Day 16 Black History Month 2021 - 761st Tank Battalion (The Black Panthers)
761st Tank Battalion
Today we decided to take a slightly different approach, and instead of highlighting an individual, we decided to highlight a group of men. For day 16 of Black History Month, we highlight the 761st Tank Battalion a group of American soldiers and the first African American tank squad that saw combat during World War 2. They were known as the “Black Panthers” and their motto was “Come Out Fighting.”
The “Black Panthers” were commanded by Lt. Colonel Paul L. Bates, who understood the racist attitudes towards African American soldiers at the time, and pushed the battalion to be better than their counterparts. The battalion served for 183 days straight, while most groups where only serving on the front lines for no more than one to two weeks. The where involved in four major campaigns, including the Battle of the Bulge, where they were rushed to aid the 101st Airborne at the town of Bastogne. The battalion broke the German lines and pushed further east than any other tank group had before and where one of the first groups to link up with the Russians in Austria.
In 1945, the Black Panthers helped to liberate Gunskirchen, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp. A 17-year-old old Sonia Schreiber Weitz wrote a poem describing the soldier who rescued her:
"A black GI stood by the door
(I never saw a black before)
He’ll set me free before I die,
I thought, he must be the Messiah"
The Battalion received many medals for their service – 11 silver stars and over 300 purple hearts. SSG Ruben Rivers was awarded the medal of honor posthumously in 1997.
The most famous Black Panther was baseball player Jackie Robinson, who did not see the European theatre due to being court marshalled and caught up with legal issues, for refusing to give up his seat on a bus. He would go on to be the first African American to play major league baseball, breaking the color barrier in that sport.
Books: Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes