United States Army 6th Armored Division (Super Sixth)

U. S. ARMY 6TH ARMORED DIVISION (SUPER SIXTH) -  The 6th Armored Division ("Super Sixth") was an armored division of the United States Army during World War II.  It was formed with a cadre from the 2nd Armored Division.  6th AD was formed under the 1942 Table of Organization and Equipment.

The division was activated on February 15, 1942 at Fort Knox, with Brig. Gen. Carlos Brewer assigned as its first commanding general.  The division arrived in England on February 23, 1944.  After continuing its training in England, 6th AD landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on July 19, 1944 as a follow-on unit, and went on the offensive as separate combat commands in the Cotentin Peninsula in support of the Normandy Campaign.

Elements of the 6th AD also participated in the Pacific Theater seeing action in major engagements in that area of the war.  The divisions were amphibious units, and thus used ranging variants of the LVT.  The 69th Armor Regiment was composed, for the majority, of these amphibious divisions and was sent over to the Pacific.  These units, such as the 773rd Amphibian Tractor Battalion, 776th Amphibian Tank Battalion, and 708th Amphibian Tank Battalion, saw action in the Mariana Islands (1944) at the battles of Saipan and Tinian, in the Marshall Islands (1943–44), the Ryukyu Islands (1945), and in the Philippine Islands as well as the Liberation of the Philippines.  Some were also stationed in Japan during its occupation following the war's end.  The division was deactivated on September 18, 1945 at Camp Shanks, New York.

Casualties

• Total battle casualties: 4,670
• Killed in action: 833
• Wounded in action: 3,666
• Missing in action: 88
• Prisoner of war: 83

Official history

At the end of World War II, two 6th Armored Division assistants from G-3, Majors Paul L. Bogen and Clyde J. Burke along with Aide-de-Camp Captain Cyrus R. Shockey, compiled a Combat Record of the Sixth Armored Division in the European Theatre of Operations July 18, 1944- May 8, 1945. The official history by George F. Hofmann, The Super Sixth: History of the 6th Armored Division in World War II (1975, reprinted 2000) has been called by World War II scholar Martin Blumenson, a "first-rate military history." He also noted that General Patton called the 6th AD one of the two best divisions in his Third Army.