was down to a mere handful of functioning tanks, and desperately needed personnel replacements as well. Pushing ahead, 761st Tank Battalion Shermans crossed the border into Germany on December 14. That division was pulled out of the line on December 9 for a rest, but not so the Black Panthers, who were now assigned to the incoming 87th Infantry Division. Up to this point the 761st, like other tank battalions working in tandem with the infantry, had supported the 26th Infantry Division. Tanks of the 761st Battalion being recovered, winter 1944-1945.