![]() He usually rode at the head of his columns, standing in the turret and chewing on a cigar. Time Magazine reported that the 37th Tank Battalion was “a fearsome weapon of destruction” under Abrams, who “showed the feel and flair of the born combat man.” Six “Thunderbolts” Throughout the WarĪbe Abrams wore out six tanks – all named Thunderbolt – during the war, but he never had one shot out from under him. In the thrust from the Kyll River to the Rhine, Abrams’s unit was credited with destroying 15 tanks, more than 300 other vehicles, 75 artillery pieces, and 75 anti-tank guns. The 37th Tank Battalion took part in the bloody breakthrough at St.-Lo, crossed the Saar River, escaped a German ambush while smashing through the Maginot Line, and pushed on toward Czechoslovakia. It led the 4th Armored in breaking out from the Normandy beachhead and in the Third Army’s successful effort to seal off the Normandy Peninsula. He’s the world champion.”Īfter training on the rolling farmlands of Wiltshire in southwestern England, Abrams had taken his battalion into action in France in July 1944. Patton said, “I’m supposed to be the best tank commander in the Army, but I have one peer, Abe Abrams. Instead, he was another gun in the tank.” He didn’t have a headquarters out there in his lead tank. In eight or 10 words, he could put more emphasis than someone who spoke for an hour. Army history.Ĭaptain Abe Baum of the 4th Armored Division said of Abrams, “He was sincere, honest, didn’t speak down to people. McAuliffe, deputy commander of the 101st Airborne Division, who had replied “Nuts!” to a German surrender ultimatum on December 22, General Patton, who had moved an entire corps 90 degrees to the left flank of the Bulge in one of the most brilliant maneuvers of World War II, and many other officers and enlisted men who distinguished themselves in the biggest winter campaign in U.S. Weary paratroopers cheered at the lifting of the epic eight-day siege, and the “Battered Bastards of the Bastion of Bastogne” now belonged to a proud brotherhood in military history.Ĭolonel Abrams himself had just become one of the heroes of the Battle of the Bulge, along with Brigadier General Anthony C. Shortly before 5 p.m., Boggess jumped from his tank at the Bastogne defense perimeter and shook hands with a grinning engineer lieutenant from the 101st Airborne Division. Dusk was veiling the snow-clad countryside as the first nine tanks, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Boggess, clanked through Assenois. Halftracks filled with infantrymen followed the Shermans. Supporting artillery fire pounded the immediate objective, the village of Assenois, and Colonel Abrams’s battalion rumbled forward down a slope and through a patch of woods. Impassive, but with his eyes glinting, Abrams stuck a large cigar in his mouth, clambered into the turret of his tank, and radioed to his men, “We’re going in to those people now. Abrams’s mind was made up, and he dashed back to his Sherman, nicknamed “Thunderbolt IV,” and radioed Major General Hugh Gaffey, commander of the 4th Armored Division, for permission to move ahead. Should he take a chance and ask for permission to head straight for Bastogne, regardless of the strength of enemy opposition? Just then, waves of Douglas C-47 transports roared overhead and started parachuting supplies into Bastogne. ![]() On that December 26, 1944, Abrams was down to 20 tanks, enough for one more assault. Military Academy in 1936 and become a courageous, resourceful professional soldier respected by all who knew him. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the oldest son of a Boston & Albany Railroad repairman, Abrams was a stocky, lantern-jawed, cigar-chomping cavalryman who had graduated from the U.S. The battalion was five miles short of its goal that afternoon when its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Williams Abrams, Jr., stood on a hill and gazed northward toward Bastogne. A Stocky, Lantern-Jawed, Cigar-Chomping Cavalryman And no one knew what lay ahead on the road to Bastogne. But the battalion had been held up by the German 5th Fallschirmjager (Parachute) Division, along with landmines, shell craters, snow, fog, and iced roads. Third Army, to “drive like hell” toward its objective: the relief of the besieged 101st Airborne Division in the strategic road-junction town of Bastogne. ![]() It was ten days into the Battle of the Bulge.įor five tough days, the spearhead 4th Armored Division unit had advanced only 22 miles. 37th Tank Battalion was drawn up on a roadside in southeastern Belgium. On the chilly afternoon of Tuesday, December 26, 1944, a column of mud-caked Sherman tanks, halftracks, scout cars, and tank destroyers of the U.S.
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