773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion - The Ardennes and Germany

The Ardennes and Germany

The battalion crossed the Saar outside Dillingen on 10 December, where a force of infantry from the 90th Division had established a hard-pressed bridgehead. It supported the push into the town on 15 December, but with the German offensive in the Ardennes the bridgehead was evacuated, and the 90th Division established defensive positions on the west bank. On 6 January it was ordered north to Luxembourg, on the southern flank of the German salient, and entered combat on the 9th.

On 17 January, holding positions at Oberwampach, east of Bastogne, the battalion destroyed a large number of vehicles from the 1st SS Panzer Division; at the end of the day, the battalion's total number of tank kills for the war stood at 102, making them the first tank destroyer battalion to knock out more than a hundred tanks.

On 26 January the battalion moved to Biwisch, crossing the Our River into Germany on the 30th and fighting through the Siegfried Line. It pushed east through February and March, and on 14 March crossed the Moselle for the fourth time, opening a bridgehead for the 4th Armored Division. On 16 March, the battalion reached the Rhine River at its confluence with the Moselle near Koblenz.

The battalion crossed the Rhine on 23 March, near Oppenheim, and captured Darmstadt on the 25th. It pushed north-east towards the River Main, and followed behind the 4th Armored Division clearing up small pockets of resistance which had been bypassed. On 1 April, it arrived in Bad Hersfeld and moved east towards the Czech border; a company was left in Merkers to provide security for the salt mine there, which contained the German financial reserves – a hundred tons of gold, as well as a large amount of looted artwork.

Elements of the battalion entered Czechoslovakia on 18 April, the first American troops to reach the country, and the battalion pushed south along the border, protecting the left flank of XII Corps as it moved into southern Germany. The battalion ended the war just inside Czechoslovakia, and on 14 May withdrew to Tirschenreuth in Bavaria, to take up occupation duties.

By the end of hostilities, the battalion had seen 254 days of combat, and taken 356 casualties. It had destroyed 138 tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as over a hundred pillboxes, and taken almost 2,000 prisoners of war.

In the early 21st century, the unit exists as the redesignated 773rd Military Police Bn. Louisiana Army National Guard.