BLACK AMERICAN MENโs MONTH: DAY 6
THE 761ST TANK BATTALION: THE ORIGINAL BLACK PANTHERS
The 761st was constituted on 15 March 1942, and activated 1 April 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. The battalion began training in M5 Stuart light tanks. They learned how to maneuver, mount, dismount, and maintain the vehicle's 37 mm main gun and .30 caliber machine guns. Final training was at Fort Hood, Texas, where they were upgraded to the M4 Sherman medium tank, which had a 75 mm main gun, two .30 caliber machine guns, a .50 caliber machine gun, and a two-inch smoke mortar. General Ben Lear, commander of the U.S. Second Army, rated the unit "superior" after a special review and deemed the unit "combat ready." After the two-year training session in Texas, 761st Tank Battalion received the order in 9 June 1944 for overseas movement three days after the D-Daylandings in Normandy. The battalion aboard the British troop carrier Esperance Bay from New York and arrived in Britain on 8 September 1944 and was initially assigned to the Ninth Army. The 761st were known as the Black Panthers after their distinctive unit insignia, which featured a black panther's head, and the unit's motto was "Come out fighting". On 24 November 1947, the 761st was reactivated (as an integrated unit) at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and assigned to the Regular Army, where it served until again inactivated on 15 March 1955. After the Battle of the Bulge, the unit opened the way for the U.S. 4th Armored Division into Germany during an action that breached the Siegfried Line. The 761st smashed through dozens of German cities and towns in their rapid advance through the Reich. In the final days of the war in Europe, the 761st was one of the first American units to reach Steyr, Austria, at the Enns River, where they met with the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Soviet Red Army. On 4 May 1945, the 761st, along with the 71st Infantry Division, liberated the Gunskirchenconcentration camp; the German guards had fled not long before.
The 761st was deactivated 1 June 1946 in Germany. Writer Logan Nye opined they were "one of the most effective tank battalions in World War II."
Decades after the war, the unit received a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions. In addition, a large number of individual members also received medals, including one Medal of Honor, eleven Silver Stars and approximately 300 Purple Hearts.
So today we honor not just them, but every Black American man in the history of this country that has taken up arms to defend its existence, surely not for the same reasons as its oppressors, but for the very reason of duty, honor, loyalty and for their incredible contributions to its greatness.
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Queen Nzinga Mbande of Ndongo and Matamba (present-day Angola) is the prominent 17th-century African ruler who, while fighting Portuguese colonization (due to conflicts over the sale of human cargo), sold slaves to the Portuguese, with some sources stating her forces captured and sold nearly 200,000 people to align with colonial powers and protect her territory. She was a skilled diplomat and warrior who reigned from 1631โ1663.
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Criminal lawyer believes Pooh Shiesty will serve 30 years for robbing Gucci Mane
โShiesty is gonna get f*cked here. โฆHe will get 30 years for this. He absolutely will. He will probably get 20 years for the underlying crime and then 10 years for the gun.โ
They seem MAD that the Sinners cast came back stateside and only got LOVE at the NAACP Image Awards and SAG Actor awardsโฆ. like they lowkey wanted them to be called slurs on every major stage from now on.
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