History of the 3rd Armored Division

3rd Armored Division History

3rd Armored Division History behind the patch

The shoulder patch worn on an army uniform is important to soldiers and veterans because each of those colorful patches has a history behind it. When you become a part of a military unit, you become part of its story, part of the history behind the patch.

The 3d Armored Division was a heavy mechanized division of the United States Army that served in World War Two, the Cold War defense of Western Europe, and the Persian Gulf War. This is a short history of the Spearhead Division, the 3rd Armored Division.

The 3rd Armored Division’s triangular patch symbolizes power and stability and is the shape of all Armored Division patches created in World War Two. The colors of the patch represent the combined arms nature of an armored division: yellow for cavalry, blue for infantry, and red is the color of field artillery. The symbols on the patch represent the unit’s capabilities: the tank tread symbolizes mobility, the canon is firepower, and the lightning bolt is for shock action. The “Spearhead” flash across the base of the patch is the unit’s nickname, earned as the vanguard of the U.S. First Army during World War II.

The Third Armored Division was activated on April 15, 1941 at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, and by June had moved to Camp Polk to begin training. The 3rd AD deployed to England in September 1943 and conducted training in the Liverpool and Bristol Areas. By June 1944, the first elements of the 3rd Armored Division entered combat in the Normandy area of France. The Spearhead Division was assigned to First Army for the duration of its WWII European service.

The 3d Armored Division entered combat as a division on June 29, 1944, taking part in the hedgerow fighting in Normandy. The Division broke out at Marigny and with the 1st Infantry Division swung south in an exploitation of the St. Lo break-through. In August 1944, the Division participated in the heavy fighting involved in closing the Falaise Gap, pocketing the German Seventh Army. Six days later, on August 25, 1944 the Spearhead Division had cut across the Seine River, and was streaking through Meaux, Soissons, Laon, Mons, Namur, and Liege. The 3rd Armored Division breached the Siegfried Line with the capture of Rotgen, on September 12, 1944, and continued a slow advance against heavy resistance to the vicinity of Langerwehe.

At the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, the 3rd Armor was shifted to Houffalize, Belgium, where it severed a vital highway leading to St. Vith, and in January 1945, participated in the reduction of the German salient west of Houffalize. After a brief rest, the Division returned to the front, crossed the Roer River into Duren, broke out of the Duren bridgehead, and drove on to capture Koln, Germany on March 6, 1945.

The 3 rd Armored Division began a thrust into the Rhineland of Germany on February 7, 1945. On March 31, 1945, the commander of the division, Major General Maurice Rose, famed as one of a few commanding generals who would frequent the front lines during combat, rounded a corner in his jeep and came face to face with a German tank. As he withdrew his pistol to surrender, the young German tank commander, apparently misunderstanding Rose's intentions, shot and killed the general.

The Spearhead Division took Paderborn, assisted in mopping up the Ruhr pocket, crossed the Saale River, and after overcoming stiff resistance took Dessau. On April 11, 1945, the 3rd Armored discovered the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. The Division was first to arrive on the scene, reporting back to headquarters that it had uncovered a large concentration camp near the town of Nordhausen. Requesting help from the 104th Infantry Division, the 3rd AD immediately began transporting some 250 ill and starving prisoners to nearby hospital facilities.

As the war drew to a close in May of 1945, the 3d Armored Division consolidated near Dessau. The 3rd Armor performed occupation duty near Langen until it was inactivated on November 10, 1945. During the war, the 3d Armored Division participated in 231days of combat. They had lost more tanks in battle than any other U.S. division. The 3rd Armored Division's casualties included a total of 2,540 killed, 7,331 wounded, 95 missing, and 139 captured. Total battle and non-battle casualties came to 16,122.

With the Cold War heating up, the 3rd Armored Division was reactivated on July 15, 1947 at Fort Knox, Kentucky as a training unit. In 1955 it was reorganized for combat and the next year shipped out to Germany. In the event of war in Europe, the 3d Armored Division's primary mission, along with other V Corps units, was to defend the well-known Fulda Gap between East and West Germany against numerically superior Warsaw Pact forces. At the peak of East/West tensions during the 1980s, as many as nineteen Soviet and East German divisions faced off against V Corps units in West Germany.

To prepare their defenses against an invasion, the Spearhead Division's units frequently conducted field training at Hohenfels, Wildflecken, and Grafenwöhr training areas. The 3rd Armored Division would also frequently take to the German countryside for training maneuvers, including what became an annually staged war game, REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany), which simulated an invasion of Western Europe by Warsaw Pact forces.

The most famous soldier in the 3rd Armored Division during the 1950s was Elvis Presley, assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Armor Regiment, Combat Command C at Ray Barracks in Friedberg. After his time in service, Elvis made the movie G.I. Blues, in which he portrays a 3rd Armored Division tank crewman with a singing career. Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell also served in the 3d Armored Division and went on to command V Corps in Germany.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 signaled the end of the Cold War. The Iron Curtain over Eastern Europe had collapsed, East and West Germany would soon be reunited, and the Soviet Army was being withdrawn back to Russia. With these events, the Cold War came to a peaceful conclusion, freeing U.S. army units in Europe for other deployments.

In November of 1990, VII Corps departed West Germany for Saudi Arabia to take part in Operation DESERT SHIELD and later, Operation DESERT STORM. Because the 3rd Armored Division was more advanced on its modernization process and well equipped with Abrams Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they deployed with VII Corps to Southwest Asia.

On February 23, 1991 the 3d Armored Division crossed the Line of Departure into Iraq with the 1st Armored Division on their left and the 2nd Armored Cavalry on their right. The Iraqi Army was taken by surprise by the VII Corps end run into Iraq. Most of the enemy forces were focused on defending the Kuwaiti border with Saudi Arabia. By the fourth day of the war, the Spearhead Division had advanced over 50 miles into Iraq and defeated all enemy forces they encountered, including divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard. In the 100-hour Gulf War, 3rd AD destroyed hundreds of Iraqi tanks and vehicles, and captured more than 2,400 Iraqi prisoners.

Following Operation Desert Storm and the liberation of Kuwait, the Spearhead Division returned to Germany. However, a military presence was still required in Kuwait to ensure that nation’s security. Among the first U.S. Army units deployed to Camp Doha, Kuwait, after the Persian Gulf War were the 3rd Armored Division, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 8th Infantry Division.

On January 17, 1992, the 3rd Armored Division officially ceased operations in Germany,

conducting a ceremony at Drake Kaserne in Frankfurt, the home of the 3rd Armored Division’s Headquarters. The division colors were then returned to the United States, with the 3rd AD still officially active, since Army Regulations state that Divisional "Casing of Colors" cannot occur on foreign soil. Official retirement took place at Fort Knox, on October 17, 1992. At that time, the 3rd Armored Division was removed from the official force structure of the U.S. Army.

If you’d like to read a great story about a tank crew from the 3rd Armored Division in World War Two, I highly recommend reading “Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II” by Adam Makos. This book is about an American Pershing tank in a duel with a German Panther on streets of Koln. An American camera man was there to capture the fight. You can see some of that footage in my youtube video. I read the book when it came out in 2019 and was on the edge of my seat. It’s a nonfiction page turner. Heck, telling you about it makes me want to read it again.