33^rd Armored Regiment

The 33rd Armored Regiment served as one of the tank regiments of the 3rd Armored Division. Its successor lineage traces Company A to the Regular Army's January 13, 1941, constitution of Company A, 3d Armored Regiment, an element of the 3rd Armored Division, and to activation at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, on April 15, 1941. The company was redesignated Company A, 33rd Armored Regiment, on May 8, 1941. Stanton's division organization confirms the 33rd Armored Regiment in the 3rd Armored Division's wartime armored structure.

The regiment entered the European campaign with the division in Normandy. In the Airel bridgehead movement of July 1944, Combat Command B included three tank battalions of the 33rd Armored Regiment, supported by armored infantry, field artillery, engineers, reconnaissance, tank destroyers, maintenance, medical, and antiaircraft elements. The command had to move thousands of men, vehicles, and trailers through a single congested crossing under enemy fire before attacking in unfamiliar territory. This early commitment placed the regiment's tank battalions in one of the division's first major attempts to exploit beyond the Vire.

After Normandy, the 33rd Armored Regiment fought within the 3rd Armored Division's combat-command system through northern France, Belgium, Germany, and the Ardennes. The division drove through Marigny, Gavray, Brecey, St. Pois, Domfront, Ranes, and Fromenthal, crossed the Seine, Marne, and Aisne, seized Huy, cleared Liege, and reached the West Wall near Schmidthof. In September 1944 it fought around Roetgen, Stolberg, Geisberg Hill, Weissenberg Hill, Muensterbusch Hill, and Aachen. During the Ardennes counteroffensive the division fought around Eupen, Stoumont, La Gleize, Hotton, Grandmenil, Sadzot, Bihain, Gouvy, and Beho. In 1945 it advanced through the Roer and Rhine operations, Cologne, the Ruhr Pocket, the Weser, the Mulde, and Dessau. The successor lineage credits Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe, and lists honors including the Hastenrath-Scherpenseel Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star for Mons.