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The 4th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army that earned distinction while spearheading General Patton's Third Army in the European theater of World War II. The 4th Armored Division, unlike most other U.S. armored divisions during World War II, did not officially adopt a nickname for the division during the war.
The 4th Armored Division landed at Utah Beach on July 13, 1944, a month after the D-Day invasion (June 6, 1944) of the French Normandy coast. Within weeks, the "Breakthrough" division was sweeping across France.
In 1944, the 4th Armored Division played a central role in one of the more remarkable campaigns in American military history-Third Army’s pursuit across France, which was capped off by the...
Just before dark on the day after Christmas 1944, elements of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.’s 4th Armored Division, attacking from the south, succeeded in making contact with the beleaguered Americans at Bastogne.
With a plan that closely followed U.S. river crossing doctrine, Third Army’s XII Corps executed a wet gap crossing south of the town of Nancy with the 35th Infantry Division as the bridgehead force and 4th Armored Division as the breakout force.
Two days after the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive, the 4th Armored entered the fight (18 December 1944), racing northwest into Belgium, covering 150 miles in 19 hours. The Division attacked the Germans at Bastogne, helping to relieve the besieged 101st Airborne.
4th Armored Division M4 Sherman medium tank, near Bastogne, Belgium, 8 January 1945. The 4th Armored Division spent six months readying for action in the English countryside. In July, the division transitioned to France over Utah beach and the first elements tasted combat on July 17th.
Raymond Mason describes the 4th Armored Division’s assault toward the town of Bastogne where they were heading to relieve the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge.
The 4th Armored Division would then sweep around from the northern Pont-à-Mousson to assault Nancy from the east, while infantry from Toul would attack from the west. At Pont-à-Mousson, the 317th Infantry dispensed with reconnaissance and preliminary artillery bombardments, hoping to use tactical surprise instead.
On the evening of March 25, 1945, sensitive orders made their way down from Lieutenant General George S. Patton, commander of Third US Army, to the 4th Armored Division. His orders directed a no-notice armored raid to liberate the Americans imprisoned at Oflag XIII-B prisoner-of-war camp near Hammelburg, Germany, where Allied intelligence ...