The Black Panther Tank Battalion Essay -- essays research papers

The Black Panther Tank throngThe 761st Black Panther Tank Battalion was the initial African-American ar muchd unit to see combat. Before and during mobilization for instauration War II, officials in Washington, D.C., debated whether or not African-American soldiers should be utilize in armored units. Many military men and politicians believed that blacks did not catch the brains, quickness or moral stamina to fight in a war.Referring to his World War I experiences, Colonel James A. Moss, commander of the 367th invertebrate foot Regiment, 92nd Division, stated, "As fighting troops, the Negro must be rated as second-class material, this primarily to his inferior intelligence and lack of mental and moral qualities." Colonel Perry L. Miles, commander of the 371st Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, voiced a similar opinion "In a prox war, the main use of the Negro should be in labor organizations." command George S. Patton, Jr., in a letter to his wife, wrote that "a colored soldier cannot conceptualise fast enough to fight in armor."The armed forces embraced these beliefs even though African Americans had fought with courage and distinction in the Revolutionary War and both other war and conflict ever waged by the United States. They overlook the fact that four regiments of the 93rd Division had dish upd with the French during World War I and that the French government had awarded the coveted Croix de Guerre to three of the four regiments and to a play along of the fourth, as well as to the 1st Battalion, 367th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division.Lieutenant superior general Leslie J. McNair, chief of the U.S. Army ground forces, was the main proponent of allowing African Americans to serve in armored units. He believed his nation could ill afford to omit such a potentially important source of manpower. The black press, the internal Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Congress of Racial Equality too placed increasing pressure on the War Department and chairman Franklin D. Roosevelts administration to allow black soldiers to serve on an equal fundament with white soldiers.In the summer of 1940, Congress passed into law the Selective tuition and Service Act, which said, "In the selection and training of men under this act, thither shall be no discrimination against any person on report of race and color." In October, howeve... ...17th Airborne Division. Assigned at various quantify to the Third, Seventh and Ninth armies, the Black Panthers fought major engagements in six European countries and participated in four major Allied campaigns. During that time, the unit inflicted 130,000 casualties on the German army and captured, destroyed or aided in the liberation of more than 30 towns, several concentration camps, four airfields, three ammunition submit dumps, 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns, and thousands of individual and crew-served weapons. This was acco mplished in hurt of extremely adverse weather conditions, difficult terrain not suited to armor, firmly fortified enemy positions, extreme shortages of replacement personnel and equipment, an overall misadventure rate approaching 50 percent and the loss of 71 tanks.In 1978--33 age after the end of World War II--the 761st Tank Battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation. In 1997, 53 years after giving his life on the battlefield, Sergeant Ruben Rivers was posthumously awarded the ornamentation of Honor. The motto of the 761st Tank Battalion has always been "Come Out Fighting." In World War II, that is exactly what the Black Panthers did.