What was the first Tank battalion to land on Utah Beach ?
And in what wave ?
- ralph

70th Tank Battalion in the first wave supporting the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.

And to comemmorate the brave men of the 70th, I found some photo archives of them:

http://www.roberts.ezpublishing.com/rarmory/70tharc5.htm

Take a look at some of those...

I used to think Americans' main source of WWII history in Europe was "the longest day".
I must apologize now : your knowledge of the subject is awesome (and exceeds mine by far !!) :-) :-) :-)

You mean John Wayne did't lead the first wave?

Hi Rob, YES - CORRECT
Now how did i somehow know that you would be the 1st to answer
OK - " your turn "

NiCE PIC"S KEN !

Sabot or Scream, was the 70th a "light" tank battlion? judging from their pictures they appear to be. What kind of tanks did they come to shore with?
I think it would make for an interesting dio if they came ashore with those M5A1's. Also, that picture of the T1 Retriever...is that aka an M31???

Off the top of my head, I would say the 70th was one of the DD Sherman specialty battalion.....is that correct?
DJ

DJ
Yeah, they were definitely in DD tanks, the Encyclopedia Britannica site

http://normandy.eb.com/normandy/week2/Utah_Beach.html

says there were 32 in the first wave and gives a personal recollection from somebody in the battalion.

Tanks

Hey thanks guys... , kinda thought so...it would have been quite a different scene (for my dio's idea) had they came ashore in M5's...but than again it would have been more tragic to come ashore in such a puny tank! Eeek! It's just that when I saw the ole pics from the site I found, I thought hmmm...
Thanks again guys...for wrecking my dio...lol

Actually, the DD tanks were not used at Utah, the water being more shallow there (flat beach as opposed the the deeper water at Omaha). They used the wading trunks as shown on the Italeri USMC M4. I also believe that the 70th AR used the welded hulled M4 as opposed to the rounded hulled M4. All the pictures I run across of a 70th Bn tank is a Charlie Co. tank stuck on the beach with the two prominent wading trunks sticking out. (Tank has a red #2 outlined in white, named "Cannon Ball", logo on the side is a turtle with the word "Soixante-Dix" which, if I remember my high school French is the number 70).

Can't imagine DD tanks and wading trunk tanks in the same Bn.

All, While reading the book Beyond the Beachhead (29th Div) it lists the tank battalions used in the DDay assault. Each battalion had 1 company of Duplex Drive tanks and the three other companies were outfitted by tanks with Deep Wading trunks installed. Of the 32 DD tanks landed on Omaha, 27 sank. One battalion that was supposed to land in the 29th div sector was landed farther north (due to quick thinking by the Navy Lt. in charge) and only lost a couple. I am at work and do not have the book handy for specifics. Will post more later on subject.

I feel this ground swell once again to get a skilled craftsman to fashion a DD Sherman. Anyone up to the challenge?
DJ