Post by NAR on Jun 19, 2004 16:47:45 GMT -5
The 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion in World War II
by Joe W. Wilson, Jr.
McFarland & Company, 1999
Reviewed by Michael Peck
One of the saddest chapters in American military history has been the treatment of African-American soldiers. Nowhere was this more brutally apparent than in World War II, where many volunteered for combat in hopes of earning civil rights and were instead shunted aside as cooks and stevedores, truck drivers and orderlies.
A few Negro combat units were grudgingly formed. Some, such as the 92nd Division, fought under indifferent commanders and had indifferent records. Others became legends, such as the Tuskegee Airmen.
One unit that fought with incredible elan and distinction was the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. The commanding officer of the tough 17th Airborne Division was reported to have remarked later that he "would prefer to have five tanks from the 761st than to have any larger comparable number from any other armored unit."
Author Joe W. Wilson, himself the son of a gunner in a Negro field artillery battalion, demonstrates just how tragically wrong Patton was when he wrote that "a colored soldier can not think fast enough to fight in armor." Though Wilson could have written a book on civil rights, he wisely chose to focus on the combat history of an aggressive, determined battalion.
What made the 761st such a tough outfit? Some good white officers helped, though others despised their assignments. Then there was ugly ol' Jim Crow racism. Though activated in 1942, the Black Panthers (so named because of their insignia, and not for any political group) had two full years to train before going overseas. Despite the rigors of segregated life in a succession of bases across the South, the Panthers had a chance to practice hard.
Those skills came in handy when the battalion was attached to Patton's Third Army in October 1944. What followed was a nonstop campaign across six nations. Literally nonstop, because as an independent battalion as well as a Negro unit, the 761st was constantly shifted from division to division, with a company here and a platoon there.
Wilson relies mostly on the accounts of 761st veterans and the white soldiers they supported to tell the tale. There was Platoon Sergeant Ruben Rivers, who had his knee wrecked when his Sherman ran over a mine in France. He refused morphine or evacuation for two days, until he went to the rescue of some trapped tankers and infantrymen. His commander ordered him to "take cover behind the crest of the hill, as division artillery intensified their 'time on target' fire mission. Again and again he tried to get a response. Helpless, filled with agitation and dismay, Williams tried to radio them, knowing that neither would ever answer. 'Move back, Rivers!' Rivers, in a frenzied firefight shooting tracers from his 76 millimeter cannon like a machine gun, probably didn' t hear Captain Williams. The Panthers heard Rivers over the radio: 'I see them. We'll fight them.' Rivers kept firing on the enemy until tracers were seen going into his turret. 'Pull up, driver! Pull back, driver! Oh, Lord!', were Rivers's last words before his tank exploded." After a long struggle, Rivers was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1997 by President Clinton.
Part of what makes The 761st an enjoyable read is that the author has a knack for selecting anecdotes from veterans that capture the exhilaration and horror of a tank battalion slogging through Europe. In between accounts of tanks supporting hard-pressed doughboys, there is the poignant tale of a Negro sergeant whose life was saved by a white sergeant from the 26th Division who was killed in the rescue. Later the sergeant briefs white infantrymen on how to stop German tanks: "What do I fear as a tanker? I fear the guy who has guts enough to run out there and take his rifle and shove it in my sprocket...I worry about the guy who has guts enough to run up from the rear of my tank, climb aboard, and take a hand grenade and drop it down my hatch. I worry about the guy who has guts enough to run up there and take his grenade, pull the pin and drop it in my gas tank. I worry about these things."
In a final irony, men who confronted racism at home and on the battlefield discovered victims even worse off when they helped liberate concentration camps. After the war, it took years for the unit's soldiers to receive the decorations they deserved. A recommendation for a Presidential Unit Citation was submitted in 1945. President Jimmy Carter awarded it in 1978. Sergeant Rivers was one of seven Negro soldiers to receive a Medal of Honor from President Bill Clinton in 1997. Most were not around to receive it.
While Wilson's book is worthy as an anecdotal tale of tank combat and of an exceptional combat unit, it falls short as a serious military history. There are occasional technical glitches, such as referring to the 1st SS Panzer Regiment as the 1st SS Ranger Regiment, or describing German Mark III and IV tanks as Panthers (sounds like the author himself had a case of Tiger fright). More important, material frequently looks like it came straight from after-action reports, judging by the frequent use of phrases such as "gallantly led and directed the attack on foot...disregarding his own personal safety." It is not clear how much independent confirmation there was of the veterans' accounts.
Nonetheless, The 761st is a worthwhile book of tank combat and of a unit that fought a war at home as well as abroad.
For more information on this book, contact McFarland & Company at www.mcfarlandpub.com
To download "Steel Panthers: World War II," a fascinating and free game on World War II armored combat, go to spcamo.thegamers.net
