U. S. Army Armored Groups in World War II

[quincannon]

1ST ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Armored Group activated 20 March 1943.

Redesignated 20 November 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 17th Armored Group.

1ST ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Tank Group activated 11 February 1941.

Redesignated 19 March 1944 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Armored Group.

Inactivated 20 September 1945.

Campaigns: Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe

2ND ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Armored Group activated 28 March 1943.

Redesignated 30 November 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 18th Armored Group.

2ND ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Tank Group activated 1 March 1942.

Redesignated 19 March 1944 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Armored Group.

Converted and redesignated 19December 1944 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 473rd Infantry Regiment.

Campaigns: Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, North Apennines

3RD ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Armored Group activated 31 March 1943.

Redesignated 14 September 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1th Tank Group.

3RD ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Tank Group activated 1 March 1942.

Redesignated 4 January 1944 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Armored Group.

Inactivated 30 September 1945.

Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes Alsace, Central Europe

4TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Tank Group activated 2 April 1942.

Redesignated 25 November 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Armored Group.

Inactivated 16 January 1946.

Campaigns: Pacific Theater without inscription

5TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Tank Group activated 20 May 1942.

Redesignated 22 November 1943 as Headquarters ad Headquarters Company, 5th Armored Group.

Inactivated 1 November 1944.

Campaigns: None

6TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 6th Tank Group, activated 23 April 1942.

Redesignated 1 February 1944 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 6th Armored Group.

Inactivated 22 October 1945.

Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe 

7TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 7th Tank Group activated 2 July 1942.

Redesignated 15 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 7th Armored Group.

Inactivated 26 November 1945.

Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Central Europe

8TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 8th Tank Group activated 10 August 1942.

Redesignated 2 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 8th Armored Group.

Inactivated 26 November 1945.

Campaigns: Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe

9TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 9th Tank Group activated 10 September 1942.

Redesignated 8 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 9th Armored Group.

Inactivated 24 October 1945.

Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe

10TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 10th Tank Group activated 1 March 1943.

Redesignated 9 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 10th Armored Group.

Inactivated 1 May 1946.

Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe

11TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 11th Tank Group activated 28 July 1943.

Redesignated 5 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 11th Armored Group.

Inactivated 1 May 1946.

Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe

12TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Armored Group redesignated 14 September 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 12th Tank Group.

Redesignated 13 December 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 12th Armored Group.

Inactivated 20 October 1945.

Campaigns: Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe

13TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company 13th Armored Group activated 1 November 1943.

Inactivated 12 January 1946.

Campaigns: Luzon

14TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 14th Armored Group activated 28 October 1943

Inactivated 10 March 1945.

Campaigns: None

15TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 15th Armored Group activated 28 October 1943.

Inactivated 23 February 1946.

Campaigns: None

16TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 16th Armored Group activated 8 November 1943.

Inactivated 11 September 1944.

Campaigns: None

17th ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Armored Group redesignated 20 November 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 17th Armored Group.

Inactivated 30 April 1946.

Campaigns: Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe 

18TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Armored Group redesignated 30 November 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 18th Armored Group.

Inactivated27 November 1945.

Campaigns: None

19TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 19th Armored Group activated 24 August 1944.

Inactivated 10 April 1945.

Campaigns: Pacific Theater without inscription

20TH ARMORED GROUP

Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 20th Armored Group activated 28 August 1944.

Inactivated 8 June 1946.

Campaigns: Leyte, Ryukyus

END

As with all of this material anyone is free to use it in any manner they see fit. It is all derived from U S Army records which are in the public domain. If you prefer you may also wait unitil it will shortly be incorporated into Ian's web site www.quartermastersection.com

[yanmacca]

Chuck, where would these armoured groups fit in, in the grand scheme of things.
What I am thinking of is starting with the regimental and working up to army sized formations, so would these armoured groups be larger than a division?
It would look really great on the site to list these formations together, it may mean reorganizing the American section, but I think the site would benefit from additional information.
Great work by the way, just annoyed that my computer is off line as I need to down load all of the work you have done.
Thanks
Ian.

[quincannon]

Ian: The Armored Group like the TD Group, was nothing more than a headquarters and headquarters company. The group was commanded by a Colonel, with a Captain commanding the headquarters company. It was at the same level as a regiment in the command structure, but unlike the regiment had no battalions assigned to it.

The purpose was to exercise command and control of non-divisional tank and armored Infantry battalions when those battalions were not in active combat. They would see to the welfare of these battalions in such things as training and maintenance, provide a higher administrative headquarters for them to report to when the battalions were receiving in theater training, refitting, resting, or any other time when those battalions were not directly attached to a division. Keep in mind here that there were a great number of tank and AIB's that were not assigned to divisions, and they needed a place to park them when not actively employed. The Armored Groups were the place to park them.

You will note that many armored groups changed designations from tank group to armored group to reflect the ability to handle both tank and armored Infantry battalions.

Could we have done away with them? Sure could, because if they were only used as they were envisioned they, like the TD Groups were a waste of senior level manpower. Fortunately some of the group headquarters found valuable employment reinforcing the Combat Command Reserve of the armored divisions. The CCR's were staffed with only a few people. They were a headquarters without a headquarters company to support them. Therefore they were largely ineffective as command and control headquarters. The practice became to attach the Armored Group HHC to the Headquarters of Combat Command R, and create a fully functioning headquarters.

So, had the armored division designers created a CCR headquarters that was fully functional and capable, there would never have been any need for the Armored Groups. The problem was corrected just after the war.

[quincannon]

Ian I can readily see why the "Group Concept" would be completely foreign to someone in the UK, or for that matter to anyone anywhere else on the planet.

The idea came from McNair who thought that the strict two or three battalion regiment was not the best way to use forces in modern war. He wanted all the regiments broken up into battalions, that includes Infantry, where he was never successful beyond the armored Infantry regiments, and the old regimental headquarters converted to groups, so that if this or that group headquarters needed anything between two and five battalions to accomplish a given mission, you would simply attach those two, three, four or five battalions to a group headquarters and they would remain attached until the mission was complete.

Some of the Group headquarters worked out just fine. That was particularly true in the cavalry, field artillery, air defense artillery, and engineers. It did not work at all with the armored and tan destroyer groups headquarters.

Field Artillery was a particular success. The group headquarters would control the fires of the attached FA battalions. They in turn would be plugged into the corps artillery, and corps into army, and the effect would be that DIVARTY, Arty Group, Corps Artillery, and Army Artillery formed a complete artillery blanket over the entire army area of responsibility. If necessary every gun in range of a target within the army area could fire on that single target.

[yanmacca]

I know that one of the reasons that units like tank destroyer battalions were only issued to units that expected to be engaging armour but, in France, Italy and the Far East, US tank destroyer battalions were used for indirect artillery fire, apparently the units which served in France received artillery style panoramic sights and survey equipment in England and included indirect fire in their training routine, plus many tank destroyer officers were from the artillery branch.

[quincannon]

That is correct in both cases.

Tank Destroyer Battalions were often used as direct fire artillery, with a very limited indirect fire capability.

The original tank destroyer battalions were created by taking all of the anti-tank assets from division field artillery regiments, before those regiments themselves were reorganized into separate battalions themselves. The 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion was organized from the AT FA elements on the 1st Infantry Division. The 602nd, 603rd, 605th, 607th, and 609th were similarly organized from AT FA elements in the 2nd, 3rd,5th,7th,and 9th Infantry Divisions.

In the National Guard the 626th thru 629th, 635th, 637th,and 644th were organized from AT FA elements of the 26th, 27th, 28th, 35th,37th and 44th infantry Divisions.

There were a few units known as anti-tank battalions in 1940-41, but as of 3 December 1941 all were redesignated as Tank Destroyer Battalions, the Tank Destroyer Force was created in the Army and Camp Hood, Texas was activated and designated as the Tank Destroyer Center, a home base for the Tank Destroyer Force, and a school, much like the Infantry School at Benning and the Armor School at Knox.

Remember also that Branches of the Army are created by act of Congress, The Armored Force and Tank Destroyer Force were created by order of the Chief of Staff of the Army. They were therefore listed as experimental organizations and not Branches. In effect though they were the same as a branch. Immediately after the war the Tank Destroyer Force was abolished, and the Armored Force was legitimized by Congress in the National Defense Act of 1949, which at the same time eliminated Cavalry as a Branch, created Armor as a Branch, and further stated that Armor would be a continuation of Cavalry, and the pissing and moaning in some quarters of the Army, as well as from Queen's Staff College continues to this day.

[yanmacca]

Well this is the big issue, now many people could say that having a main battle tank rules out the need for a tank destroyer, but in my mind these tank destroyer were there to provide anti-tank cover for the infantry and not for the tank battalions.

The Germans used a similar concept and that’s why you see StuG III platoons attached to panzer grenadier companies.

But on today’s battlefield, the infantry have their own defence against enemy armour in the shape of the Javelin, which pretty rules out the need for a tank destroyer. So many would feel that the combination of a main battle tank and a “fire and forget anti-tank missile” would cover all bases.

But as you know I am still living in world war two.