The US Army’s 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-Black tank unit to see combat during World War II, has gone down in history as “one of the most effective tank battalions” during the war, leaving a legacy of fighting Nazis and liberating concentration camps. Yet due to the realities of racism and segregation in the United States, back home, these Black soldiers were treated like second class citizens. With a bold logo of a snarling black Panther emblazoned with the motto “Come Out Fighting,” this all-Black unit is occasionally referred to as the “original Black Panthers.”
Heroism abroad, oppression at home
The US Army did not officially desegregate until President Harry Truman signed an executive order after World War II. The Black soldiers of the 761st Tank Battalion were not allowed to serve in the same units as white soldiers. The Battalion’s soldiers also had to train in installations located throughout the highly segregated US South, in states such as Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, still under the shadow of Jim Crow.
Institutional racism characterized much of the training experience of the 761st Tank Battalion. Training for the men of the 761st lasted for almost two years, yet white units were sent overseas after far less training. As a result, the 761st Tank Battalion, which had been originally created for the purpose of maintaining support within the Black community for the WWII war effort, developed into one of the better trained units in the army and was later celebrated for its heroism.
“This was [US Army General George] Patton’s best tank unit and they didn’t get any recognition because whites did not look upon blacks as having any competence as fighting men,” writes athlete and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his book about the unit, “Brothers in Arms.”
The soldiers of the 761st Battalion were subject to racist violence from their white fellow soldiers. A bloody “race riot” broke out while 761st soldiers were in training in Alexandria, Louisiana, after Black soldiers from Northern states, unused to the violence of the Jim Crow South, reacted to the brutal arrest of a fellow Black soldier by white military police. Soldiers in the 761st were incensed at the racist violence, and went as far as to commandeer six tanks and a half-track, but were eventually persuaded to stand down by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Bates.
The most famous member of the 761st Battalion was Jackie Robinson, who would go on to become the first Black player in Major League Baseball, heralding the end of racial segregation in professional baseball in the US. During 761st’s training in Texas, a White bus driver told Robinson to move to sit at the back of the bus, which Robinson refused—a move that resulted in his arrest. Lieutenant Colonel Bates refused to consider the court martial charges against Robinson. Robinson was subsequently transferred to the 758th Tank Battalion, also an all-Black unit.
761st breaches Nazi defenses
After training for two years in Texas, 761st was finally deemed ready for deployment overseas in 1944. The unit was assigned to General George Patton‘s Third Army. As the unit was about to enter into combat, Patton, himself white, made a speech to bolster their confidence, claiming that “Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to your success.” However, Patton expressed doubts about their abilities to his fellow officers, remarking that “They gave a good first impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race.”
The 761st would go on to serve in the infamous Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive on the Western Front, in which it opened the way for the US 4th Armored Division into Germany, during an action which breached the Nazi German defensive Siegfried Line, rapidly advancing into the Reich. The 761st became one of the first US units to reach Steyr, Austria, which became a meeting point between the Black tank battalion and the Soviet Red Army on May 9, 1945.
Seeing Black soldiers rise out of their tank hatches reportedly put a unique terror into the hearts of the ultra-racist German Nazi soldiers.
Liberation of Gunskirchen camp
The 761st Tank Battalion, alongside the 71st Infantry Division, liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria on May 4, 1945, which Nazi guards had fled days before. Captain J. D. Pletcher, a member of the 71st Infantry, recounted his experience at Gunskirchen, “When the German SS troops guarding the concentration camp at Gunskirchen heard the Americans were coming, they suddenly got busy burying the bodies of their victims—or rather, having them buried by inmates,” Pletcher recounted.
“Skin and bone… skin and bone and filthy rags and bodies crawling with vermin… row on row, endless… filling the square. And not a sound. Not one human sound came from those thousands of throats. Perhaps they hadn’t the strength to speak, even in gratitude. Perhaps words of thanks were long forgotten… forgotten under the lash and the pistol-butt, the abysmal degradation.”
It was only on January 24 1978 that the 761st Tank Battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by then-President Jimmy Carter for their service during World War II. Many individual members of the battalion also received individual accolades, including one Medal of Honor, eleven Silver Stars and around 300 Purple Hearts.
The 761st Tank Battalion was historic, as a Black unit striking fear into the hearts of Nazis and liberating victims of the most extreme forms of fascist violence. And yet, the stories of the soldiers’ training period and their challenges of being recognized for their bravery after the war are yet another example of the deep legacy of racism in the United States itself. Recounting the unique story of the 761st becomes even more crucial when marking Black History Month this February, and recognizing the long legacy of Black struggle against racism and white supremacy, at home and abroad.
