At the same time, a US convoy of thirty vehicles and nearly 140 men of Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion was heading south from Hürtgen Forest toward Ligneuville. This movement was part of the general German advance during the Battle of the Bulge. On December 17, 1944, the 1st SS Panzer Division of the Sixth Panzer Army, commanded by Colonel Joachim (Jochen) Peiper, was heading west from Büllingen, Belgium.

This atrocity is known as the “Malmedy Massacre.” The Massacre On the day after the German offensive began, Waffen SS units captured and murdered more than 80 US soldiers and Belgian prisoners. Hitler hoped that the German counter-attack would split the British and American armies, allow his forces to capture the port city of Antwerp, and ultimately stall the Allied offensive against Germany. armies split the final remnants of the German army in two, hastening an end to World War II in Europe.On December 16, 1944, the German military launched the “ Battle of the Bulge.” It was a last-ditch German military counter-offensive against the Allied armies in the West. On April 26 th, 1945, the 761 st rendezvoused with the Red Army in Steyr, Austria. battalions to meet up with Soviet forces. The 761 st helped break out and rescue the encircled American army in the town of Bastogne.īy the end of April 1945, the 761 st would be one of the first U.S. The battalion would play a major role in the infamous Battle of the Bulge as they successfully countered the German's last-ditch offensive. From the time they entered combat until the end of the war in Europe, the men of the 761 st received seven Silver Stars, 246 Purple Hearts and 1 Congressional Medal of Honor. As they fought their way into Germany, the 761 st would participate in four major campaigns through six countries, all the while earning several battlefield commendations and honors. Patton, himself a skeptic of African American tankers in combat, would wind up welcoming the 761 st into his Third Army and motivated them with a rousing speech right before they set out to engage German forces.

Upon arriving in Normandy, France in late 1944, the 761 st was assigned to Patton's Third Army. A tank crew from the 761st sit in their M24 Chaffee tank in a snowy field around Bastogne, waiting to engage German forces during the Battle of the Bulge.

Battle of the bulge tanks photos