![]() ![]() Leonard Smith, the loader, rammed one shell after another into the breech as the Sherman fired back into the trees. The Sherman tank's commander, Teddy Windsor, yelled for the gunner, William McBurney, to return fire with armor-piercing and high-explosive shells, while frantically directing his driver to turn. Several infantrymen fell at the opening onslaught the rest fled in disarray. On the ragged, disorganized battlefield, the American tank and its supporting infantry had somehow found themselves behind enemy lines. The stillness of the morning was shattered by the explosion of shells and whistling bullets. They opened fire with a barrage of machine guns and artillery. The German Mark IV Panzer tanks, concealed by dense pine woods, waited until the Sherman was halfway across the snow-covered field, fully exposed. "This was Patton's best tank unit and they didn't get any recognition because whites did not look upon blacks as having any competence as fighting men," Abdul-Jabbar says.Īfter repeated rejections starting in 1945, President Jimmy Carter presented the 761st with a presidential citation for extraordinary heroism in 1978.īelow is an excerpt from Brothers in Arms. ![]() But racist attitudes in the military culture prevented the 761st from receiving medals and other honors accorded white soldiers. The 761st fought in the Battle of the Bulge, saw combat in five countries and helped liberate dozens of villages and towns and several concentration camps. ![]()
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