The 3rd Amored Division was activated at Camp Beauregard, La. In April, 1941 and moved to Camp Polk., La. in June, where it underwent initial training in armored combat. In July, 1942 the division transferred to the Desert Training Center in the Mojave Desert in southern California. The maneuvers performed there were in preparation for the division's planned participation in the invasion of North Africa, which was not needed. In November, the division went back east to Camp Pickett, Va., and then to Indiantown Gap, Pa. in Jauary 1943. The training experience there prepared the soldiers for combat in northern Europe. In September three ships transported the division to England, and it emcampte in the southwest counties of Somerset and Wiltshire for final training.
The 3rd Armored arrived in northern France three weeks after D-Day in late June, 1944, and saw its first combat a week later as part of the VII Corps and First Army. Heavy fighting in Normandy continued into August, when the Allied forced finally broke through the German lines. On August 18 the 3rd Armored helped close the Falaise Gap, which trapped thousands of German troops. It then went on to cross the Seine River sough of Paris on August 25, and continued rapidly across France until it reached Belgium in early September, with the capture of Liege on September 8. Four days later it became the first U.S. Army unit to cross into Germany through the West Wall. The division caaptured Stolberg on September 22, but for the next three months could progress no further against heavy German resistance and fortifications.
The German offensive in the Ardennes, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, temporarily halted the division's attempt to push eastward. On the 19th of December the 3rd Armored attacked to the south to reduce the German salient, which was eliminated by the middle of January, 1945. After a month of rest the division continued its offensive to the east, and finally broke through to the Rhine River and captured Cologne on March 7. Two weeks later it corrsed the Rhine south of Cologne at Honnef, and then moved east and north to capture Paderborn on April 1, close the Ruhr Pocket, and trap over 350,000 German soldiers. But it was on March 30 that the 3rd Armored suffered one of its greatest losses with the death of its commanding officer, Major General Maurice Rose, who was killed after being separated from his troops.
After the capture of Paderborn the division pushed on against disorganized resistance, crossed the Weser River on April 7 and the Mulde River on April 15, and captured Dessau on the Elbe River on April 23. That was the last combat the 3rd Armored saw, as it withdrw to Sangerhausen and was there when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
The postwar 3rd Armored Division was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky as a training unit from 1947 to 1955, and then went to Frankfurt, Germany as part of the United States Army's NATO commitment. In 1990 the division was sent to Saudi Arabia as part of operation Desert Shield, and played an important role in the defeat of the Iraqi army and liberation of Kuwait. It then returned to Germay, and was officially deactivated on October 17, 1992 in a ceremony at Fort Knox.
Although no longer an active unit, the 3rd Armored Division will always be remembered as the "Spearhead" Division which led the U. S. Army into combat, and as one of the finest units to participate in the Allied victories in World War II and the Persian Gulf.
Third Armored Division Association Records (1941- ) document the history of the United States Army's 3rd Armored Division during its service in World War II (1941-45), and its veterans who were Association members (1946- ). The records include Annual meeting programs (1948- ); Books and published histories about the Third Armored Division and the units that comprised it (1942- ); Correspondence and diaries (1941- ); Division and Association newsletters (1942- ); Magazines concerning World War II (1940- ); Maps and oversize items (1941-48); Military organization records and after action reports (1941-45); Newspaper clippings of the war (1941-48); Photographs (1941- ); Propaganda material and travel literature (1942-45); Scrapbooks (1941-45); and Videotapes and films of combat during the war and postwar travels to Germany (1940- ).
By type of material and chronological or alphabetical thereunder
The subject headings used by the University of Illinois Archives were developed by University of Illinois Archivist Maynard Brichford and University Archivist Bill Maher. They are specific to the University of Illinois Archives.
None; the collection is open to the public. Some materials are fragile and may be handled or copied only with special precautions.
Third Armored Division Records, University of Illinois Archives 26/20/76.
The collection was founded by Andrew Barr and all materials in the collection have been donated by association members, families, and friends of the division. Whereever possible, documentation providing provenance is included with manuscripts in the collection.
The following abbreviations are used in the box listings:
Letters run from the date he joined the 486th AAA Bn. at Camp Davis, NC) until his departure from the CONUS in 1943
Letters cover period from arrival in England with the 486th AAA (AW) Bn. (SP) and attachment to the Third Armored Division until he left the deactivated Third Armored Division.
includes Fritz Paulman's German Army photos.
4 copies, including Andrew Barr's, Bill Knapp's (photocopy), and Leland Cook's
German narration and music -- (first part broken off) officers; tanks; equipment; balloons; artillery; fortifications; trenches; ruined houses; Sedan; trucks; Verdun; bombing; aircraft; troops going through towns.
City of Liege; pontoon bridge; horses; motorized column; Maas River crossing; Panzer attack; Stukas; French tanks; captured French soldiers going into camps; General von Reichenau.
V-2 on railroad car; German tank; U.S. tanks in German village; jeep; POWs; tank retriever; cleaning roads; German POWs; mine detection; autobahn; U.S. Army trucks; U.S. Armored column; swimming in river; oxen cutting grain; woman and boys cutting grain; boys and tent; boys and hay; oxen and reaper.
Luftwaffe training film for the Focke Wolff 190 A-8 including about fifteen attack sequences on P-38 Lightning, B-24 Liberator and B-17 Boeing.
He interviewed Col. William B. Lovelady, CCB & Col. George Garton, CCB.
With background sound effects, the narrator described attacks on German positions at Hotton, Belgium, taking a position at LaRoche, encirclement, establishing road blocks around Marcouray, abandoning equipment and hiking out of the encirclement. The program is followed by an account by Major Travis Brown of Col. Howze's 3rd Bn. of the 33rd Armored Regiment, a part of Task Force Hogan. (45 minutes). Brown's 1981 account was from G-2 reports. He described encounters with German detachments and his escape with several others via Marche.
9 minutes, 40 seconds, silent. British Troops on D-Day in Normandy, June, 1944. Shipboard briefing, ships in Channel, maps, Sikhs, LCIs, loading troops, going over the side, aircraft, bombardment, shoreline, landing on beach, digging in.
8 minutes 10 seconds, 751' silent. 3rd Armored Division, Rocket Barrage and Attack Push Off; Mausbach, Germany Soldiers of the 18th Field Artillery Battalion load multiple rocket launchers; line of launchers; control set and firing device; row of launchers is fired. Tanks and other vehicles move along skyline toward Mausbach. Photographed from inside pillbox, armored vehicles move along edge of terrain, German shells burst near convoy. Armored cars, light tanks, medium tanks and armored vehicles on dirt road outside of city. (Note: Armored cars and vehicles are of the US 3rd Armored Division. A copy of the National Archives' detailed description of this film is stored with the videocassette.)
7 minutes, silent. 3rd Armored Division, Tank Air Support. Large explosions in town from dive-bombing and strafing, dense smoke, anti-aircraft crew at gun, plane formation dive bombing, front lines shooting armored vehicles, infantrymen crouching, shelling, very heavy mortar fire. Ruined German town, demolished buildings, explosions, dense smoke. Dive bombers circling target and plane dive bombing on hill in wooded area. Group infantrymen looking through binoculars, taking notes, tanks passing camera, battery rocket guns firing leaving heavy smoke columns, listening to air-ground communication over radio, and tanks. Col. Lovelady, CO talking to another officer at advanced command post, tanks go into action past camera across fields, camouflaged tank, tanks going over hill into deep quarry, men firing mortars, tanks opening up barrage, tank crew member climbing out of tank turret appears to be stunned, other tank crew members helping stunned man, officer looking through binoculars, and GI standing by. (A copy of the National Archives' detailed description of this film is stored with the videocassette.)
3rd Armored Division, Cologne, Germany, Tank advance, machine gun, German tank hit & abandoned, Cathedral, troop advance, tracer fire. Also tour of 3rd Armored Division at Frankfurt, Germany, 1986.
William Lovelady, Andrew Barr, Haynes Dugan, Leroy Hanneman, Olin Brewster, Auria Pierro, William Whitten, Travis Brown, Clark Worrell, and Clement Elissondo.
Narration describes the activities of the opposing forces in the battle, especially the role of Task Force Lovelady. Corbin relates his experiences in December, 1944, primarily in Parfondroy and Stavelot. The cities covered in Corbin's trip were Monschau, Germany; Clervaux, Luxembourg; and Baugnez, Stavelot, Bastogne, Spa, La Gleize, Grand Coo, Trois Ponts, Parfondroy, Malempre, Manhay, and Grandmenil, Belgium. Sites visited include a memorial to victims of the Malmedy Massacre at Baugnez, a museum on the Battle of the Bulge in La Gleize, houses in Parfondroy where Corbin stayed in 1944, and roads to Houffalize which the 3rd Armored Division took to meet the 3rd Army in January, 1945.
Guided tour of the museum given by its curator, Dan Peterson. Cases include displays of medals; layout of the division; training at Camp Polk; the five campaigns the division was involved in during World War II, with maps, photographs, newspaper articles, uniforms, rifles, machine guns, and other equipment; the division at Ft. Knox, 1947-56; and its tour of duty in Europe since 1956. A large room in the museum contained a life-size diorama of a German town, with an armored personnel carrier, jeep and command car. A display of vehicles outside the museum includes armored trucks, jeeps, and Patton and Pershing tanks.
Kauffman described infantry arriving in halftracks for an assault on Grandmenil. Under artillery fire they reached the town, where five tanks took positions and the infantry found shelter in a basement. To extricate themselves, they called in artillery fire on their own position. In the assault, a German tank round killed Lt. Millets and Pvt. Lester Wertman. The infantry withdrew to a stone barn and left the town. A colonel ordered a new attack, which succeeded against machine gun fire. The videotape contains a mixture of World War II combat photographs and 1990 shots of the locations described. In transitions, Belgians are giving directions and there are scenes of American war memorials. Kauffman interviewed German veterans of the Bulge. The tape includes an interview with Jack Kampf of the Third Parachute Division, who said that there was no enthusiasm but a willingness to obey. He added that the first time he thought Germany would lose the war was on 18 January 1945. Kauffman stated that his war experiences 46 years ago were "invaluable."
Rose awards medals in Normandy; Seine crossing at Melun; Chateau Thierry Monument; German POWs at Mons; capture of Liege; crossing German border; USO entertainment; Stolberg and Mausbach aid stations; Paris; England - Sutton Veny, Salisbury, Wells, Cheddar, Bath, London.
35 minute black and white documentary covering the American 1st Army from Aachen to Roer. Covers unit movements as well as military construction, and the use of German steel plants and mills.
Barron relates the events following his capture by Joachim Peiper's 1st SS on December 17, 1944. Saved from execution by his ability to drive jeep, he eventually was placed in a POW camp and liberated by Russian soldiers on 23 April 1945.
Veteran WWII officers and young recruits react to the Vietnam war; set in 1968 at Arlington National Cemetery and stars James Caan, James Earl Jones, Angelica Huston; movie is dedicated to the Third U.S. Infantry
A conference of 80 reporters, editors and scholars engaging in sometimes heated discussions over how the media can and should cover the type of war seen in Iraq. Held Sept. 13, 1991 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
ABC News coverage of the General Norman Schwarzkopf briefing held in March, 1991, describing the Coalition victory in the Persian Gulf War.
A list of titles is included with guides.
A list of titles is included with guides.
Material from exhibits at the 3rd Armored Division Association Annual reunions
This album includes numerous shots of personnel and activities of the 486th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. Reference should be made to John K. Walker's correspondence (Box 2), to
Page and consecutive print numbers are shown
Abbreviations
T/5 Gordon Sanderson was a member of the 32nd Armored Regiment band. His letters describe training, band performances, food, living conditions and family matters.
Includes address lists, clippings and portion of diary (1944).
Memories of Parfondruy, Belgium Dec. 1944
Clippings of Col. L.L. Doan
Three Normandy photos
Combat History, F. Company, 2nd Battalion, 289th Infantry, 75th Inf. Div., Battle of the Bulge;
The Aachen battles, Sept.-Nov. 1944
Diary, 20 June, 1944-7 May, 1945
clippings and pamphlets
1985 Newspaper photos
Command post locations
Oral histories on Battle of Mortain, Aug. 1944
2 photographs. Includes identification on separate sheet.
(identifications on back)
(2 photos)
(2 Photos)