603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion


caption=M18 Helcat, formerly of the 603rd Battalion, in a museum
dates= 1941-1945
country= United States
allegiance= Army
command_structure=Independent unit
nickname=
equipment=M18 Hellcat
disbanded=1945

The 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion was a tank destroyer battalion of the United States Army active during the Second World War.

The battalion was formed in March 1941 as the 3rd Infantry Division Provisional Antitank Battalion, and on December 14th was redesignated as the 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, in line with the reorganisation of the anti-tank force. It remained in the United States until 1944, when it was moved to the United Kingdom, deploying into Normandy in late July equipped with M18 Hellcats. The battalion was attached to the 6th Armored Division, with which it would serve for the duration of the campaign in North-West Europe.

It first saw action on July 28th during Operation Cobra, and advanced west into Brittany during the breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, arriving at Brest and moving south to Lorient; it was then ordered east to join Third Army, on the Moselle during the Lorraine Campaign. It fought near Nancy in October, moving up to the Saar in November. It moved north during the Battle of the Bulge, and fought in the counterattack in January 1945, where Corporal Arthur Beyer of C Company won the Medal of Honor for a solitary action on January 15th, near Arloncourt. The battalion crossed the Siegfried Line in February, reached the Rhine on 21st March, and crossed it on the 25th, moving into Germany through the Fulda Gap.

The battalion was present at the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11th, halting its advance that week - after elements had pushed as far forward as Tannenberg, on the Czech border - to be deployed in Zeitz as a garrison unit until the end of the war, some weeks later.

References

* [http://homepage.mac.com/yeide/TDBattalionHistories.htm TD Battalion Histories]
* [http://www.super6th.org/603td/index.html "Seek, Strike, Destroy": History of the 1st Platoon, Recon Co., 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, 6th Armored Division] . Nick O. Civarra, [1945]