Halftracks filled with infantrymen followed the Shermans. Supporting artillery fire pounded the immediate objective, the village of Assenois, and Colonel Abrams’s battalion rumbled forward down a slope and through a patch of woods. Impassive, but with his eyes glinting, Abrams stuck a large cigar in his mouth, clambered into the turret of his tank, and radioed to his men, “We’re going in to those people now. Abrams’s mind was made up, and he dashed back to his Sherman, nicknamed “Thunderbolt IV,” and radioed Major General Hugh Gaffey, commander of the 4th Armored Division, for permission to move ahead. Should he take a chance and ask for permission to head straight for Bastogne, regardless of the strength of enemy opposition? Just then, waves of Douglas C-47 transports roared overhead and started parachuting supplies into Bastogne. On that December 26, 1944, Abrams was down to 20 tanks, enough for one more assault.

Military Academy in 1936 and become a courageous, resourceful professional soldier respected by all who knew him. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the oldest son of a Boston & Albany Railroad repairman, Abrams was a stocky, lantern-jawed, cigar-chomping cavalryman who had graduated from the U.S. The battalion was five miles short of its goal that afternoon when its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Williams Abrams, Jr., stood on a hill and gazed northward toward Bastogne. A Stocky, Lantern-Jawed, Cigar-Chomping Cavalryman And no one knew what lay ahead on the road to Bastogne. But the battalion had been held up by the German 5th Fallschirmjager (Parachute) Division, along with landmines, shell craters, snow, fog, and iced roads. Third Army, to “drive like hell” toward its objective: the relief of the besieged 101st Airborne Division in the strategic road-junction town of Bastogne.

It was ten days into the Battle of the Bulge.įor five tough days, the spearhead 4th Armored Division unit had advanced only 22 miles. 37th Tank Battalion was drawn up on a roadside in southeastern Belgium.

On the chilly afternoon of Tuesday, December 26, 1944, a column of mud-caked Sherman tanks, halftracks, scout cars, and tank destroyers of the U.S.

Battle of the bulge tank battles