Dear pauly73,
If private Paul Andonian has always been a member of the 750th Tank
Battalion during his service time, it is clear to which division he
belonged.
The 750th was formed as an independent tank battalion, activated on
New Years Day 1943 and at Fort Knox, Kentucky and then trained at
various locations in the USA before it was shipped to Europe in early
Autumn 1944. After the unit arrived from Boston at Omaha beachhead /
Normandy on 25 September 1944, it stayed in Valogne, France for the
five weeks following, waiting for tanks and equipment to arrive and
preparing for combat.
The main purpose of independent tank battalions was providing combat
support to frontline infantry divisions. Therefore, the 750th became
not part of an armored division; it was attatched to the 104th
Infantry Division "Timberwolf" on 1 November 1944, just before the
order was issued to the 104th to move to the area of Aachen, the first
major German city occupied by Allied forces.
From 16 November to 15 December, parts of the 750th were attached to
individual regiments and battalions of the 104th during the
town-by-town approach beyond the Siegfried Line to the Roer River. The
tanks of the 750th provided valuable support at the capture of various
German cities.
During the German counter attack, the Ardennes Offensive, which
started on 16 December 1944, 750th was detached from the 104th
Division and accompanying other elements of VII Corps - to which the
104th belonged -, moving to Petit-Houmart, Belgium. From 22 December
1944 to 26 January 1945, the 750th supported parts of the newly
arrived 75th Infantry Division, while the 104th guarded the city of
Aachen to prevent a possible German attempt to re-take the town.
After the German offensive failed, the 750th was from January 26 to
February 5, 1945 attached to the 99th Infantry Division in the final
mop-up efforts. On 6 February 1945, the 750th returned to Eschweiler,
Germany and was once again attached to the 104th Division, assisting
the infantry in taking numerous German towns on the way to Cologne
(Köln) on the Rhine. Together with Company L of the 414th Infantry
Regiment on the morning of March 5, the first platoon of Company A of
the 750th were the first American tanks in Cologne. After three days
of street fight, the capture of the third largest city in Germany was
complete by March 7.
On March 21, suppporting the 104th Division, the 750th crossed the
Rhine at Remagen Bridge south of Cologne and assisted the
"Timberwolves" in expanding the bridgehead on the eastern shore of the
Rhine. Between 25 March and 1 April, elements of the 104th and the
attatched 750th assisted the VII Corps in encircling the Ruhr region,
Germany's most important industrial center, thus trapping ca. 374,000
German troops.
While other units took care of the now isolated German troops in the
Ruhr region, the 750th proceeded eastwards deeper into German mainland
together with the 104th. On 1 May 1945, Company B of the 750th made
the first contact with Russian tanks near Torgau at the Elbe River,
cutting Germany into two isolated halfs.
After the German surrender, the 750th was given responisbility of
establishing control over the greater Bamberg region. The battalion’s
attachment to the 104th Division ended on 22 May 1945, at which time
it was assigned to the 7th Armored Division. When in early Summer US
units entered Berlin to take control over the American sector, the
750th Tank Battalion was given the honor of being a part of the
initial military forces representing the United States in Berlin.
The battailon arrived in Berlin on 5 July 1945, stayed in the
destroyed German capital for some months and then finally left for the
United States on 9 November 1945. The battalion was inactivated on 25
January 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.
Source:
The 750th Tank Battalion, by National Timberwolf Association, 1999
http://www.104infdiv.org/750TANK.HTM
Search terms used:
"750th Tank":
://www.google.de/search?q=%22750th+Tank%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
I hope this was informative for you.
Best regards,
Scriptor |
Clarification of Answer by
scriptor-ga
on
01 Dec 2002 09:29 PST
Dear pauly73,
Please excuse me, but I do not really understand your Request For
Clarification. Your question was: To which division did private Paul
Andonian belong? A division is a unit of higher organziation level
than a battalion. If a battalion is part of a division, each single
soldier in the battallion is automatically also part of the division.
In this special case, this means: Private Andonian served in the 750th
Tank Battalion. This independent battalion was, most of the time,
attatched to the 104th Infantry Division. This made the named private
also part of the 104th, as long as the battalion was not temporarily
attatched to another division or any other higher level formation. I
have received a comment from another Google Answers Researcher who has
knowledge of military organization and who confirmed this. I do, if
you will pardon my saying so, not see anything that might be wrong
with the answer I provided.
Best regards,
Scriptor
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