741st Tank Battalion (United States) - D-Day Landings and Normandy

D-Day Landings and Normandy

For D-Day, the battalion was attached to the 1st Infantry Division to support the 16th Infantry Regimental Combat Team landings on Omaha Beach. Company A was equipped with M4 Sherman tanks, while Companies B and C were equipped with the amphibious Sherman DD tanks. Company D, equipped with M5 light tanks, and the battalion headquarters were not part of the initial landing force. The Company A tanks, along with a platoon of bulldozer-blade equipped Shermans were brought ashore by LCTs, while the DD tanks were launched from about 6,000 yards offshore. This was considerably further out than originally planned, and in rougher seas than the unit had conducted training, resulting in the loss of twenty-seven of thirty-two of the DD tanks before they reached shore. Only two of the launched DD tanks reached the beach, another three were carried ashore when their LCT was unable to lower its ramp at sea. By the end of D-Day, the battalion had 3 combat ready tanks. 48 had either been sunk or destroyed in combat. Personnel losses were nearly as high. 45 men had been killed, another 60 wounded during the day’s action. For its actions on Omaha Beach on 6–7 June, the battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.