THE 70TH TANK BATTALION served in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, and Germany from November 1942 to May 1946. It was organized as a medium tank battalion on 5 June 1940, redesignated as a light tank battalion on 7 October 1941, and after 1 December 1943 ended the war as a standard tank battalion with medium tanks. In the beginning at Fort Meade, the 70th was instrumental in developing armored tactics, testing new equipment, and writing the book on armored warfare. In North Africa, the 70th fought against the French, with the French, with the English, and against the Germans and the Italians. During the entire North African campaign, the 70th developed the fighting skills that served it well until the end of the war, including its first amphibious combat landing in Operation Torch.
The 70th then invaded Sicily, performing its second amphibious landing during Operation Husky near Gela. It fought from Gela to Palermo, encountering the more formidable Panzer III tanks and defeating them with innovative top attacks from nearby hills. After Sicily it was off to England, where the battalion arrived at Liverpool to prepare for the cross-channel invasion. In England, the 70th trained with other units and participated in practice landings during Exercise Tiger. The unit was instrumental in developing new devices for the invasion at Utah Beach, including amphibious tanks. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the 70th was the first armored unit to land and move inland to relieve airborne troops and consolidate positions. After the capture of Cherbourg, the 70th moved on to the pivotal battle at St. Lô, opening the way for General Patton’s Third Army’s dash across France. During the summer of 1944, the 70th rolled across France, through Paris, and into Belgium and Luxembourg in pursuit of retreating German forces. After surviving the Hürtgen Forest campaign, the 70th was instrumental in the counterattack against German forces during the Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge). Crossing into Germany, the 70th headed southwest, battling rapidly retreating German forces and ending the war in the vicinity of Munich.
This book functions as a pictorial history of the World War II years in the eastern United States, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, England, Normandy, Northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and southwestern Germany, from the perspective of the 70th Tank Battalion. Rarely is such a wealth of photographs available of as small a unit as the 70th. Almost 600 photographs appear here, a number more typical of the histories of divisions or armies. Most of the photos provided did not have captions, explanations, or dates. Consequently, various clues in the photographs, such as vehicle type, weapons, uniforms, and terrain, as well as information from documented photos from other works of the same subject, were used to generate captions for these photographs. In some instances, other historians familiar with the particular theater of battle provided captions. Finally, while not all photos are accompanied by detailed captions, they are presented here for the benefit of other historians and readers of World War II history because of their high quality or the unusual material pictured.