The Krauts hit Hill 314 with everything they had, from tanks to bicycle troops. It was not a simple matter of bypassing the hill. American artillery observers on the hill were calling up P-47s and British Typhoons whenever they saw German tanks on the road.

Strategically this "Lost Battalion" kept the Germans from moving west to the coast of France during August 1944.

But the Americans became desperate. No food, ammunition running low, no medical supplies, and dying radio batteries. They were "between a rock and a hard spot", as we said in those days.

737^th Tank Battalion

This web site is dedicated to the heroic men of 737 including our partial listing of the participants at Mortain. Some of these individuals are alive today and attend the battalion’s annual reunions. For its action the unit received the Presidential Unit Citation from Harry Truman and the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star from the French Government.

Casualties

If you like to deal in numbers, some 300 of the 700 men in the "Lost Battalion" were killed or wounded. Our tankers lost 13 of the 38 medium tanks deployed -- by the time they reached their objective (about 4200 yards from the line of departure). It was tragic. Read on. You won’t find a story like this one written by major historians (who weren’t there). Ask Kilroy.

References

A complete description of the infantry-tank action will appear in a forthcoming book about Mortain, written by Lieutenant Colonel Mark Reardon, US Army (formerly the Executive Officer of an airborne tank battalion in the 82^nd Airborne Division). He has graciously allowed your webmaster to abstract and rewrite a few passages of interest to tankers, their relatives, and friends.