3rd Armored Division (United States)

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3rd Armored Division

3rd US Armored Division SSI.svg

Badge of the 3rd US Armored Division Spearhead
active 1941 to 1945, 1947 to 1992
Country Flag of the United States.svg United States
Armed forces United States Armed Forces
Armed forces United States Army
Branch of service tank
Type Armored Division
structure Outline 1980s
Strength Should: 15,000+
Last headquarters Frankfurt am Main
Nickname "Spearhead" (spearhead)
Colours Blue, red, gold, black
march Spearhead March
Butcher Second World War
Operation Overlord
Battle of the Bulge
Battle in the Huertgen Forest
Ruhrkessel

Second Gulf War

Commanders
list of Commanders
Important
commanders

Major General Maurice Rose

The 3rd Armored Division ( German  3rd US Panzer Division ) is a large unit of the US Army , which is currently inactive.

Division line-up, nickname and badge

Since its activation on April 15, 1941 in Camp Beauregard , Louisiana, the division was nicknamed "Third Herd" which was then changed to "Spearhead" (German: spearhead).

The badge of the 3rd Panzer Division offers the distinctive image that is characteristic of US armored divisions . It is derived from the symbol of the US Army's tank force in World War II; a triangle in the colors yellow, blue and red, which represents the different branches of arms within the division: the cavalry, the infantry and the artillery .

On the triangle is the symbol of the former 7th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade, the predecessor of modern armored units. The armored chain symbolizes mobility and protection through armor, the cannon the firepower and the lightning the speed of operations to be carried out. These are the three main characteristics of the armored force. The Arabic numeral at the top of the triangle indicates the third armored division. The nickname Spearhead , officially approved by the Department of the Army , appears below the triangle and is an integral part of the badge.

History of unity

Second World War

After landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day , the Spearhead Division fought its way across France and Belgium to Germany, where it captured major cities such as Aachen , Cologne , Bielefeld , Marburg and Paderborn . On March 30, 1945, the commander in charge since August 1944, Major General Maurice Rose, was shot dead by the commander of a German Tiger tank near Paderborn, whom he unexpectedly encountered while trying to pull his Colt. On VE Day , May 8, 1945, the division was at Dessau . The first units were relocated back to New York in September of that year, and the division was deactivated shortly afterwards.

Cold War

1950s, 1960s

The 3rd Panzer Division was reactivated in the summer of 1947 and served eight years as a pure training unit for soldiers in Fort Knox , Kentucky, until it was reorganized as a tactical unit on June 14, 1955. The division was halted to be ready for combat until May 1, 1956.

In 1956 the division left the Brooklyn Army Terminal to move to West Germany to join the 7th US Army ( V Corps ) and replace the 4th US Infantry Division there as part of Operation Gyroscope . Fittingly, the staff units were embarked on the USNS Maurice Rose , named after the division's famous first commander in World War II. On May 12, Combat Command A arrived in Bremerhaven as the first unit of the division . On May 13th, the Ayers barracks in Kirch-Göns was occupied. The 3rd Armored Division occupied its barracks in Frankfurt , Fulda , Hanau , Gelnhausen , Büdingen , Friedberg , Butzbach and Kirch-Göns. Thus, the Spearhead combat troops sat directly at the Fulda Gap , where the first line of attack was suspected to be in an invasion of Warsaw Pact troops .

On October 1, 1958, the most famous of all Spearheads entered the service of the headquarters company of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Panzer Regiment: Elvis Presley . He served first as a private and later as a sergeant as a regular soldier in the division until he was honorably discharged in March 1960. His film GI Blues later echoed the experiences he had made while serving in the division.

In 1963 Spearhead was massively restructured as part of the ROAD program. Among other things, this resulted in the replacement of Combat Commands by brigades and an increase in the number of combat battalions to six armored and five infantry battalions.

Vietnam

During the Vietnam War , soldiers trained in the division were regularly sent to Vietnam.

1980s

M-60A3 tanks of the division on the A 63 near the exit at Sembach Air Base .

At the end of the 1970s, the division faced new tasks. The army, which had just turned into a pure volunteer army , took a decade to recover from the rigors of the Vietnam War. In order to maintain the high standard of training, real fire practice shooting and combat maneuvers were held at the Grafenwoehr , Hohenfels and Wildflecken military training areas , as well as the large-scale NATO REFORGER maneuvers , which were intended to deter the Soviet Union .

With the introduction of new large-scale equipment such as the M1 Abrams battle tank , the division's combat strength was increased considerably. After the division structure DIVISION '86 was taken in 1987 , an Army Aviation Brigade with the modern AH-64 Apache was added, as was the introduction of the MLRS rocket launcher system . In 1988, the 3rd US Armored Division was stationed and organized as follows:

  • Headquarters and headquarters company in Frankfurt am Main
  • 1st brigade in Kirch-Göns (entire brigade!)
  • 2nd Brigade in Gelnhausen
  • 3rd Brigade in Friedberg (Hesse)
  • 4th Brigade (Army Aviation Brigade) in Hanau-Erlensee with the Cavalry in Büdingen
  • DISCOM (support command) in Frankfurt
  • DIVENG (pioneers) in Hanau
  • DIVARTY (artillery) in Frankfurt
  • MI Bn (reconnaissance) in Frankfurt
  • ADA Bn (air defense) in Büdingen

In the same decade, the US Army switched to the current regimental system, which was to make soldiers feel that they belonged to units on the US mainland. As a result, old traditional ties between divisions and regiments were broken. For the Spearhead , that meant that most of the soldiers now rotated between Fort Hood, Texas and Germany, a small minority between Fort Benning, Georgia and Germany. In 1986, as part of this USARS ( US Army Regimental System ) program, the division took leave of the 2nd Battalion, 33rd Armored Regiment, which had served in the 1st Brigade for 23 years. The battalion's personnel left Germany for Fort Hood, Texas, where they were assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. In return, the 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment (an armored battalion) came from the 1st Cavalry Division to the 3rd Armored Division. The 2-5 Cavalry only served three months in the division before being renamed the 4th Battalion, 32nd Armored Regiment.

On June 19, 1987, a Spearhead unit, 1st Platoon, D Company, 4th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment (an armored battalion, previously known as 3rd Battalion, 33rd Armored Regiment) won the Canadian Army Trophy (CAT ).

Operation Desert Storm

In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall finally marked the end of an era. The end of the Cold War brought with it the withdrawal of the Soviet armed forces from Central Europe and made the strong military presence of the USA in Germany superfluous. So it came to the draw-down , the withdrawal of many combat battalions, the US Army and thus the end for the 3rd US Armored Division.

Shortly before the planned withdrawal towards home, however, an emergency occurred when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait. During this raid, staff members of the division were in Bad Kreuznach to learn from the 8th US Infantry Division how to create and implement withdrawal plans. The Spearheads themselves had already deactivated their anti-aircraft battalion, which was quickly reversed. On 8 November 1990 began for the Spearhead the Operation Desert Storm with the order for the installation of the units to the Gulf and the subordination of the VII. US Corps . The Gulf War began on January 17, 1991, and the first ground troops entered Iraq on February 24. After just 100 hours, on February 28, the operation was over and the enemy troops were pushed back. The division had overrun three armored Iraqi divisions during this time and took 2,552 prisoners. As early as March 1, 1991, the division was postponed as a corps reserve and performed security tasks along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, secured and supplied the refugee camp near Safwan in Iraq, which was continued until May 1991. The entire division moved back to Germany by June. On June 10, 1991, there was a great victory parade.

Decommissioning

The last deployment of the division during Operation Wüstensturm in 1991 was followed by the decommissioning of the division on February 15, 1992 during a ceremonial ceremony in the Drake barracks in Frankfurt am Main. It was set to zero strength, but not disabled.

Commanders

Rank at that time Surname Period
Major general Alvin Cullom Gillem, Jr. April 1941 to January 1942
Major general Walton Harris Walker January to August 1942
Major general Leroy Hugh Watson August 1942 to August 1944
Major general Maurice Rose August 1944 to March 1945
Brigadier General Doyle O. Hickey March to June 1945
Brigadier General Truman Everett Boudinot June to July 1945
Brigadier General Frank A. Allen, Jr. July 1945
Major general Robert W. Grow July to November 1945
Major general Ray T. Maddocks July 1947 to April 1948
Major general Roderick R. Allen April 1948 to June 1950
Brigadier General Raymond ES Williamson June 1950 to February 1951
Major general Ira Platt Swift February to July 1951
Brigadier General Arthur R. Walk July to October 1951
Brigadier General Raymond ES Williamson October 1951 to November 1952
Brigadier General John T. Cole November to December 1952
Major general Richard W. Stevens December 1952 to January 1954
Major general Gordon Byrom Rogers January 1954 to April 1955
Major general John Murphy Willems April 1955 to July 1956
Major general Robert W. Porter, Jr. July 1956 to January 1958
Rank at that time Surname Period
Major general Thomas Fraley Van Natta III January 1958 to July 1959
Major general Frederic J. Brown July 1959 to October 1960
Major general Creighton Abrams October 1960 to May 1962
Major general John Ramsey Pugh May 1962 to February 1964
Major general Berton E. Spivy, Jr. February 1964 to March 1965
Major general Walter T. Kerwin, Jr. March 1965 to October 1966
Major general Welborn G. Dolvin October 1966 to April 1968
Major general Donald H. Cowles April 1968 to August 1969
Major general Morgan G. Roseborough August 1969 to May 1971
Major general William R. Kraft, Jr. May 1971 to March 1973
Major general Jonathan R. Burton March 1973 to June 1975
Major general Charles J. Simmons June 1975 to November 1977
Major general Wallace H. Nutting November 1977 to September 1979
Major general Walter F. Ulmer, Jr. September 1979 to February 1982
Major general Thurman E. Anderson February 1982 to March 1984
Major general Richard G. Graves March 1984 to June 1986
Major general Thomas N. Griffin, Jr. June 1986 to March 1988
Major general George Joulwan March 1988 to July 1989
Major general Paul E. Funk July 1989 to April 1991
Major general Jerry R. Rutherford April 1991 to February 1992

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Regarding the name "Spearhead", only the following note can be found on the homepage of the 3rd AD: "Under legendary commander Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose, it became known as the" Spearhead "Division of the American First Army." (Translation: Under the legendary Commander Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose, it became known as the "Spearhead" Division of the 1st US Army.)
  2. ↑ Even if he did not live in the barracks, but in his own villa in Bad Nauheim

Web links

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