Bollywood

For reunion info, please contact the following:

820th Tank Destroyer BattalionMr. Steven Siekierka24931 S. Sylbert Ct.Redford, Michigan 48239(313) 532-8306

Tank Destroyers

The tank destroyer force was created as a mobile GHQ antitank reserve in 1941. The original concept called for battalions to be concentrated in tank destroyer brigades and groups for employment en masse against an armored threat. In practice, the realities of combat and the erosion of the German Panzer force meant that the tank destroyers were usually attached individually to divisions.

Initial War Department plans called for the creation of 220 TD battalions, a figure that was never achieved. By the end of 1943, 106 battalions were in existence of which fifty-six served in Europe or Italy and six in the Pacific. Eleven of the remaining battalions were converted to armored field artillery, amphibious tractor, chemical mortar, or tank battalions. Thirty-six battalions were disbanded -- with their personnel going to the replacement pool.

The first TD battalions organized were fully self-propelled. However, combat experience in North Africa appeared to show that towed guns would be desirable. As a result, about one-half of the battalions were converted to towed in 1943. Unfortunately, further experience proved that towed guns were simply too immobile, making them highly vulnerable. As a result, in 1944 many of the towed battalions were converted back to self-propelled. On 1 January 1945, a total of 73 battalions were active.

The tank destroyer battalions were all organized with three companies, each company was equipped with twelve guns, for a total of thirty-six in the battalion. The early battalions also had an antiaircraft and an engineer platoon which were later discarded. A strong reconnaissance element was retained, equivalent to a mechanized cavalry troop.

The TD battalions first employed two stopgap ad hoc weapons, the M3 halftrack, which mounted an elderly 75mm gun and the M6 TD, a Dodge 3/4 ton Weapons Carrier with a 37mm AT gun crudely mounted in the truck bed. Later, in North Africa in 1943, the TD battalions began to receive the first standardized TD gun, the M10. The M10 was based on a variant of the M4 tank chassis, was lightly armored, and had poor cross-country mobility and speed. However, its 3" gun, a development of the prewar AA gun, was quite powerful for the time. By early 1944 the first purpose-designed TD appeared, the M18, and began to slowly replace the M10. The M18 was more lightly armored than the M10, but had very good cross-country mobility and impressive speed. Furthermore, the gun was an improved 3", known as the 76mm, with a more powerful cartridge case and muzzle-break, giving it greater accuracy and hitting power. Finally, also in 1944, the M36 was deployed. The M36 utilized the same chassis as the M10, but mounted the powerful 90mm gun (also originally an AA weapon). The M36 was the most powerful antitank weapon in the U.S. arsenal, with the newly developed high-velocity armor piercing rounds (HVAP, also known as APCR for Armor Piercing Composite Rigid), the 90mm was easily capable of defeating all German armor, if it could get the first hit.

The seventy-three tank destroyer battalions active and their armament on 1 January 1945 were:

There were fifty-two in the ETO: the 601st (M36, also served in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy with M3 and M10), 602nd (M18), 603rd (M18), 607th (M36), 609th (M18), 610th (M36), 612th (M18), 614th Colored (T), 628th (M36), 629th (M10), 630th (M36), 631st (M10), 634th (M10), 635th (M10), 636th (M10, also served in Tunisia and Italy), 638th (M18), 643rd (M18), 644th (M10), 645th (M36, also served in Italy with M10), 654th (M36), 691st (M36), 692nd (T), 701st (M10), 702nd (M36), 703rd (M36), 704th (M18), 705th (M18), 771st (M36), 772nd (T), 773rd (M36), 774th (M36), 776th (M36, also served in Tunisia and Italy with M10), 801st (T), 802nd (T), 803rd (M36), 807th (T), 808th (M36), 809th (M36), 811th (M18), 813th (M36, also served in Tunisia and Sicily with M3 and M10), 814th (M36), 817th (T), 818th (M36), 820th (T), 821st (M10), 822nd (T), 823rd (M10), 824th (T), 825th (T), 827th Colored (M18), 893rd (M10), and 899th (M36, also served in Tunisia with M10). Before the end of the war in Europe eight more battalions converted to SP, the 692nd(M10), 801st (M18), 802nd (M10), 817th (M18), 820th (M18), 822nd (M18), 824th (M18), 825th (M10).

Four were in route to the ETO: the 605th (T, converted to M10 in March)), 648th (T), 656th (M36), and 661st (M18).

Four were serving in the MTO: the 679th Colored (T), 804th (M10, also served in Tunisia), 805th (T, also served in Tunisia with M3), and 894th (M10, also served in Tunisia).

Six were serving in the PTO: the 632nd (M10), 637th (M18), 640th (M10), 671st (M18), 806th (M10), and 819th (M10).

Seven remained in the US: the 606th (SP, disbanded 28 February), 611th (T, disbanded 20 February), 627th (SP, in Hawaii, disbanded 10 April), 633rd (M18, arrived in the ETO 12 April), 652nd (SP), and 670th (SP, in Hawaii, disbanded 10 April), and 816th (T, disbanded 20 February).

Like the mass employment of separate tank battalions, the deployment of the tank destroyers in mass to defeat enemy armored attacks was never actually practiced. In the Ardennes Campaign the Third Army employed one TD battalion as an augmentation to the army's Military Police force. By the end of the war it was clear that the tank destroyer experiment had no future in the army, on 10 November 1945 the Tank Destroyer Center at Fort Hood Texas was officially discontinued, ending the existence of the tank destroyer force.