Tank Corps (United States)

Tank Corps
Insignia of the Tank Corps [a]
Active1917–1920
DisbandedJune 4, 1920 (1920-06-04)
Allegiance United States
BranchArmy
TypeArmored
SizeCorps
WarsWorld War I
Commanders
Chief of Tank CorpsBrig. Gen. Samuel D. Rockenbach

The Tank Corps was the armored corps of the United States Army during World War I.

History

World War I

Regular Army

Brigadier General Samuel D. Rockenbach, as the Chief of Tank Corps under General John J. Pershing; organized, trained, equipped and then deployed the first American tank units to the Western Front of 1918 Europe.[1][2] An initial plan for 2,000 light Renault FT tanks and 200 heavy British Mark VI tanks was changed to 20 battalions of 77 light tanks each and 10 battalions of 45 heavy tanks each.[3]

Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton in July 1918, near Langres, France.

A total of eight heavy battalions (the 301st to 308th) and 21 light battalions (the 326th to 346th) were raised, but only four (the 301st, 331st, 344th and 345th) saw combat.[4] Captain George S. Patton, the first officer assigned to the unit, set up a light tank school at Bourg, France, starting on 10 November 1917.[5][6] In the first half of 1918, the 326th and 327th Tank Battalions were organized at Patton's school, while the 301st Heavy Tank Battalion was raised at Camp Meade, Maryland, United States, and transported to the British Tank School at Bovington Camp in southern England, for training.[5]

The 326th (under the command of Sereno E. Brett) and 327th Tank Battalions (later renamed the 344th and 345th[7] and organized into the 304th Tank Brigade, commanded by Patton), were the first into combat, beginning with the Battle of Saint-Mihiel as part of the US IV Corps on 12 September 1918. The small French Renault FT tanks they were equipped with found the going hard and many were lost or ran out of fuel crossing the battlefield – the Germans, forewarned, had largely retreated from the salient.[8] The tanks then took part in the Meuse–Argonne offensive as part of the US V Corps on 26 September.[4][6][9] Major Brett assumed command of the 304th after Patton was injured on 26 September, the first day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive near Cheppy, France.[10]

326th Battalion, Tank Corps, in October 1918, Varennes, France.

When the fighting ended on November 11, 1918, the AEF Tank Corps and the units in the United States had about 20,000 men.[11] The AEF Tank Corps was redeployed after the armistice, with the remaining personnel transferred back to the United States. The Tank Corps, which formed part of the National Army, was formally disbanded in 1920, when the National Army was demobilized and consolidated into the Regular Army. After being transferred to Camp Meade, Maryland, the 304th and 305th Tank Brigades were consolidated and redesignated several times, together eventually forming the 1st Tank Regiment on 1 September 1929. This unit was again reorganized and redesignated as the 66th Infantry Regiment (Light Tanks) on 25 October 1932, and remains in active service as of 2024. Now known as the 66th Armor Regiment, it is the oldest armored unit in the modern United States Army.

National Army

World War I-era poster shows a black cat with outstretched claws soaring over the tanks below. Poster urges Americans to join the United States Tank Corps. Artist: August William Hutaf, ca. 1917–1919.
‘Treat ‘Em Rough’, the most famous recruiting poster for the Tank Corps featured its motto and the iconic Black Cat, c. 1917. (Library of Congress)

The Tank Corps, National Army,[12] was the continental United States based armored formation of the army prior to consolidation. Preceded by the Tank Service of the National Army, of February 15, 1918, in the 65th Engineers[13] at Camp Meade,[14] the service was removed from the Corps of Engineers and organized as the Tank Corps, National Army, with command transferring from Colonel H. H. Ferguson on March 9 to Colonel Ira C. Welborn.[13]

On March 6, 1918, a Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, for training tank recruits, was established on the Gettysburg Battlefield[15] at the former "Camp, United States Troops, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania."[16] On July 15, 1918, Col William H Clopton Jr, arrived in the US[13] and subsequently formed the 2nd stateside tank training center at Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.[17] Approximately 2000 Camp Colt men transferred to Tobyhanna,[18][19] e.g., the 302nd[20] and 326th[21] Battalions), and Tobyhanna had two tanks and ~2200 men.[22]

Another tank training center was opened at Camp Polk, North Carolina, in September 1918[23] (a heavy battalion from Camp Colt transferred to "form the nucleus").[18] At Camp Colt in October the 310th Tank Center was established as were the 338th, 339th, and 346th Tank Battalions[24] (John Montgomery Mahon[25] was the commander of Camp Colt's 310 Brigade Headquarters).

Interwar period

Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, future president of the United States, standing in front of a tank at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1919.

At the time of the Armistice, the Tank Corps had 483 officers and 7700 enlisted men,[18] and the consolidation of tank training had begun at Camp Benning when Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived from Camp Colt on December 24, 1918[26] (he remained until March 15, 1919,[27] and about 250 Camp Colt soldiers were transferred to Camp Benning after the armistice.)[28] On December 26, 1918, a portion of the Camp Polk tank school was transferred to Camp Benning "to work in conjunction with the Infantry school".[18] Camp Benning tank troops were moved to Camp Meade from February 19 to 21, 1919;[18] and Clopton was ordered to Camp Meade on February 24, 1919).[29]

The "Office of Director of the Tank Corps" was absorbed by the command of Brigadier General Samuel D. Rockenbach on August 15, 1919[18] after Rockenbach returned from Europe on July 19, 1919[30] (he had arrived in Europe in June 1917).[31] In 1919, General John J. Pershing, "appearing before a joint session of the Senate and House Committee on Military Affairs, suggested that the A.E.F. Tank Corps become an adjunct to the Infantry."[32] The National Defense Act of 1920 disbanded the National Army and the remaining two heavy and four light tank battalions became part of the infantry.[33]

Medal of Honor recipients

Two members of the Tank Corps, both from the 344th Battalion, received the Medal of Honor: Donald M. Call and Harold W. Roberts.[34][35]

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Adopted in 1918, the branch insignia depicts the side view of the Mark VIII Tank above two stylized dragons breathing fire over a wreath.

Citations

  1. ↑ Wilson, Dale, p. 19
  2. ↑ Rockenbach, Samuel (2016). The Rockenbach Report. Silver Spring, Maryland: Dale Street Books. pp. 9–72. ISBN 9781941656365.
  3. ↑ Wilson, Dale. The American Expeditionary Forces Tank Corps in World War I: From Creation to Combat (PDF) (Thesis). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Rinaldi, Richard A. (2004). The US Army in World War I – Orders of Battle. Tiger Lily Publications LLC. ISBN 0-9720296-4-8.
  5. 1 2 Venzon, Anne Cipriano (1995). The United States in the First World War: An Encyclopedia p. 726. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8240-7055-0.
  6. 1 2 Votaw, John; Duncan Anderson (2005). The American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-622-4.
  7. ↑ Hoffman, George F (1999). Camp Colt to Desert Storm. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2130-2.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Christy (2007). Band of Brigands. pp. 451–2. ISBN 978-0-00-721459-4.: 452 
  9. ↑ "U.S. Military History Companion: Army Combat Branches: Armor". answers.com. Retrieved October 11, 2008.
  10. ↑ Rockenbach, Samuel (2016). The Rockenbach Report. Silver Spring, Maryland: Dale Street Books. p. 48. ISBN 9781941656365.
  11. ↑ AK-Interactive S.L. 2014, p. 91.
  12. ↑ Motor Age. Vol. 34. Class Journal Company. 1918. p. 18. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 Committee on Public Information, United States (March 28, 1919). "Organization of the Army Tank Corps". The Official U.S. Bulletin. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Old Camp Colt Adjutant, Now US Alaskan Official, Recalls Birth of Armor". August 27, 1954. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  15. ↑ Report of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission, 1918 (Report). Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  16. ↑ Annual report of the Secretary of War, Volume 8, United States War Department, 1918, p. 998, retrieved January 12, 2011
  17. ↑ "Army Orders and Assignments" (PDF). The New York Times. July 27, 1918. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rockenbach, Samuel D. (October 13, 1919). Report of the Director of the Tank Corps for the year ending June 30, 1919. Congressional serial set, Issue 7688 (Report).
  19. ↑ "Caruso Aids Tanks Corps" (PDF). The New York Times. September 16, 1918. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Gettysburg Times - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  21. ↑ "PIERCE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR" (TXT). files.usgwarchives.net.
  22. ↑ "War Expenditures: Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 3 (foreign Expenditures) of the Select Committee on Expenditures in the War Department, House of Representatives, Sixty-Sixth Congress, First[-third] Sess. on War Expenditures ... [June 19, 1919-Feb. 9, 1921]". U.S. Government Printing Office. December 12, 1920 – via Google Books.
  23. ↑ "The Builder Magazine - April 1919". phoenixmasonry.org. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  24. ↑ Rinaldi, Richard A. The US Army in World War I – Orders of Battle (Report).
  25. ↑ Seward, A.C.; Cambridge Philosophical Society; Cambridge University Press (1917). Darwin and modern science: essays in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Origin of species. University Press. pp. 5–15. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  26. ↑ "The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century". June 1, 2011. Archived from the original on June 1, 2011.
  27. ↑ "Eisenhower General Information". ibiblio.org.
  28. ↑ Perret G, Eisenhower
  29. ↑ "Army Orders and Assignments" (PDF). The New York Times. February 25, 1919. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  30. ↑ "3,642 of A.E.F. return" (PDF). The New York Times. July 31, 1919. p. 8. Retrieved June 21, 2008.
  31. ↑ "Samuel D. Rockenbach Papers". VMI Archives. Virginia Military Institute. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  32. ↑ Hofmann, George F. (1973). "The Demise of the U. S. Tank Corps and Medium Tank Development Program". Military Affairs. 37 (1): 20–25. doi:10.2307/1986566. JSTOR 1986566.
  33. ↑ Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth A. Steadman (April 21, 1982). "The Evolution of the Tank in the U.S. Army". Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Archived from the original on February 21, 2004. Retrieved October 11, 2008.
  34. ↑ "Medal of Honor recipients". United States Army Center of Military History. August 3, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  35. ↑ "Californians and the Military Corporal Harold W. Roberts Medal of Honor Recipient". militarymuseum.org. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
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