How many tanks did General Patton's third Army?

Answer 1

An exact answer is not possible. It might be possible to give a number that the 3rd Army was supposed to have on any particular day, according to the Table of Organization and Equipment of the various units assigned that day to the 3rd Army. Almost assuredly though on that given day the number actually available would have been less, due to mechanical issues and battle damage. To find the ACTUAL number available on that particular day would require delving deeply into the daily reports of those subordinate units, buried in the National Archives.

In WWII tanks were found in two types of units. There were several hundred "Independent" Tank Battalions, which were not a permanent part of any larger formation. These were in addition to the sixteen Armored Divisions. The existence of these two types of tank units was due to the fact that in 1940, on the eve of the war, nobody knew what the proper role was for tanks. Should they be dispersed among and used to support infantry? Or should they be massed into large formations and used for smashing, slashing breakthroughs? In the end, the Army decided to do both, and created the Independent Battalions to support the infantry, and the armored divisions for breakthrough and exploitation. There were independent battalions of numerous types, not just tanks. The idea was that these battalions (artillery, signals, engineers, tank, tank destroyer, etc) would be assigned to HQs higher than a division, which is to say to corps or field army HQs. Then, they could be moved around as needed, to supplement the "bare bones" WWII infantry divisions. For this reason the independent battalions are sometimes referred to as "corps troops" or "army troops". Sometimes they were also called "bastard battalions" (no parent unit). In practice though, in Europe, Independent Tank Battalions, though only "attached" to infantry divisions on a "temporary" basis, often stayed with the same division for months, and developed good teamwork.

Of the sixteen WWII armored divisions, one was in Italy, and the other fifteen were in Western Europe. (Tanks in the Pacific were all Independent Battalions). There were also about 45 infantry divisions in Europe. This meant the typical army corps had three infantry divisions and one armored division.

Divisions could be, and were, moved from corps to corps, often shifting to the command of the corps "next door" in the line. Similarly, corps could be, and were shifted from field army to field army, as needed. This happened in all the field armies in the line in France and Germany. I believe the XII Corps and the XX Corps were in the 3rd Army the entire time, but others came and went. A field army usually had from two to four corps in it. And of course the various corps had their "corps troops" and the army had its "army troops".

The Table of Organization and Equipment for an armored division was changed several times, changing the number of tanks a division was supposed to have. See Related Link below for an excellent discussion.

For all these reasons giving a precise answer to your question is almost impossible, and the answer would differ for different days.