Regimental History - Part II

The 33d was part of 3AD CC "B"

WWII - Call Sign "ORCHARD"

33^rd*1 Armored Regiment

The 1st Battalion of the 33rd Armored Regiment was led by eight different officers during the western campaigns.  They were:  Lt. Colonel Rosewell H. King, Lt. Colonel Herbert M. Mills, Major Kenneth T. McGeorge, Major William S. Walker, Major Charles W. Walson, Lt. Colonel Elwyn W. Blanchard, Major Ralph M. Rogers, and Major George T. Stallings, respectively.  Of these, Colonel King, who was wounded in action on August 29, Lt. Colonel Mills, killed in action on November 18, Major Kenneth McGeorge, wounded in action on January 8, 1945, and Lt. Colonel Blanchard, who at various times commanded a battalion of the 32nd Armored Regiment as well as that of the 33rd, were most notable for length of service.

The 1st Battalion was accorded the great honor of receiving a Distinguished Unit Citation for its heroic action at Scherpensel and Hastenrath, Germany, late in November.  Lt. Colonel Mills was killed in this action.  For extraordinary heroism, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

The 2nd and 3rd battalions were more fortunate in the matter of preserving their commanding officers than was the 1st.  The 2nd Battalion was led through all five European campaigns by Lt. Colonel William B. Lovelady.  It was his task force which first reached Germany on September 12, 1944, and took Roetgen, first German town to fall to an invader, and later occupied by men of the 83rd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.  The 2nd Battalion of the 33rd saw much action during the Ardennes, the Rhineland and the central Europe campaigns.  Task Force Lovelady was a work-horse unit of the regiment.

Equally colorful and effective was the 3rd Battalion commanded by Lt. Colonel Samuel Hogan.  Colonel Hogan made history by leading one of the division's multiple spearhead columns through Belgium flying a Texas lone-star flag on his tank.  To curious inquiries from the populace, Hogan replied that the banner was that of the "Free Americans!"  The 3rd Battalion was well represented at Marcouray, Belgium, during the bitter Ardennes fighting, when Task Force Hogan was cut off and surrounded by enemy troops in that town.  After refusing a surrender ultimatum and fighting until gasoline and ammunition had been expended, the famous "400" proceeded to destroy their vehicles and infiltrate out through German lines.  Led by reconnaissance men, the "400" did escape the trap by way of a daring 14 hour march through enemy siege forces. 

The 33rd Armored Regiment earned in furious combat the right to its monicker (moniker), "Men of War."   Spearheading the powerful drives of Combat Command "B", the regiment saw heavy fighting in all five western campaigns.  The regiment took part in the closing of the Argenten-Falaise gap, the drive across France and Belgium to the Siegfried Line and had the honor of being the first allied unit to enter Germany in force.  In the Ardennes fighting and the Rhineland battles, the 33rd was again well represented, and in the final drives to isolate the Ruhr and to reach the Elbe River at Dessau, Colonel Welborn's troops were constantly in the van of Combat Command "B"

Regimental History from the 3d Armored Division Unit History "Spearhead in the West"