CHAPTER IV
The 745th Tank Battalion in support of the 1st Infantry Division
Despite the failure of both the 9th Infantry Division and the 28th Infantry Division to seize the ROER RIVER DAMS, First Army directed that VII Corps continue its plans for the major offensive to seize crossings of the ROER RIVER in the vicinity of DÜREN. The 1st Infantry Division, supported by the 745th Tank Battalion, was directed to make the main effort in the corps zone by breaking out of the northern corner of the HURTGEN FOREST and seizing crossings north of DÜREN.
At the beginning of the month of November 1944, the 745th Tank Battalion was disposed in positions around the southern edge of AACHEN repairing the damage incurred in the violent fighting for the capture of that city, and hoping for a period of quiet after months of action with the 1st Infantry Division. On 8 November came the cheerless news that the 1st Division was to relieve immediately, the 9th Infantry Division on the western edge of the HURTGEN FOREST, and, as usual, the 745th was to support it. By 10 November the 1st Division had closed in assembly areas stretching from VICHT to MAUSBACH, and as in past months, elements of the 745th were teamed up with old friends in the 1st Division. The battalion headquarters, companies A and D, were with the 16th Infantry Regiment. Company B accompanied the 18th Regiment and Company C the 26th Regiment. In the 16th, each battalion had a light tank platoon and a medium tank platoon, and throughout the 18th and 26th Regiments each battalion had one medium tank platoon only. In addition, the 1st Division had attached to it, the 634th Tank Destroyer Battalion, which was disposed throughout the division in generally the same manner as the tank battalion. (1) To further augment the division, the 47th RCT of the 9th Infantry Division remained in its sector when the 9th was relieved and continued to fight under 1st Division command. (2)
Since the days of NORMANDY the 745th Tank Battalion had been constantly attached to the 1st Infantry Division. Its veterans had seen almost every type of fighting that men and machines were called upon to face in Europe: hedgerow fighting, pursuit across open country, attacks upon fortified positions, and the tedious mopping up operations of city fighting. Sometimes their armored punch seemed to be the spark that kept the 1st Division rolling, and at other times it seemed that the tanks served only to draw fire upon their protecting infantrymen, block their roads, and rip up their telephone lines. The brief period 16 November to 7 December 1944, saw examples of all the above types of fighting compressed into the narrow space of a few miles of village spotted forest on the western edge of GERMANY.
Sherman tank of the 745th Tank Battalion rolls through a former German block in Gladbach, Germany.
